The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-10-03
WHERE vALUABLEs ARE.
Safe Deposit Vaults and How They
 Are Managed.
FRED VI. 5Al II, President of the Common Coun'

Safe Deposit Vaults and How They
 Are Managed.
 About ninety vaults containing safety deposit boxes are doing business on large scale in the downtown district These vaults are located under sky scrapers and office buildings. In some instances the owners of the building farm out the rights to manage the box CT to another company, and in order cases the vaults are used as means to bring an income by the managers of the building themselves. Different methods of discipline prevail, being very strict or lax according to the mo- tions of the management.
 It would be absolutely impossible for a stranger to obtain admittance to private box, when he must first be rec ognized by the guardian at the door, then sign his name in the subscribers book, after giving the password, and at last present his key to the custodian, who throws the bolt with master key before unlocking the box with the pri- Vate key. In many establishments per- sonal identification by the guardian and the custodian, with possession of the key, admits the box owner. The possession of the key is sufficient sometimes, or the spoken number of the box, which is not registered on the key may be enough.
 The small rooms insure privacy in many of the vaults, and the gentleman ly guardians, who are men of unim- peachable honesty and an honorable record in the past, add to the sense of confidence. Many of these custodians have seen better days and out of busi- ness hours are able to tell exciting tales of the ups and downs of fortune in Chicago. Vaults in which the em- plcyees are under strict discipline es tablish themselves in favor among bus mess men. Just as soon as the disci- pline of the force becomes lax mischief enters the strong room.
 "Depositors are to blame for a good many things" said custodian at his home the other evening. Sometimes it is out-and-out carelessness. They tell their friends too much. At other times and quite often, too it is absent-mind- edness. Not a daypasses but a well- known business man rushes out of the vault without his keys. Before we can catch him he has pushed his box into the right hold and is off like a streak We usually lock it, tag the keys, and wait till he comes back. Once in a while he is in great state of mind and thinks he has lost the bunch, but usually he recalls the circumstance as soon as he has finished the pressing business in hand Now, if we had a dishonest man in the vault he could help himself to the bonds or jewels in the box.
 January and June are busy times with bondholders. An old gentleman whose whole fortune is in bonds comes in here and clips coupons for day at a time He is an orderly person and one afternoon when he was hot and tired and had gone over lot of old pa pers, destroying many, he began clip ping coupons. I know this, for he call ed me to bring him the scissors When done he cleaned up his desk and filled a wastepaper basket
 According to the rule of the office went over the stuff after he had gone, and from the heap of torn papers fish, ed out seventy-four coupons which he had clipped and then swept into the basket. He was the last man there, | I I them in an envelope, reported the find at the desk, saved the torn papers in the waste basket and waited develop ments. Sure enough, in he came the next day, half frantic and wanting to know if we emptied our waste-paper basket every night.
 Another old gentleman we know came in and took his box into one of the private rooms. After he had left went in to turn out the electric light On the floor I saw q roll of white tissue paper. It was almost out of sight be- hind the table leg. I took it to the desk and inside was fifteen $1,000 bills. We sealed it up, and put it in our vault Three months passed, and no one came to the box. Presently we saw that the man had died in New York, and shortly after his daughter, dressed in deer mourning, came to the office. They seemed to be in deep trouble after ex' amining the contents of the box. We were almost certain the bills belonged to the old man, but we thought better to be sure about it and wait for ques' tionS.
 "The following day the daughter: came in again with their lawyer. Ht went over the contents of the box, ant finally called me in and asked if l re membered the last visit of their father I said that I did and told the hour anc length of time that he was here. l ther asked if all was right in the box, ant one of the daughters said that hel fathers notebook showed that ht sold $15.000 worth of bonds that da! and deposited the money in the box but it was not to be found, and as hi mind was unsettled at the time, the! feared the money had been lost. o course. turned the envelope over, ant there was joy in that family.
 Now and then an attempt is made robbery. Just yesterday young felloV ; came rushing in and presented key His face was familiar, but ] Wasn' , sure. I asked for his name and sigma ture. which he gave, but on comparison found that it was not the same sigma tire on o1lr hooks He tried to explain