Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1905 — COUNTING THE CASH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COUNTING THE CASH.

HERCULEAN TASK NOW UNDER WAY IN WASHINGTON. Hoy the Nation'* Treasure Vaults Are Protected What Would Happen Should Someone Try to Break InWill Take at Least Three Months. Washington correspondence:

HE task of couptjE lng the coin of the nation, necessitated by the relinquishment of N the treasurership » by Ellis H. RobSli erts to Charles H. Ja Treat, Is now under way and will Mb. continue three rgSSr months. It will take fifty men that length of RTTi time to do the Ml iJ work. There la, |l* * in round numbers, $1,152,800,000 Id tbe vaults. -With

the exception of silver coin, each piece of money In the twelve vaults will be handled separately by the flngera of experts. The $154,000,000 of silver money will be taken from the vault* In bags of 1,000 coins. There being a standard weight for each sack, a corresponding number of pounds and ouncea will be already resting In one pan of the scales used by the committee. Then the bags will be placed, one at a time, in the opposite pan, and any which does not tip the beam will be cut open, its contents being counted by hand. Should there be a considerable amount of money lacking either the retiring or Incoming treasurer, through his representative, may demand an entire count by hand, as wal necessitated eight years ago. In that event the counters will probably have to remain In the vaults until some time In November.

Contrary to what one might suppose, the hand count of the paper money is a task far less difficult than that of the coin. The Counting Committee after unsealing one of the paper money vaults breaks oiten the package* of notes or certificates, one at a time. It does not suffice that ends of the notea be exposed. The entiro wrapper must be taken off and the paper money must lie in a loose package before the counters. Each package contains 4,000 notes, and, of course, it la Just ks easy to count $4,000 In onedollar bills as $10,000,000 In SIO,OOO bills.

All coin In the Treasury, except that kept In the cash vault for current use, is stored in the two great underground vaults, one beneath the north court of the building and the other adjoining, beneath the cash room In the norfh front. These great strong boxes are protected by heavy masonry, thick slabs of steel, Immense swinging doors, cunningly devised time locks and Ingenious burglar alarms. Since the money in the building was last counted, in 1897, two new vaults have been added to the eight already in use inside the building. One of these, selected to illustrate what the treasury officials regard as the ideal strong room, is 12 feet in each of its three dimensions and the lining walls are of Bessemer steel plate three-eighths of an inch thick. By huge screws and bolts they are fastened to a framework of steel built into heavy masonry. The 6,000 pigeon holes are of steel and there is not a scrap of inflammable matter in the furnishings. There are duplicate locks on the doors, at which is always posted a guard of two men. About seventy watchmen are employed to guard the treasury vaults. They work In three reliefs, patrolling the entire building at all hours of the day and night. In the office of the captain of the watch are recording Instruments to which each watchman must send an automatic report once every half hour. The office is in continual communication with the chief of the Washington police force, the commandants at Forts Myer and the Washington arsenal. Instantly, at the summons of the captain of the watch, 1,000 armed men—cavalry, artillery and police—would spring up from three points of the compass and rush upon the classic building. A well-equipped armory near tho vaults contains sufficient weapons to arm more than 1,000 men cap-a-ple. The interior of the great building Is honeycombed with wires facilitating quick communication, and should any burglar gang attempt to overpower or intimidate one of the employes tho pressure of a button would bring an armed force to the visited room In less than thirty seconds. At 5 o’clock each afternoon all doors of the treasury building, save the main entrance, are closed. By 0 o'clock all employes must have left the building and the keys to the various doors must have been turned over to the captain of the watch. Co-operating with the interior guards are a force of outside watchmen, stationed in sentry boxes.