The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-27
ED HOWE'S NOTES.
AtchisOn Editor Visits Sub
Treasury at New York.
Sees Two Hundred Million Dol
lars in Real Money.
GLIMPSE AT EAST SIDE
He MarveIs at Density of the
Population.
Mills Hotels and the People
Who Live in Them.
Thursday. JANUARY 1s.

1nuTSQdys obituary 10
Today I went through the sub
treasury of the United States. The
newspaper man who is showing me
about, is very genteel, and made his
request to see the sub-treasury to the
assistant treasurer in charge. And the
assistant treasurer was very polite
gentleman, and sent his assistant, an
other very polite gentleman, to show
us about. In the vaults below the
building, we saw two hundred million
dollars in money; gold and silver
stacked up as we of the west store
corn. No man is permitted to enter
these vaults alone; when an empioye
or official enters the vaults, announcer
emp1oye or official goes with MIN,
and remains with him until he comes
out. The official who piloted us about
showed us two packages OF bills; one
package contained five thousand DOL
lars, and the other contained five mil
lion dollars, in $1,000 bills. The
packages were of about the same size.
The gold is kept in steel boxes in the
rooms of the basement. There are
great rooms of these steel boxes,
placed on top of each other. A box
holds 100000 in gold, and most of
the boxes are full, and labeled with
the amounts they contain. When one
of these boxes is full OF gold' II is
locked and sealed, three men assisting
in the operation. Everywhere in the
basement were trucks containing
money in sacks, each sack carrying
label giving the amount. Some of
these truck loads were going in, and
some going out, and at the street door
we saw wagon loads of money. The
basement under the sub-treasury is
an elaborate steel vault, reached by
means of three doors Only two men
know the combination, and both of
these men, or their assistants, are
present every time the doors are open
ed. Although so much money is han
died there has been only one robbery in
forty years. The thief was an en-
ploye, and he was caught and the
money recovered. You may recall
that, two years ago, the sub-treasury
at Chicago was robbed of $175, 900, in
large bills. The robbery is still mys-
terry but whoever the thief is, he
has never been able to spend any of
the money, and he will finally be
caught; a network has been drawn
around him that renders escape i'm
possible.
From the sub-treasury, We went to
the East side. to a district containing
more people per acre than any other
district in the world. The street
swarmed with men. women and chill
dren; mostly children. The houses
were many stories high, and nearly all
the rooms contained one family or
more. This is the sweat shop district,
Where poor people 90 piece WOrk on
clothing, on cigars and many other
articles of commerce. Some of the
streets were exclusively Italian, and a
walk through the district was equal to
a walk through the poorer portion of
a great italian city: every store an
Italian store. all of the thousands of
people Italians. There were many
banks. and most of the railroad and
steamboat companies lad offices in
charge of Italians. There are several
Italian newspapers. issuing frequent
editions. In this district there is an
opera house where Italian grand opera
is presented. Many of the noted Ital
ian cities contain no more people than
the Italian district of New York. Nor
are they more typically Italian.
Turning into the Bowery. we walked
a few blocks. and then turned into the
Yiddish district of the East side. Here
all the people are Jews. One of the
principal markets in the Yiddish dis
trict is know as the Pig Market, for
the reason that everything to eat ex-
cept pig meat is sold there. Dozens
of Yiddish newspapers are issued in
this district and Hebrew boys run
about offering the newspapers for sale.
At the news stands only Yiddish books
and newspapers are sold. Some Of the
best stores are in the Easements. with
stores above them on the street level.
All the cellars and easements were oc-
cupied and in the streets were thou
sands of poorer merchants selling their
wares from carts. The displays of
fruits and vegetables seemed particu-
larly fine: three potatoes were sold for