Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1892 — A TREASURE HOUSE [ARTICLE]

A TREASURE HOUSE

WHERE THE SULTAN OF MOROCCO HOARDS HIS WEALTH. Three Hundred Slaves Guard the Building Night and Day—Treasures Hid in the Desert. Morocco has a famous treasure house which, although not as iuqiortant as it was once, still contains u largo part of tho Sultan's accumulations trom the heavy taxes imposed on his people. There are at present three sub-treas-uries where a consider 1 b!e part of tho country's revenue is kept. TIIO chief repository, however, and the only one which is well known, is nt Miknas, on the road between Fez and tho city of Morocco. In the course of time an immense amount of money has been kept in that strongly guarded receptacle, l’he treasure is in the form of gold and silver, a good deal of it coined and a great deal in the form of bar metal.

Morocco is not a very expensive Government to carry on, although the people are burdened with heavy taxes. The Saltan's outgo is chiefly for the expenses of his court, for the payment of his pension roll, which amounts to a considerable sum, for theological schools, for t'uo entertainment of his guests, aud for his army, whicL, however, is not a heavy drain on the treasury. The officers of the State cost the Government comparatively little, for they are expected, in tlieirown provinces, to bleed the people for their personal advantage, and they live right up to their privileges. Very little is expended for streets, roads, bridges, prisons and other things which cost most governments a great deal of money. The Sultnn hoards a large part of the sums ho receives from taxes to add to his personal fortune and to pay tho expenses of war, should lie bo so unlucky os to become involved ift trouble with his European friends. The debt be owes Spain on account of the unpleasantness between that country and nis own years ago is not paid yet, although the sum is being diminished rapidly, as Spain takes one-half of the total customs duties collected at Moroccan ports.

Nobody knows how great tho sum of money is that is held in the treasure boxes of Morocco, but it is supposed to be enormous. Morocco bus a population of about 8,000,000 people, and although most of them are very poor, tho tax gatherers contrive to squoezc a good deal of money out of them. Miknas has boon the royal treasury for some centuries. The treasury building is a short distance outside of the city. Its st me walls are very high and thick. To got inside these walls one has to pass through three great iron doors. If thieves could got inside all these doors they yet might not be able to secure the treasure. The interior is a long, narrow hall, ns dark as pitch,which is the passageway to the iron trap door, abundantly supplied with locks, which is let into the stone flooring, and leads to an underground apartment, where the treasure is kept in a lnrge room called the treasure chamber. The building is guarded constantly by 300 negro slaves, who are a part of the Sultan’s army, and are nevor permitted to leave the neighborhood. The treasure houso is opened only once a yoar. At that time the Sultan either comes in person or sends one of his most trusted officials. The purpose, usually, is not to take any treasure away, but to add the hoard, because the Sultan retains from the taxes a sufficient sum to meet all the expenses of his court and government. As a rulo, therefore, unless the Sultan has had an unusually unpleasant time with the Berbers, who aro in rebellion often, aud determined, apparently, to make the Sultan’s life a burden to him, the accumulations in tho treasury are not diminished. The sub-treasuries, which have existed within the past few years only, are at Fez, the city of Morocco, und in the oasis of Tafilalot, south of tli 1 Atlas Mountains, amoug the Filali people. The shrewd Sultan, in hiding a part of his revenue in the desert of Sahara, is providing, undoubtedly, so - the possibility that he may bo compelled to leave his throne and seek safety in flight some day. Ho proposes, if that unhappy event occurs, to have money enough for a rainy day in a region that is not accessible easil}'. It is said that the treusure kept in the oasis is very much larger than the amount deposited in the other subtreasuries, and that the Sultan has been considering seriously the advisability of carting off most of the money lie keeps at Miknas to Taiilalet. Miknas is on the road to tho city of Morocco, and should tho Sultan he involved in war with an invading Europeaa power it is likely that 0110 of his first enterprises would be to get possession of the treasure house at Miknas. The soldier slaves who guard the house are called tho black guard. A great many fables and rumors about this treasure house have been recorded, but the foregoing facts are unexaggerated, and very little more is known actually about the treasure. —[New York Sun.