News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-08-18
BETTY AT THE FAIR
Letters of the Panama Pacific Expo.
siti0n by Florence Livingston
LETTERX
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL, Aug. 6, 1915.
Noucludpd from Last waakl

HE ttipks he's in prison on a ship,
reckon" continued the soldier. l saw
him from the little door in the rear of thu
safe. He challenged me to get out o
gun-shot of the port hole, and then h,
growled and lifted his hands as if the,
were weighed down with shackles. Glad
to find him for you. WASN'T very busy
He lifted his cap again and smiled away
my thanks.
ugh, ughn' growled Joe, as 1 wen
up to the door. "Not even a United
States soldier could rescue me from tbs
torments of this prison."
l didn't know whether to laugh or be
frightened before the wild look in Joe's
eyes, for had never seen his Imagination
IN full action until this time.
"Joe, dear, it's not really a prison, - 1
began cautiously.
st is prison." he interrupted. sits
the finest prison. When looked through
the bars of that door, knew it was and
that we were on the high seas"
The play had to run it's course, but
! after that we examined the beautiful
safe in detail. There are two rooms in
the vault. Of polished gray steel, the
| outer door is the handsomest piece of
mechanism that have ever seen. The
solid portion is II inches thick, made of
| alternating layers; first a firm steel that
will resist dynamite. then soft kind that
will flatten out under drilling. This al.
formation of firmness and malleability is
, intended to confuse any drilling apparaJ-
us; and if a burglar should succeed in
eating through the layers with oxy-acety-
lene acid, he would encounter two inches
of patent metal that is impenetrabe.
No other metal in the United States will
defy this acid, and the Krupp manufac-
turers are the only ones who claim to
have anything similar. Thus the door
resists drilling or SCATTERING or burning.
1t weighs 81, 800 pounds, a tenth of the
total weight of the vault, and yet it
swings easily on its gigantic hinges at
the pressure of aperson's hand. A lever
sends out from the huge circle the "a
bolts which weigh so pounds each and
yet swing on their slots with absolutely
no friction. A further adjustment makes
the vault alright. The steel door is
works of the combination and four dupi-
cate clocks, any one of which makes the
com bination ineffective for the number
of hours for which it is set. If the
mechanism of any one clock should fail,
the vigil would be taken up by the next
one.
But you have to go through another
full-sized, barred door before you enter
the first room, the walls of which are
lined with safety boxes enough to assure
an income greater than the interest on the |
money invested, without regard to the
other room. In the latter the boxes are |
as large as safes and are intended for the |
money and papers of the bank. These
safes have double combinations; to guard |
against daylight burglaries. You see, a
burglar is not often tempted to try to
a single attendant knows only one CON-
bination; so although he may be forced
into the inner room, he has not the know
ledge that would open the door guarding
fore as efficient in guarding as two or
more would be.
The walls Of the vault are of alternate
layers of steel and concrete.
sab, ha," said 1, "then the burglars
way is clear before him. The wall is the
place to bore through"
The attendant smiled. 1t is astonish-
ng how often an attendant smiles when
ask questions. There is nothing f1atter-
ng about it, however, because it is due
20 irrepressable amusement over the
frank ignorance which display.
No" said he, with patient politeness,
sit is not SO attractive as you think. IF
ne can get through the door, all he will
need is a small hole to enable him to
break the combinations; but if he bores
through the wall, he must make hole
big enough to let himself through, and
hat would take good deal of time"
"Oh, yes, think it would" acknowl-
edged meekly.
In the back of the vault, partly for
ventilation and partly for emergencies,
s door just large enough to admit a
nan. On a smaller scale, it is dupli-
,ate of the main door, having a combina-
ion and a corresponding number of levers
md clocds. 1t was difficult to install in
he temporary Exposition building this
heavy vault weighing 80, 1906 pounds, but
t was accomplished by putting in an i'm
nense underpinning of concrete.
II want to stay here all night" whis-
,ered Joe. 81 think it would be grand,
Ind there are lights on the ceiling so it
be lonesome. I'd like to 60
through the boxes. They say it's an
awful good place for pearls, and might
ind some"
1t was only after had pointed out
that little boys cannot live long ia an air
light compartment and that the pearls
L i a 4