Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-08-24

Day Attack by Robbers.
The old-time treasury department
| watchmen tell buc0lic visitors that the
lamented Jesse James made seven dis
tinct tours Of the treasury departemnt
with, presumably, an eye to business.
The rural sightseers, after being per-
mitted TO handle packages of green
backs said to contain SIC, 900 are
willing to believe anything AS the
late Mr.. James never held up the treas
| ury department, and as his eminent
biographies explicitly state that he
never penetrated east OF the Allegheny
mountains the old watchman's yarn
may be said to be somewhat deficient
in moOrings.
1t wouldn't be an easy matter to
loot the treasury vaults Not a dol
lar has ever been taken from the
treasury by force. A sneak thief
once got in his work to the extent Of
$4,000, which he plucked from one of
the tables of the redemption division
before the place was properly safe
| guarded. But there has never been a
hold-up nor an attempt at one An ac-
count was once printed OF the alleged
| discovery of a plot, engineered by ex-
| pert burglars to penetrate to the
treasury building by means of the I'M
derground electrical conduits sur
rounding the edifice.
Once in the building these robbers
were to crack the safes, remove their
contents and place them in light rub
| Der bags and to float these bags along
the conduits, which were to be flooded
for the purpose, to their pals in wait
ing at the conduit openings. The
Watchmen had a laugh over this story
when they read it. About a week
after its publication, however, the
iron cover of the electrical conduit
right outside the main entrance to the
treasury went up in the air with a
roar along toward o'clock in the
mOrnig. Some of the Watchmen thought
| that the plot was about to be carried
out and for the first time in many
years all the watchmen were sum-
moned from their posts to the main
door. The watchmen grinned sheep
ishly at one another when the cause
of the alarm was ascertained.
One of the former treasurers of the
United States was a somewhat nervous
man. He was not quite certain that
it would be practically impossible for a
band Of brigands to loot the treasury
He wanted to make sure that it would
never be necessary for him to appeal
to congress to have a debt of few
millions removed from his shoulders
for of course the United States treas
urer is responsible for every cent in the
vaults. So, for nearly a month, he
slept in room in the treasury depart
ment. One night he slipped off his
shoes, put on a pair of carpet slippers
and began a tour Of the corridors in
order to satisfy himself that the watch
men were performing their duty. He
hadn't glided 20 feet from the door of
his room before he heard a "Halt!"
! that sounded like the snap of loose
jib Ten feet ahead of him man
had a beard on his heart with a pistol
The treasurer's hands went up.
"Not guilty; search me-" he said
I'm the treasurer"
Treasurer, hey?" said the watch
man. 81 don't know that. Just keep
on pointing upward until I get some
body to identify you
The Waterman touched a button, and
! in a few moments the night lieutenant
of the watch came along and released
| the treasurer from his predicament.
Although the treasury has never
been held up, the secret service people
know that many celebrated craftsmen
! have from time to time contemplated
| the conversion Of a few millions Of the
! treasury money to their own use. All
of the craftsmen, however, seem to
have decided that the undertaking was
Of too colossal a character.
Down to the incumbency of Secre-
! tary Folger, it has been said there
would have been no great difficulty for
accomplished and nervy cracksmen of
| the first rank to do a good bit of night
work in the big marble cash repository
Of the government. When Mr.. Folger
took the reins of the treasury there
was not an electrical alarm in the
| building. The watchmen were Isolated
and had no facilities for calling for
help other than ordinary police
whistles, the sound of which would re-
echo throughout the labyrinthine cor
ridors in so bewildering a fashion that
it took from Is minutes to half an
hour for a searching party from the
main door to ascertain it's source.
Watchmen thus conditioned might
easily have been overcome by deter
mined burglars, who would have had
little difficulty in gaining entrance to
the building, owing to the insuficiency
Of the force then distributed at vu1-
nerable points Of entrance. The safes
Of which there are more than a hun
dred scattered over the building, were
then Of the old-time lock-and-key sort
calculated to wreathe the countenances
Of cracksmen into oleaginous smiles
on account of their primitive simple
ity. It really seems remarkable that
with SO advantageous conditions under
which to work, the safe-crackers who
adorned their procession during the
70's did not essay to effect a partition
| of tho n aAiou'c u-oo1fh