The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-02-21
Selrrt HisrrIIunu.
How Uncl3 Sam Guards His
Millions.

= Hcle SaH mas III SPJ my y S'S'H
over tie makers and keepers of his
vast millions OF dollars Yet, of the
S45 900. .U0O. 900 handled in the Treas
ury Drl'artm Mt i'll the last forty ears,
less tl.an 4 quarter of million has
been lost.
Uncle Sam paper m'nty has its
birth in the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing in Washington. Here corps
of engravers cut its lines into plates Of
steel. Five hundred men and women
are in one room. 1t is the largest
printing flee in the world. Here are
struck hon these plates the notes
which we give the butcher and the
baker. Eacn steel plate, when not in
actual use, is stored away in a great
burglar-proof vault to which only the
highest officials know the combination.
At the side of each printing press is a
little Indicator like bicycle cyclone
ter, which keeps tally OF every piece Of
paper money printed. Thus is Uncle
Sam kept informed as to the exact
number of paper notes of all denomina-
tions which leave his presses every day.
HOW THE PAPER is MADE is A GREAT
SECRET.
If there is any secret which Uncle
Sam jralously guards it is the process
of manufacturing the fibre paper upon
which his money notes are printed.
He pays Massachusetts firm forty
three cents pound for it, and this
firm does it's work under the surveil-
lance of a Government agent. The
paper is manufactured of the finest
rags, cleaned, boiled and mashed into
pulp As it is rolled into thin sheets
silk threads are introduced into it by
a secret process. These are the dis
tinguishing marks. making imitation
CT the paper we'll nigh impossible.
The sheets of paper, already counted
twice and placed IN uniform packag. s
at the paper mill, are stored in Treas
ury vault and issued to the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing as wanted.
Before leaving the Treasury they are
counted three times more, and the re-
cciving official at the bureau must re-
ceipt for them. Then tie bundles ale
unwrlpped and the sheets are counted
twenty eight times 10y corps of
wcmcn This is to insure that each
D. inter gets the record Il numher-no
more, no less. Before any employee
of the division in which this paper is
kept can leave for home each night he
must exhibit to a watcbman at the
door pass certifying that every frag-
ment of every sheet passing through
his fingers has been accounted for.
If one sheet of this precious paper
be lost the entire force of men and
women having access to the room
where the displacement has occurred
are kept in, like so many school child
rem, to find it, Each sheet is issued
from The vault for the printing of a
definite amount of money upon it. 1T
the lost sheet were intended to uiti.
mately represent four thousand dollars
worth of notes the group of emp!oye
! to whom the responsibility of its mis-
placement has been traced must make
good that amount if they cannot loca' e
it within a reasonable time. The most
expensive loss which has thus occurred
was of blank sheet issued for the
printing of eighty dollars upon its face.
Tue employees of the last room to
which it was traced divided the loss
among themselves. Such losses have
several times occurred.
Twenty four tines more are the
sheets containing the printed money
counted after leaving the presses.
Then they are sealed in packages of