Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1908-05-15
WALL STREET GUARDS
How Detectives Haunt New
York'S Financial District.
PROTECTING ITS MILLIONS.
There Is No Display of Uniformed po-
lice, but the Bags of Gold and this
Bundles of Bills and Securities Are
Closely Watched by Keen Eyes.

Closely Watched by Keen Eyes.
More millions of dollars are carried
through Wall street every day than
any other thoroughfare in the country
sees In a week, and yet to the casual
observer at least the great financial
center boasts fewer policemen and de-
tectives than the average city boule-
ward. The explanation is in the boast
ing" Wall street is not obstrusive in
Its methods of guarding its money. but
1t guards ii nevertheless. The appar-
emily idle individual lounging along
just behind a bank clerk hurrying to-
ward the subtreasury, with a suit case
In his hand. Is an armed detective. The
man lettering on the curb and that
other seeming workman riding on the
tail Of a wagon creaking under its
load Of canvas bags are detectives and
very much alert to what is going on.
for the clerk with the suit case is car
rying small fortune in paper money,
and the trucks load is 100000 in
gold.
Wall street long ago learned that un-
seen guards were far better than q dis
play Of uniformed police, for they do
not attract a crowd of curious. says
the New York Tribune. Moreover, the
unknown guards can watch bank
clerks as well as bank thieves. Under
the present method a bank clerk has
the comfortable feeling that a million
or two have been intrusted to him, while
at his heels may tread a detective who
sees that the money reaches its desti-
nation In safety; then he Is swallowed
up in the crowd, and neither clerk nor
crowd is aware Of his existence.
A few years ago an express company
sent a large consignment Of cash to
Wall street In wagons guarded by men
carrying rifles. The caravan attracted
such q crowd and advertised 80 widely
the sending and receiving OF riches that
the company never repeated its expert
ment Of show Of force. Now mil
lions are dipped across the city In
open trucks, with only helper on
the seat beside the driver. But both
driver and helper are heavily armed,
and on the sidewalk keeping pace with
the wagon are two or three unobtrusive
individuals who are special guards and
known for their ability to hit whatever
they shoot at.
In the vaults Of the New York sub
treasury is perhaps S35O,O0O00O In
money, and yet one sees few guards
around the building. But the guards
are there and doubly awe inspiring be-
cause they are unseen and unknown.
A clerk in shirt sleeves lounges for
minute In the corridor while a hand
truck piled high with canvas bags is
dragged into the building. The can
vas bags are filed with gold, and the
"clerk" Is an armed detective. Each
canvas bag, by the way, weighs eight
cen pounds and contains $1,000 In gold.
A wagon backs up to the curb. 1t, too,
is loaded with white bags, much splash
ed with mud from their journey from
some steamship dock. Two or three
clerks stand Idly on the sidewalk, and
q hatless man PAGES the corridor while
the bags are being hauled into the
building-more gold here and more de-
tectives, but 80 unobtrusively Is tie
whole work carried on that no crowd is
attracted to the scene.
But for all the seeming Indifference
the subtreasury Is an arsenal and fully
prepared to deal either with the In
dividual robber or the collective mob
High up between the Doric columns
that flank the Pine street entrance to
the building are two apparently small
holes. One notices the heavy iron door
and the stout iron grille, but not the
holes in the masonry. And yet those
holes are the real terror to possible
thieves or mobs, for they are fitted with
trapdoors, and their purpose Is to per
NIT the dropping Of dynamite bombs
upon the heads of rioters should they
storm the building.
But these bombs are but a small part
Of the system of defense. Scattered
around among the clerks in the various
rooms are open pine boxes, each Of
The boxes are 80 placed as to be with
In reach Of the clerks at all times, and
the clerks know how to shoot.
; 1t Is up under the roof of the build
Ing, however, that the real arsenal Is
to be found. 1t contains at present
hundred Springfield rifles, twenty of
which are fitted with bayonets, and
1900 rounds of ammunition. Close by
are four Gatling guns mounted on
their tripods and provided with 10000
rounds of cartridges. Besides these
are hundred Colt revolvers, with 1,200
cartridges, and, most awe inspiring Of
ali perhaps, 1900 bombs are ready to
be dropped through those holes over
the entrance on the heads of any "un-
desirable" persons who insist upon en-
tering the building.
Under the caves On the Nassau street
front Of the building the windows are
equipped with steel shutters SO de-
signed that they may be projected
from the wall and give shelter to
marksmen who with their rifles could
sweep Broad and Nassau streets clelr
Of human beings in a few minutes. AL
though these weapons are never used.
they are kept In perfect order.
By no means is all the gold Of Wall
street kept In the subtreasury. In the
vaults down In the basement Of the
Stock Exchange building are stored
millions of securities, and twice each
day, In the morning and again in the
evening, trucks back up to the curb.
and trunks filed with bonds and Sc
- Ill It'd ia -