Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-01-08

but filed with a rich store, are piled
high above and beside one another. Fiji
| teen piles of thirty chests each are on
/ the lower floor, and twenty piles Of thir-
! ty and six piles of fifteen each on the
upper floor, reaching by a winding
wooden staircase.
These chests, of which there are 1000,
are ~ feet long and " foot wide, and
weigh about 81 pounds each. Each chest
contains 100 coo marks in ten and
| twenty mark pieces, divided evenly
among ten linen bags. The chests are
first all counted and the seals examined.
| The member of the national debt COM
mission then marks certain ones which
are to be weighed and emptied, and an
under officer and two workmen bring
these marked cases and set them on a
| decimal scale. Their actual weight is
| found to tally with the required weight
| as marked on the outside of the chest;
or IL there be difference it consists
| simply of a few grams and has been
| caused by the variation In the amount
of moisture in the atmosphere. One
chest is then taken. the sheet-iron COW
ering loosened with a chisel, the long,
thick nails extracted, and the cover lift
ed The bulky linen bags are taken out
and weighed second time on special
mint scales. Still no discrepancy is dis
covered. This proof. however, Is not
sufficient. A single bag Is selected at
random, the seal broken. and its con-
tents poured out upon the scale, where
the golden disks lie with an allurirg
glitter, seeming to bid them mockingly
to clay to- while the examiners, on
their part, make testing calculations as
to how far this single 10000 would go to-
ward its destined purpose. The weight
being found to be correct to the ounce,
the gold pieces are poured back into the
sack, and the chest is nailed up again
and carried back to the identical spot
from which 1t was taken. A record Is
duly made of the whole proceeding. end
ing up, usually, with the comforting as
surance that "all Is WE'LL
The tallow candles which supplement-
ed the light let in by the latticed iron
gate are now extinguished, and the in
ventory Is at an end.
But wait! For the sake Of further as
surance, a little trip must be made into
the cellar adjoining, for 1t may be there
have been attempts to undermine the
tower. tbs true. the walls are more than
two meters in thickness: still. wicked
persons may be suspected Of anything.
So the cellar is traversed. and the wall
next the tower carefully examined, to
see that it has not been bored thru or
disturbed. after which the committee,
filed with the consciousness of having
performed its duty to the last title, re-
turns to the open air out on the parade
ground.
A similar examination of the wall OF
the cellar is made daily by an officer Of
the tower. and once year, usually in
spring, come two officers from Berlin,
this time, however unaccompanied by a
reichstag member to assure themselves
that the wall has not been tempered
with. Besides all this, a military guard
relieved every two hours; in winter
every hour-watches by day and night
over the place where this national treas
ure lies.
Such careful precautions ought surely
to serve to discourage at the very outset
all designs of a criminal nature on the
money.
The question. however, arises as to
whether the object Of this great sum is
served by allowing 1t thus to lie idle, in
volving. as 1t does, an annual loss Of
from four to five millions of marks In
interest. The present generation, with
its more highly developed system of
credit, may, think differently Of this than
did the past.
That this shum would not, however.
be very adequate for the purpose for
which it is designed is undoubtedly true,
as anything like an extensive mobliza-
tior of troops would exhaust 1t in a few
days. This may be gathered from the
fact that the expenses of Prussia alone,
in 1870, amounted to 100000 marks
daily; and since that time the cost Of
has been considerably in
creased, on account of the enlargement
of Germany's army and navy.
1t is interesting to contemplate what
the total sum would be today II the
fund had drawn compound interest dur
Ing the past thirty years.