The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1905-08-02

tue vaults. WIN
the exception of silver coin, each piece
of money in the twelve vaults will pc
handled separately by the fingers of
experts. The $154,O00,0 900 of silver
in bags Of 1000 coins. There being a
standard weight for each sack, a cor
responding plumber of pounds and
will be already resting in one
pan Of the scales used by the commit
tee. Then the bags will be placed, one
at a time, in the opposite pan, and any
which does not tip the beam will be
cut open, it's contents being counted
by hand. Should there be a consider
able amount Of money lacking either
the retiring OF incoming treasurer,
through his representative, may de-
mand an entire count by hand, as was
neceSsitated eight years ago. In that
event the counters will probably have
to remain in the vaults until some time
in November.
Contrary to what one might sup
pose, the hand count of the paper
money is a task far less difficult than
that of the coin. The Counting Com
mittee after u~nsealing one of the paper
money vaults breaks open the pack
ages Of notes or certificates, one at a
time. 1t does not suffice that ends of
the notes be exposed. The entire
wrapper must be taken off and the
paper money must lie in a loose pack
age before the counters. Each package
contains 1900 notes, and, of course, ii
is just as easy to count $4,000 in one
dollar bills as $l0,0O0,0O0 in $4,000
bills.
All coin in the Treasury, except that
kept in the cash vault for current use,
is stored in the two great underground
vaults, one beneath the north court Of
the building and the other adjoining,
beneath the cash room in the north
front. These great strong boxes are
protected by heavy masonry, thick
slabs of Steel immense swinging doors,
cunningly devised time locks and in
genious burglar alarms. Since the
money in the building was last count
ed, in 1897, two new vaults have been
added to the eight already in use in
side the building. One Of these, Sc
lected to illustrate what the treasury
officials regard as the ideal strong
room, is II feet. in each of its three di-
mansions and the lining walls are of
Bessemer steel plate three-eighths of
m Yr,nh Ehf1ly DIV bY1ra ca.nxvS nnJ
bolts they are fastened to a frame
work of steel built into heavy mason
ry. The 5000 pigeon holes are of steel
and there is not a scrap of infammable
matter in the furnishings. There are
duplicate locks on the doors, at which
is always posted a guard of two men.
About seventy watchmen are en-
ployed to guard the treasury vaults.
They work in three ~reiiefs, patrolling
the entire building at all hours of the
day and night. In the Office of the
captain Of the watch are recording in
struments to which each Waterman
must send an automatic report once
every half hour.
The office is IN continual communi-
| cation with the chief of the Washing
ton police force, the c~ommandants at
Forts Myer and the Washington ar
senal. Instantly, at the summons Of
the captain of the watch, 1000 armed
men-cavalry, artillery and police
would spring up from three points
of the compass and rush upon the
classic building.
A well-equipped armory near the
vaults contains sufficient weapons to
arm more than 1000 men capable.
The interior of the great building is
honeycombed with wires facilitating
quick communication, and should any
burglar gang attempt to overpower or
intimidate one Of the employees the
pressure of a button would bring an
armed force to the visited room in less
than thirty seconds. At 5 o'clock each
afternoon all doors of the treasury
building, save the main entrance, are
closed. BY 6 o'clock all employees must
have left the building and the keys to
the various doors must have been
turned over to the captain of the watch.
Cooperating with the interior guards
are n force of outside watchmen. sta