Coeur d'Alene evening press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1907-1929, 1908-10-06
WALL STREET GUARDS
How Detectives Haunt New
YoFk's Financial District.
PROTECTING IT'S MILLIONS.
There Is Ne Display Of Uniformed Pc
lice, but the Bags Of Gold and the
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 week. and yet to the casual
observer at least the great financial
center boasts fewer policemen and de-
tectives than the average city boule-
yard. The explanation Is in the boast
ing" Wall street Is not obstruslve In
its methods of guarding Its money, but
1t guards 1t nevertheless. The appar-
emily idle individual lounglng 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 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 10 car
rying a small fortune In paper money,
and the trucks load ia 100000 in
gold.
Wall street long ago learned that IN
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 a million
or two have been intrusted to him, while
at his heels may tread detective who
sees that the money reaches It's 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 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 mill
lions are shipped across the city in
open trucks, with only a 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 100000 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 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 5000 In gold.
A wagon backs up to the curb. II, 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
a hatless man PAGES the corridor while
the bags are being hauled into the
building-more gold here and more de-
tectlyes, but SO unobtruslvely is the
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 Dorlc 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