The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1908-07-02
WALL STREET GUARDS
How Detectives Haunt New
York's Financial District.
PROTECTING ITS MILLIONS.
There Is No Display Of Uniformed Pc
lice, but the Bags of Gold and the
Bundles of Bills and Securities Are
Closely Watched by Keen Eyes.

Bundles of Bills and Securities Are
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 |
it guards it nevertheless. The appar- |
emily idle individual lounging along |
just behind a bank clerk hurrying to- |
ward the subtreasury, with Il suit case |
in his hand, Is an armed detective. The |
man lettering on the curb and that
other seeming workman riding Oh the
tail of 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 $2,OOO.O0O in
gold.
Wall street long ago learned that un-
seen guards were far better than dis
play of uniformed police, for they do
not attract 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 million
or two have been intrusted to him, while
at his heels may tread 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 large consignment of cash to
Wall street in wagons guarded by men
| carrying rifles. The caravan attracted
such q crowd and advertised so widely
the sending and receiving Of riches that
the company never repeated its expert
ment of a show of force. Now mil
| lions are shipped across the city in
! omen 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 $35O,COO.OOO 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 a
minute in the corridor while Il 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 5000 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, ant
hatless man PAGES the corridor While
the bags are being hauled into thu
building-more gold here and more de
tectives, but SO unobtrusively is TIL
whole work carried on that no crowd i
attracted to the scene.
. But for all the seeming indifference
the subtreaSury is an arsenal and full.
prepared to deal either with the III
diyidual robber or the collective mot
High up between the Doric column
that flank the Pine street entrance t
the building are two apparently sna
holes. One notices the heavy iron doc
= and the stout iron grille, but not th
holes in the masonry. And yet thos
holes are the real terror to possibl
thieves or mobs, for they are fitted wit
; trapdoors, and their purpose is to pc
NIT the dropping of dynamite bolnl
upon the heads Of rioters should the
storm the building.
But these bombs are but a small pal
of the system Of defense. Scattere
: around among the clerks in the variou
:. :. rooms are open pine boxes. each
= which holds half dozen revolver
. The boxes are SO placed as to be witt
. In reach of the clerks at all times. an
the clerks know how to shoot.
= It is up under the roof of the bull
ing, however, that the real arsenal
y to be found 1t contains at present
hundred Springfield rifles, twenty I
:. which are fitted with bayonets, al
, 1900 rounds of ammunition. Close !
:" are four Gatling guns mounted
u their tripods and provided with 20,O'
- rounds Of cartridges. Besides the
y are hundred Colt revolyers. with L.
~ cartridges, and, most awe Inspiring
Il all perhaps, 1,5OO bombs are ready
= be dropped through those holes ov
e the entrance on the heads of any ~
desirable persons who insist upon e
tering the building
Under the caves on the Nassau sire
% front Of the building the windows a
of equipped with steel shutters SO
n signed that they may be project
e. from the wall and give shelter
ng marksmen who with their rifles COT
nj sweep Broad and Nassau streets cle
"a Of human beings in few minutes.
so though these weapons are never us
I'm they are kept in perfect order.
ad By no means is all the gold OF W
N. street kept in the subtreasury. In
.rc vaults down in the basement of
in Stock Exchange building are stol
Is millions of securities. and twice c;
m day. in the morning aud again in
lis evening, trucks back up to the Gu
nd