The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-02-21

degrees temperature, unpacked, thor
uughly examined, smoothed in power
ful hydraulic presses and packed ir
wooden cases. These cases are hauloC
to the Treasury in an ironclad wagon
Six guards, heavily armed, accompany
this wagon whenever it makes trip
EACH BILL Is COUNTED SIXTY THREE
TINES.
No attempt to steal Uncle Sam $
money while undergoing any of these
stages of manufacture has yet been de
tected. AS a matter of fact the money
would be practically useless, for its
printing is not completed until after il
makes this guarded journey to the
Treasury. There the finishing touch
IS added in the printing Of the colored
seal upon the face Of each note. With
the six sealing presses tue same pre-
cautions are taken as with the two
hundred and fifty big money presses
in the other building. Each sheet
coming from the former has a row Of
notes printed upon it. The sheets are
put through small machines, operated
by girls who cut out the individual
notes. Even the small strips, falling
like shavings, from their machines
must he carefully collected, sent to the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
and there boiled into pulp. An en-
ployee found with even one of these
ribbons Of waste paper is liable to i'm
prisonment for fifteen years and fine
of five thousand dollars.
Between these different processes
the paper money has been counted and
recounted six additional times. Finally
the notes are placed in stacks of one
hundred with all of the blue numbers
printed on their faces in sequence.
They are then wrapped in paper
labeled, sealed with red wax and stored
in the great Treasury vaults. Thus
each piece of paper money now in cir
culation has been officially counted
s:x'y-three times.
In our three mints, at Philadelphia
San Francisco and New Orleans. the
system of accounting for the blank
metal out of which the finished cons
are stamped, of keeping tally on the
coming machines work, of counting
the finished product, of packing it, OF
sealing it in cloth bags, of Transporting
it under guard, Of counting it many
times again, and finally of storing it
away, is practically the same.
There is not day in the year when
any one of the seven great Treasury
vaults does not contain in coin, bullion
notes. certificates or bonds sufficient
to make YOU or me one of the richest
of the worlds m llti millionaires. The
most capacious of these strong-boxes
are in the basement of the Treasury.
A large guard of men-mostly old
lers-commanded 10y captain and
lieutenant, watch them day and night.
These guardians are heavily armed
and they patroll their beats every
quarter-hour throughout the night.
A SUSPECTED PLOT TO ROB THE TREASURY.
There was once suspected a deep
laid plot to penetrate the Treasury
vaults from without. 1t appears to
have been the scheme of one man, and
one man alone. He conceived the idea
of tunneling through to the vaults from
the great sewer under Fifteenth street,
which thoroughfare bounds the Treas
ury on the cast. He was a Scotch
man, and although arrested on very
strong suspicion he was never indicted.
1t was late in the eighties when he
was noticed to pay frequent visits to
the Treasury vaults and to the mouth
of the sewer at the rivers bank. He
was arrested. In his room were found
forty odd rubber bags Il foot square,
each with valve nozzle through
which it might tie intilted. The theory
is that he intended entering the sewer
either from its termination at the river,
or through manhole opening into it
from the park behind the White House.
A detective went so far as to make
the subterranean journey which he
suspected the Scotchman of contem-
plating. He found that with lantern
and rubber boots the trip to the spot
beneath the Treasury vaults was but
three quarters Of a mile, and in dry
weather the drain water in the sewer
was scarcely more than half a foot
deep. Between the sewer AMI the
vaults lay two feet of stone wall and
twenty feet of earth. To dig through
this would have been matter of per,
haps a month. Once penetrated, pro-
vided the measurements and calculG,
tions had been skillfully made, the rot
Der might have gained access to mil
lions of dollars worth of coined and
uncoined gold and silver, used and ur'
used paper money. 1t was suspected
that the rubber bags had been pro.
vided as a means of floating the sacks
and bundles of money to the river
where, it is believed, boat was tC
have been brought to bear the booty
away. Whatever the details of his
plot. the Scotchman was never brought
to trial. When questioned he was
,cticpnt. There was no proof, only