Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-10-13
WALL STREET GUARDS
How Detectives Haunt New
 York's Financial District.
PROTECTING ITS MILLIONS.

PhUIECIING LIS MILLIONS. There 10 Nc Display of Uniformed Pc.
 Hoe, but tho Bags of Gold and the
 Bundles of Bills and esouritiss Are
 Closely Watched by Keen Eyss.
 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- yard. The explanation is in the "boast- ing" Wall street Is not obstrusive in its methods of guarding It's money, but 1t guards 1t nevertheless. The appar- ently idle individual lounging along just behind bank clerk hurrying to- ward the subtreasury. with 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 creaklng 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 a small fortune in paper money, and the trucks load is $2,000,000 ir gold.
 Wall street long ago learned that un- seen guards were far better than a 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 a 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 e crowd and advertised so widely the sending and receiving of riches that the company never repeated Its experi- ment of a show of force. Now mil. lions are shipped 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 unobtrusiye 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 $350, 10000 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 apd unknown. A clerk in shirt sleeves lounges for q minute in the corridor while a hand truck piled high with canvas bags k dragged into the building. The can. vas bags are filled 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. It. too. is loaded with white bags, much splash cd with mud from their journey from sorns steamship dock. Two or three clerks stand idly on the sidewalk, and . hataess man paces the corridor while the bags are being hauled into the building-more gold here and more de- tectives, but so unobtrusively 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 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 small part Of the system of defense. Scattered around among the clerks in the various rooms are open pine boxes. each of which holds half dozen revolvers. The boxes are so placed as to be with in reach of the clerks at all times, and the clerks know how to shoot.
 It is up under the roof of the build ing, however, that the real arsenal is to be found. It contains at present a hundred Springfield rifles, twenty of which are fitted with bayonets, and 12000 rounds of ammunition. Close by are four Calling guns mounted on their tripods and provided with 10000. rounds of cartridges. Besides these are a hundred Colt revolvers, with 1.200 cartridges, and, most awe inspiring of all perhaps, 1.500 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