NATION'S
TREASURE
Mammoth
Steel Vault
That Holds
HOUSE AT
WASHINGTON
the Surplus
Wealth of
Unde Sam
WHEN congress passed the
the emergency currency
act last May authorizing
the controller of currency
to have printed emergency
currency to the value of
one-half of the amount of
government bonds owned by the na
tlonal banks throughout the country,
a condition was created—and a very
serious condition—which nobody real
ized so fully as Watson W. Eldridge,
chief o! the division of issues under
the Currency bureau. For this vast
sum. about $490,000,000. was to be
placed in his hands for safe keeping,
us is all the national hank currency.
At the time of the passage of this
act there was on hand In the vaults
on the second iioor of the Treasury
building In Washington about $200,
000.000 of national banknotes, as a
“working stock.” This quantity of pa
per money was about all that these
two vaults would hold. So when the
bureau of printing and engraving,
after sending out a C. Q. D. summons
for all the expert engravers in the
country to come to Washington and
aid in altering the Bteei plates, to
comply with the new law, began to
send the emergency currency In dray
loads to Mr. Eldridge, that trusted
guardian of the nation's wealth be
gan to spend the most uneasy nights
in all his 40 years’ service in the
treasury department and 20 years in
his present position.
The money continued to pour in.
not in thousands and hundreds of
thousands, but in millions. It was the
most unwelcome money ever unload
ed upon a man working for a salary.
New Vault Made Necessary.
When things reached a crisis an
order was given for a vault to hold
this emergency currency, a vault
which would make all previously
manufactured safes look like pocket
savings banks, for the new structure
of steel was to be thin shells be
tween inconceivable wealth and
thieves who were ready to break in
and steal, and the corruption of tire,
earthquakes, and devastation of any
other character. It must be a vault.
bo the treasury officials specified,
I ■mi. Liiui.uf'.v ,'Gr.' ? lUilP J AM,, t TU * ill j'Ttt,
The new vault, which was built at
a cost of $45,000. is a two-story struc I
tore, furnished with steel racks, which |
closely resemble safety deposit box j
racks. The Interior walls are of Har j
veylzed steel, half an inch thick, and '
the whole vault is incased in masonry j
and cement more than two feet thick
But beneath the masonry and the
shell of steel lies the chief protec- '
tlon of the vault against burglars a (
mat of closely woven steel wires, j
Now. each of these wires is charged 1
with electricity, so that when one of i
them is touched with an awl or a bit ■
or a dynamite pump an alarm is in j
stantly set off in an adjoining build j
Ing, where watchmen are constantly 1
on guurd. And to make sure that this |
electrical uppurtus is working proper
ly there is a "buzzer" which goes off
every 15 minutes Inside the vault If
the warning apparatus is not working
properly this buzzer will be thrown
out of commission and the watchmen
will be immediately notified.
Cannot Tamper with Cables.
"But what if the cables connecting
the vault with the watchmen’s room
shonld be cut?" Mr. Eldridge was |
asked. The reply was that any tarn i
pering with the cable would have the
j same effect upon the alarm system as
if the vault itself had been attacked.
This enormous vault, whose roof Is
on a level with the pavement, has a
| perfect system of ventilation by great
driving and suction fans, which are
turned on when the vault is opened,
so that the air is fresh and cool at all
times. It is lighted by electricity, the
lighting plug being put in place only
after the vault door is opened.
One of the marvels of the vault is
the vault door, a complicated mass of
gray steel weighing seven tons, but so
wonderfully balanced on ball-bearing
hinges that it can be opened without
effort. It has four combinations, and
no one man In the employ of the gov
ernment knows them. Two men know
two of them, and two others the re
maining two, so that In order to un
lock the money chamber at least two
persons must be present. The door !
is. of course, equipped with the time j
lock device, which is now In use on j
■ ' ■'■■■■ W ■ 1
rmirrrmrTY77m/i miimimntr.. rv'.viuuu.m I
The Door to the Vault—Its Weight Is Seven Tons.
capable of holding the vastest sum of
money ever stored in one place, five
hundred millions.
The order was given and the safe
makers set to work. To-day the vault
stands completed, as witnessed by
the accompanying illustration, the
first which the government has al
lowed to be taken of this vault. There
are stored in the steel pigeonholes a
little more than 300.000,000 of bank
notes and the remaining millions are
being stored away as fast as they can
be counted in the big offices above
the level of the street.
all first-class safes. But even entrance I
through the vault door sets off the
alarm in the watchmen’s room. It is
necessary, therefore, to supply the
watchmen's department with a sched
ule showing at. what hour the vault
will be opened and at what hour it I
will be closed. The vault, according j
to the schedule, must not be opened
before 8:4.1 in the morning, and it \
must be closed before five every night. 1
Old-Fashioned Elevator.
The only way to reach the vault is i
by way of a tiny hydraulic elevator,
which is protected by an iron door,
opening almost «? the elbow of 'Up !
, hlnf of t! * * division of issue*. who j
keep* the In v iti hi* desk This elt* |
valor car whs barely large enough to
carry Mr Kldrldge. the newspaper
man. and a photographer down to the
vault it j* operated by the old-fash
ioned rope-pulling de\ Ice and j* the
most prosaic rood to millions imagin
able
On June IS. the morning on which
the photograph from which we got
the illustration was taken. the vault
contained $309,199,910. iu the follow
ing denominations: $77,516,660 in
tives. $210,Ot 1.300 in tens and twen
ties. $6,256,200 in tens, and $15,415,760
in fifties and one hundreds. The
money is printed in sheets, four bills
to the sheet and 1.000 sheets to the
package. There were nearly 9.000.000
sheets, or 8,797 packages to store
away The actual value represented
In this amount of printed paper is
only $439,850, In estimating this value
>f the printed paper the government
figures that each package weighs 14
pounds, and the paper is purchased at
43 cents per pound The balance is
for the printing and the handling of
the bills, which are counted 53 times
before belrig stored away.
treasury department suggested tfiat
all paper on which banknotes were
printed should be resized after print
mg Mr Kldridge was the aggressive
factor in this particular reform, and
it Is to him that the present ideasing
appearance of our paper money is
due.
Prior to the comnletion of the new
vault the emergency currency was
stored In the basement of the Union
Trust Company, at the corner of Fif
teenth and ii streets. X. \V. The first
few millions that were received were
placed in a large iron vault, but when
carloads of money began to arrive
this vault with a capacity of a mere
forty millions soon overflowed, and then
this enormous wealth was stacked on
the, floor in ordinary wooden boxes,
which any hatchet could have knocked
to smithereens This seemed- an
awful risk for the government to take
but there was nothing else to be done
A tiny dynamite .cartridge dischargee
in a little areaway in the roar of the
bank building would have blown &
hole in the cellar walls that would
have bared to view wealth of which
Solomon “in all his glory” could not
have dreamed, ami which would hav«
--—|
Watson W. Eldridge. Custodian of Seven Hundred Millions of Dollars.
Twenty years ago this vast amount
of printed bills would have been ut
terly worthless until each bill had
been signed by the president and the
cashier of the bank in whose name it
was issued, but in the nineties con
gress passed a law making the notes
legal as soon as plated In circulation,
thus adding materially to Mr. Al
dridge’s cares, whose duty it then be
came to handle money, not in the
making, but the perfected cash. Now.
as soon ts the bills are entered upon
the ledgers of the treasury as being
shipped to a bank, they are considered
money. The express companies hand
ling these shipments are bonded for
$500,000, and in case of loss or rob
bery the company is held responsible
for the loss. It was only a short time
ago that a shipment of $40,000 to the
Pacific coast was stolen in transit,
and the express company was forced
to give a check for the full amount.
The treasury is to-day redeeming
some of these stolen banknotes with
out question, although some of them
bear no signature at all. while others
bear the forged signatures of“ the
president of that bank and of the
cashier. The express company was
never able to recover more than $15,
000 of the stolen bills. It had to lose
the rest.
Deserves Thanks of Nation.
The crispness and durability of our
present day banknotes are due large-'
ly to the efforts of Mr. Aldridge, the
guardian of the Jumbo among vaults
Many years ago congress passed a
law authorizing the issue of treasury
notes, and the bill required that these
notes be put in circulation within JO
days. It was a rush Job. The paper
on which money is printed has to be
dampened before it takes the impres
sion of the hand press, so that when ;
it comes out it is nc% sized (covered j
with glossy surface as the result of a
bath in a glutinous substance). These
treasury notes were issued just as
they came from the press. As a result
the fibers soon began to break through
the surface of the paper, and as each
bit of fiber dropped from the bill the
ink began to fade, so that within two
weeks after the first bill was issued
the treasury had to begin to redeem
the tattered notes and issue new ones
It was then that a committee appoint
ed to examine into methods of the
.'t.i . •vSVSvSv*'. •
made haughty Croesus green with
envy. In order to meet this danger
the government employed ten extra
watchman, who patrolled the streets
and alleys in the neighborhood of the
t'nion Trust building for nine months,
day and n.ghf The?? watchmen were
only dropped from the pay roll of the
treasury on May 10. when the new
vault was turned over to the govern
ment by the contractors.
Forced Change in Steel Plates.
But the division of issue was not
the only branch of the government
which found itself extremely busy
after the passage of the emergency
currency act. The steel plates for
every national bunk in the country
had to be altered. To the legend on
the face of the banknotes and at the
top, “Secured by bonds .of the I'uited
States,” there had to he added a
third line. “Or other securities.” In
order./to add these three words every
plate had to be softened, the extra
words engraved, and then the whole
plate retempered Each of these
banknote plates, which costs $7.">. will
print 30,000 bills, then the impressions
begin to get dull, and the plate has to
be softened, the dies recut, and the
plate tempered again, after which
about 10,000 more Impressions can be
taken. The plates are then destroyed
and new ones made
To-day Mr Eld ridge sleeps easy.
“Let your notes come in as fast as
you can make them," is his message
to the head of the bureau of engraving
and printing. "Rush the notes over
until we have a stock of 700,000,000,
200.000.000 to remain in the upper
vaults for current needs of the banks
and ">00.000.000 to rest secure in the
vault beneath the treasury, guarded
by its walls of steel and stone and by
its network of wires which never
sleep."
Bread from Fish Roe.
Peasants in the eastern regions of
Russia make bread from fish roe. At
the present time, owing to the hard
season, there is what they term in
that country a “little famine;” conse
quently the peasants are making bread
from the roe of fresh water fish, with
which the rivers abound The process
of making "fish flour" differs little
from the ordinary one. The roe is
dried and ground, and cooked in the
usual fashion.
. . . ..
..*..
MUCH PRECIOUS TIME WASTED :
Writer in Lippincott’s Points Out Loss j
Caused by Stereotyped Forms of
Politeness.
Not very long ago the manager of a
telephone company in one / of our
larger cities issued instructions to the
exchange girls that they must no
longer use the word “please in con
versation with patrons. It consumed
too much time. "What number,
please?" was shorn of its embroidery
and reduced to “What number?" To
be sure, it was less courteous, but on
the other hand It was infinitely more
profitable. By actual count It was
found that the girls had been saying
“please" 900,000' times a day. Allow
ing half a second to its utterance,
here was an awful daily waste of 125
hours. Five days going to waste every
round of the clock, a sheer loss of 60
mouths out of every year. Is it any
wonder the manager was concerned
and put a stop to the drain? Why the
time it took to say "please" in one
day was snore than enough, to allow
him and his family to go to Europe.
True, this is but a local circum
stance. but to those of us who are not
asleep it portends the beginning of a
world-wide reform. If the elimination
of a single word of politeness in a
telephone exchange can iusure such a
remarkable saving of precious time,
our duty lies clear before us "Hello."
"Dear sir," "Yours truly." "Beg par
don." “Thank you." and a score of
other pleasantries left over from un
progressive days must inevitably fol
low the fate of the telephone "please"
and the kitchen coffee-grinder. It
would not be surprising to learn that
the people of the United States say
"Good morning" 100,000.000 times a
day. The loss of time that this repre
sents. allowing a second to each greet
ing, is enough to befuddle the most
teckless spendthrift. It means that
as a nation we stand still more than
three years every day. There are not
figures enough to calculate where the
world would have been in its history
by this time if we had been free of
Just this one encumbering formality
of speech.—Upplncott's AUg&xme.
J '
TOOK LESSON FROM AMERICAN
Englishman In High Place Glad to Ac
quire Information from Prof.
Newcomb.
Lewis Nixon told this interesting
story at a recent dinner:
"In sheer intellectual strength there1
is no man in America superior to
Prof. Simon Newcomb.
"And while known to but a limited
circle of the American public, no man
of science is better known or more
respected in Europe.
"In 1882, when he was at the head
of the transit of Venus expedition. I
crossed with him. 1 yvas with him in
London, where every one seemed to
want to do honor to this distinguished
American.
One day we went down to lunch
with the astronomer royal at the
Greenwich observatory.
"After lunch, sitting in the great
octagonal instrument room, the as
irongmer royal and Prof. Newcomb be
! gan to. talk shop Among other things
i Prof. J^owcouib was explaining b.ow
< ^ v •
lie combined in one calculation the
effects of more than one observatioh
on the fixed stars, greatly facilitating
calculations and insuring accuracy.
“The professor talked along in a
matter of fact way as if it were the j
simplest formula imaginable. The as
tronomer royal seemed to be trying (
to follcjv him. and them he said.
“ ‘Prof. Newcomb, that's rather in-j
tricate. Would you mind my taking
notes?” He promptly got paper and
pencil, and as soon as he put a few
figures down he, of course, quickly
grasped the idea and highly commend |
ed it.
“But one can easily imagine what
pride I felt as an American to see the
astronomer royal of Great Britain, a
Smith’s prize man and the greatest
mathematician in the empire, taking
notes and learning from Simon New
comb some of the tricks of his trade ”
Capsules Filled by Machine.
A new machine automatically
weighs or measures a medicine and
fills eight capsules while one i'i Pdiad
by hand
V
s
t
LEADER CF THE PITTSBURG PIRATES
Here is Fred Clarke, the pilot of the
pirate crew from Pittsburg. Fred has
been in the game a long while, but
from the way he keeps up his speed it
will be many moons before a young
ster is selected to supplant him.
Clarke has carried home several pen
nants for the Smoky City aggregation.
It was under the late Billie Barnie, in
the old Louisville days that Clarke
made his entry into major league com
pany. He soon succeeded Barnie as
leader of the Colonels, and later, when 1
the Pittsburg club bought out the
Louisville franchise nnd merged both
clubs, Clarke came to Pittsburg and
has remained ever since, playing left
field and managing the team.
Just now the Pittsburg dan is sail
ing along at the head of the National
league race and the hustling manager
has his men in good shape. Of course
he has the able assistance of that
mighty Dutchman, Mans Wagner, and
my! what a bundle of assistance that
big pretzel hunter is to Clarke. The
latter says its the pennant for his
this time, and he further avers that
a world’s championship goes with it
For he feels that his team will be able
to trounce th* Detroits, whom he
picks to win the American league flag
ONE OF THE GIANT TWIRLERS
Leon Ames has done acceptable
work for the New York Giants in the
box this season. While Ames has
never been ranked as a star, he has
developed into a first-rate twirler dur
ing the years he has been with the
Giants.
Pulliam Back in Harness.
Harry Pulliam is again the directing
head of the National league. After a
leave of absence of six months the
National league president has re
sumed his duties When Pulliam ap
peared at his office in the St. Louis
building in New York he was as brown
us a berry and looked the picture of
health Though they had not given
.he information out- in advance, the
office assistants were expecting him.
John Heydler. who had been acting as
president turned over everything to
Pulliam and resumed his duties as
secretary.
MOST BASEBALL PLAYERS
ARE LIVING MODEL LIVES
High-Salaried Diamond Artists Real
ize That They Must Keep in
Best of Condition.
The life of the average baseball
player js as close to the model a good
citizen should follow as can be. He
is generally married, and, except
when he is traveling, spends his spare
time at home. On the road he is at
his hotel most o the time when he is
not at the baseball park. Once or
twice a week, perhaps, he goes to
th* theater, but generally he spends
th- evening in the lobby of his hotel
talking over baseball qnjj other mat
ters with members of his own team
and friends who drop in to see him.
Nine times out of ten he is in bed and
asleep by 10:30 o’clock.
In the old days of baseball it used
to be quite the thing for the star
player to spend his nights in drinking '
with friends, basking in the geniality
of popularity, and mixing in rowdy
carousals. Such actions? are a thing
of the past.
Nowadays the baseball player is
first of all a gentleman. No team will
put ui) with a man that drinks ex
cessively, save in /are cases. Now
and then there is a man who can
spend his evenings in hitting the high
spots and then play good baseball the
following day. Such men are few and
far between, however. Most of those
who try it discover that their careers
as ball players in big-league company
ate short-lived.
It is a matter of common sense
The ball player knows he cannot do
his best when he is not taking care
of himself. If he does not know it
the fans and his manager will point it
out to him with unquestionable force
He knows that to hold a job on a big
league baseball team he must be in
possession of tin* ability to use the
best his brain and muscles contain
He can have this ability only by oh
serving the best rules of life.
Furthermore, the baseball player in
the* last few years has come to realize
better than ever before that when lit
is through with baseball he can ex
pect nothing from the public that
onco applauded him, nor from the
manager that once begged for his sig
nature to a contract. Me must takt
care of himself, and If he has not pro
v ided for the future during his day*
of success and money-making he is in
a bad way.
There are probably no men receiv
ing: such high salaries who take such
good care of their money and save so*
much of it as baseball players. A1
most any well-known diamond stai
that has played in one of the big
leagues for a number of years ha.-,
usually laid by a big proportion of his
salary, and when the inevitable tinn
for his retirement comes he is In a
position to take up some other busi
ness, or if he does not wish to dc
that at once he finds himself in cir
ciimstancbfr easy enough to be free
from care concerning the future for a
number of years at least.
Umpire Cusack Loses Job.
John Heydler. acting president of
the National league, has dismissed
I in pil e Cusack, whose work has been
unsatisfactory. For the present the
National lyague will go along with
sevv-u umpires, Johnstone working
alone.
----I
The Main Thing.
Rudolph Spreckels, of San Fran
cisco. has sold his racehorses because
of his aversion o race-track gambling.
“If gambling were but a mere inci
dental to racing I should not mind,”
said Mr. Spreckels at a San Francisco
dinner, "but gambling is essential to
racing. It dominates it. It dwarfs it
—like ihe case of the fountain pen. ,
“A girl, you know, gave her Intend
ed a cheap fountain pen for Christ
mas. Some weeks later the young
man said tc her;
“ My dear, do you remember that
fountain pen you gave mo?'
“ Yes.' »aid she.
“ ‘Well,’ said the young man, 'do
you mind making me a suit of over
alls to go with it?’
“In my parable.” concluded Mr
Sprockets, "the pen is racing and the
overalls are gambling.” *
By Himself.
No man ever said anything that was
bright enough to be repeated day after
day.
- i - --
House Where K:ats and Shelley
Lived in Rome.
Flowers and Vines Make Enchanting
Bower pf Little Gallery Where
One Can Fancy Two Famous
Pcets Chatted Together.
Rome.—Early In April, In tho pres
ence of King Victor Emmanuel 111. of
Italy, tho Keats Shelley memorial
bmise in Home was opened and ecu
secrated us a museum in memory of
the two English poets who were
friends. Henceforth this house, sltU-A
ated on'th^ right hand side of tho old
Spanish, stairs, in tho IMazza di Spag
na, will bo a new resort for English
speaking tourists and loves of these
poets when in tho Eternal city. The
house has been bought by English
and American lovers of poesy. It
cost $60,00\). • It is a modest house,
which in Keats' and Shelley's day was
a pension, or boarding house
There Is a quiet seriousness about
the premises, as if the shadow still
lingered where young Keats breathed
his last sigh. 1 it the little entrance
hang some okl engravings, which givo
one an Idea of the IMazza dl Spagna
before tho Spanish stairs were built
and after their construction. The
house has been renovated. The cen
tral room has been transformed into
a reading room. Around the walls
-tin the book shelves made of dark
walnut, tho floor is covered by thick
Turkish rugs Sir Moses Ezekiel's
bust of Shelley holds a prominent,
place in this room, as well as that
made of Shelley by Severn. It Is
rather hard to put oneself In touch
with tho two poetic spirits who lived
in this house, amid the babble of the
Keats-Shelley Memorial House in
Rome.
tourists, and the questions with which
they ply the civil Italian gentleman
who acts as curator. I am quite sure
he must be almost distracted after
his morning's work, for the house la
only open every day to the public
from ten o'clock until one p. m.
One of the little rooms leads out
on the dearest little terrazionoo,
which in these lovely spring days is a
display .of beautiful flowers and creep
ing vines. Here one can easily fancy
Keats and Shelley resting and chat
ting together. In another room the
hook shelves hold 200 editions of
Keats' and Shelley's works., Most of
these being.“r«cent editi^na, have little
value except as evidence or fhe con
tinuing fame of the poets—but is not
that worth wivrto to show in this way?
Ily far the most interesting room is
the little bedchamber in which Keats
died, with its two windows, one of
whim'll looks out over the Piazza di
Spagna and the other on the pictur
esque stairs leading up to the Church
della Trinita de Monte. Prom that
window one can gaze down on the
loveliest flower market in the world
all the year round, and watch the
ever passing throng going up and
down the Spanish steps. Many of the
artists’ models group themselves
about, or drop off for their open air
siestas In the most natural of poses.
In this small bedroom Keats died in
the arms of his faithful friend. Sev
ern. The ceiling and the little fire
place have been left just as when
Keats lived in the room. In this little
sanctuary is the death mask of Keats,
and a small lock of his chestnut-brown
hair. In a sealed vase Is a little bone
which Trelawney kept from the heart
—“cer cordium”—when the flames re
duced all that was once Percy Bysshe
Shelley’s frame to a handful of clean
ashes.
This little bouse where the two
poets stayed In Rome puts us in touch
with thi’ni on different Unas from
their graves. In the beautiful little
English cemetery, under the shadow
of the pyramid of Caius Cestius. and
the walls of old Rome. There are sev
eral autograph letters of Keats and
Shelley carefully treasured in the Ut
ile museum, as well as their songs set
to music. It Is pleasant to feel that
these poetic friends—such lovers of
Italy!—lived and enjoyed all Italy had
to offer them in the fulness or her
wondrous beauty, art and history, and
when life's fitful fever ended for them,
they rest In her loving bosom
The Difficulty.
Mrs. Stuyvesant Kish is an antl-suf
Iragette. She has joined the anti
suffragette organization, the National
League for the Civic Education of
Women At a luncheon the other day
she said:
( It isn t possible for women to do
the same work as men. day In and
‘ley out in good weather and in foul
l or Instance, .what woman could be
a postman, out in all kinds of-weath
,v h< all hours, walking miles
daily?"
She smiled.
woman postman would compare
"'Hi a male one as the beggar com
pares with the millionaire
'You've got no ground to envy
me, said the millionaire to the beg
gar I've got just as many troubles as
you have.’
No doubt yer riglit. boss.' Baid the
beggar, humbly, 'but the diftieul'y
" '''i me is. I ain't got nothin' else '
Not Suitable.
She—Try this delightful cough
candy '■
He (coughing)—It wouldn't do me
“ay good t haven't a delightful
i