The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-01-18
money now in circulation has been
officially counted sixty-three times.

In our three mlnIS, at Fn1laQelpHld,
San Francisco and New Orleans, the
system of accounting for the blank
metal out of which the finished coins
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 trans
porting it under guard, of counting it
many times again, and finally ofstor-
ing it away, is practically the same.
There is not a 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 world multi
millionaires. The most capacious of
these strong boxes are in the base
ment of the Treasury. A large guard
of men mostly old soldiers-com-
manded by captain and lieutenant,
watch them day and night. These
guardians are heavily armed, and they
patrol their beats every quarter-hour
throughout the night.
A SUSPECTED PLOT TO ROB THE
TREASURY.
There was once suspected 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 Treasury on the east. He
was a Scotchman, and although ar
rested 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 foot square, each with
a valve nozzle through which it might
be inflated. The theory is that he
intended entering the sewer either
from its termination at the river, or
through a 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
contemplating. He found that with
a lantern and rubber boots the trip to
the spot beneath the Treasury vaults
was but three-quarters of mile, and
in dry weather the drain water in the
sewer was scarcely more than half
foot deep. Between the sewer and
the vaults lay two feet of stone wall
and twenty feet of earth. To dig
through this would have been mat
ter of perhaps a month. Once pene-
trated, provided the measurements
and calculations had been skillfully
made, the robber might have gained
access to millions of dollars worth of
coined and uncoined gold and silver,
used and unused paper money. 1t
was suspected that the rubber bags
had been provided as a means of
floating the sacks and bundles of
money to the river, where, it is be-
1ieved, a boat was to 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 reticent.
There was no proof, only strong sus-
,oicio,, o0oirct him
A CHARWOMAN GUARDS THOUSANDS
OF DOLLARS.
The most notable exhibition of
honesty within the history Of the
Treasury Department was made by
Sophie Holmes, a colored woman
first employed forty years ago by
General Spinner-then the Treasurer
of the United States-as a temporary
charwoman. One afternoon in April,
1862, while sweeping and scrubbing
the floor of the issue division she
found package full of crisp thou
sand-dollar notes, which some care
less clerk had neglected to return to
the safe. She determined to stand
guard over the treasure and to con-
fde her secret to no one but General
Spinner himself, who slept in the
Treasury Building during those trou-
blesome war times. She swept the
dust of the room into one pile, then
another; scattered it about and swept
it up again and again, doing this to
keep UP the appearance of industry
and to make the atmosphere of the
room as uninviting as possible to the
intruding guards who now and then
sauntered in. From sheer weakness
she finally fell asleep until past mid
night, when, imagining she discerned
figure moving in the room, she
CROPPED her way to the valuable bun
die, secreted it between two desks,
sat upon it, and while continuing her
vigil thus fell asleep again. About
four O clock in the morning she was
awakened by General Spinner's foot
steps. Although she gave the Treas
urer a great fright he rewarded her
with life appointment as matron in
the issue division. And he did just
ly. When the package was examin-
ed it was found to contain, some say,
thirty thousand dollars others, seven
hundred thousand.
TEMPTATION TO STEAL TOO STRONG
FOR SOME.
The temptation to steal has been
too great for several trusted Treasury
clerks. In the early seventies the III
terest teller Of the cash-room took tC
himself something like sixty thousand
dollars. He was implicitly trusted.
He was never called upon to show a
balance until after the theft had been
suspected. He took little at time
during a long interval. He served a
short time in prison, being pardoned
out on some pretense. His crime
wrought a reform in the system oi
keeping check on the Treasury en-