The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-16

stored wealth. The best s,e
coin Is ITS weight y. Just to nlustr9iteo FOR
100000 IN silver now held in H. ne Vs.
rooms OF the treasury weighs strong,
lois = Llilt IL uoilarS in gold S53
weighs about Two tons, and III coin
take a very strong man TO carr,- sr would
worth or the yellow stuff. IN Slp9l
gold brick the shape and siza Lsh d
ordinary building brick rer,re-1-. OF an
It's ''heft is something ast0njSSj-,S 500,
gesuons nave been made that 81 pug
treasury by tunnel and inns IN the
Uncle Sans Golfers by a sort or p-llage
plished ii is difficult to imagine 1aSeon-
would be practicable 10 remove rncL Z
the coin. --1ch OF
There was quite a scare a fsr-
ago, when Gilhllan was tre7ST,r. ears
caJlSG the vault in the cash roo,,, -, De
the ready money is kept refused to I1eEe
1t is always set for $50 a. m 5yirF1 =, open
clock. but on this occasion SOM s. ttllli7
seemed 70 be wrong with the r,al.L.-et7 ing
and the steel doors remained obSriIrl-s5- -tii.
closed Nine clock arrived and etS
the money was locked up For SS-l
Uncle Sans bank was obliged To s-. Sc
pend payments. Experts wera 80 SlS-
and came with their tools to bra.l- -oI
the vault, but before they GOT rbera' zen
big safe had opened of its own acc5~3 ne
turned OUT Jhat the time lock had been
In this vault not only gold ana sfr,-.-
but many millions in paper m0De,- ~,
always kept II thieves could obtain ~
cess TO IL they might easily walk -
with an enormous sum, the notes aTy
certincates being done up in packages
and neatly labeled with the sums 49,
contain in large red 1sgUres Bach -
eel holds 1900 notes, and is in sic 7----
about a foot cube If the denOminaJioT
Is S5et. q single such package represent
E.O00,O 600. However. if anybody aid So
coed in getting away with cash i'm rL5-
shape ne could hardly fail To be ca--r-L-'
inaSnrich a. rba DTl1,bevs - le'-71s.
would be advertised Immediately 4,.J
every bank in the country would be-. IN
the lookout for them
Burglars may be practically excluded
but the treasury does not claim ~ Ia
theftproof- On an unlucky day in 1870 a
visitor came into the treasurer room
with a large Panama hat in his hsnI
The treaSurer'S attention was diStr=r,-a5
by some other people who We're trying n
talk to him, and the man dropped his ha-
careleSSly over a package cOntainiug Zu-.
SO notes. lying on the desk II was on
of several such packages. and the loss
OF II was not nOJlCSu unJlI some hours
later. OF course, the notes We're adj
vertised, and some time afterwar5 a
part of them We're deposited in a M
York bank. The depositOr was arrast-5
but nobody was punished for the crime
A singular immunity from punishment
seems 10 have attended thieves who have
robbed the treasury IN such ways Tn
1919 a clerk named Benjamin IaUocE
passed a package of $3.50 notes, represent
ing S4aCC9, out of q window in the cash
room to a saloon keeper named Ottu.r
For some time the robbery remained
mystery. but later on one Theodore
st Saratoga with some of the missing
$500 notes He was arrested and impIi-
Gated Gilman and HallOck- but Brown
was never tried, and Ine OJher Two Wer.
not finally convicted OF the stolen money
$4,000 was recovered
1t has been said that no trust COM
pauy would accept the responsibility M
the treasurer OF the United States for rh-
5000 a year salary which he gets He
Is responsible for all moneys that may be
stolen, and on more than one occasion
congress has been obliged to relieve hv
formal act an official in the position Who
would Otherwise nave been liable Tor The
repayment of large losses On one Oc-
CaSiOn two men named Magden and john
son, the latter an assistant paying teller
took So. G9o by COLLISION The government
got back $12.TG0 of this money, and The
offenders escaped with a year in prison
for each There have been a good many
Thefts in the redemption division. where
the temptations are exceptionally Sreat,
the most famous of them being that per
petraJed by a woman who invented
method for making nine notes out o.
eight, incidentally 20 the process of put
ting together scraps of torn bills sent in
TO be redeemed Nobody ever knew how
much she stole. though it was probably
a very large amount. but she gave UP a
portion Of her ill-gotten gains and was
not prosecuted.
In 1859 there was much excitement over
the loss OF Sl,e1O,CJ9 IN paper money which
had been shipped from Washington 10
cisco The shipment was made by q sail
ing vessel called the Golden Rule. and
ately the ship was wrecked on RoDcador
reef, and the safe that contained the cash
was lost with it Nevertheless a cOnSpir-
acy was suggested. and theory was
formed to the effect that the vessel had
been deliberately cast away for the sake
of stealing the money If this had been
true some of the notes would certainly
have turned up later. but as a matter Of
fact none of them has ever been seen
since, and IL may therefore be taken for
granted that the missing wealth still Les
at the bottom OF the sea OF course be-
ing only paper money, II was no loss 70
Uncle Sam
Immense quantities of gold are shipped
nowadays across the ocean. and the dan
ger of loss is so small that the precious
stuff may be insured al so low rate as
one-Jenth of l per cent 1t is insured Just
Ike so much grain, and the documents,
written IN old style legal phrases. guar
seas including ''men-Of-war. fires. enc
mics, pirates, rOVerS. thieves. ieJtiSOuS.
letters Of marque. reprisalS, taEinSS al
sea, arrests and detainmentS o. all kings.
princes" etc Every large IrauSlt lauric
steamship has on board a treasure room.
which is a great steel box bUiIt much like
Shipments Of gold coin from this couu-
try to Europe have been extraordinarily
large recently The banker IN New YORK
buys II from the Sub-treaSUry there re-
ceivira- it in sacks of $1,000 each 1T Is
carefully weighed, because Europe will ac-
cept our gold only by weight. though the
quality OF the cOin-itS purity and degree
or NEMESIS guaranteed by Uncle sam 3
stamp Usually il is packed in casks that
are much like herring casks. ten sacks to
each caSk. which weigh Isl pounds when
practically unknown, but in 1884 caSL 0t
gold coin was lost on its way to Paris. be-
ing finally located on the platform Of 4
railroad station between Havre and Paris
ed white lead.