The Constitution of the United States went into effect March 4, 1789,

and Congress went into its first session in the City of New York. Two

subjects moved it to its depths at once—the impending bankruptcy of the

country, and the location of the National Capital. The prevention of the

first depended upon the establishment of the latter. The Nation was

impoverished by a long and harassing war, and depressed by an enormous

debt which that war had caused. The Nation possessed no statistics

indicating the resources of the country, and there was no department

organized through which fiscal operations could be carried on.

The strife between the Northern and Southern States, concerning the

location of the Capital, made harmonious financial legislation

impossible during the opening session of the first Congress. But the

committee appointed to organize a system for the collection of the

revenue, were equal to its accomplishment. After four months’

deliberation, July 31, 1789, the first important act connected with the

Treasury Department was passed, entitled “An act to regulate the

collection of the duties imposed by law on the tonnage of ships or

vessels, and on goods, wares and merchandise.” September 2, 1789, the

fundamental act establishing the Treasury Department was enrolled as a

whole, and passed.

The new Department consisted of a Secretary of the Treasury, a

Comptroller, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Registrar, and an assistant to

the Secretary of the Treasury. It was decided that the settlement of all

public accounts should be in the Treasury Department, making the

Secretary of the Treasury the head of the Fiscal Department of the

Government, placing him, however, under the authority and requirements

of either House of Congress. He superintends the collection and

disbursement of the revenue of the United States, from every source

derived, except that of the Post Office. He receives the returns of the

revenue in general, and reports to Congress all plans of finance, and

the final results of his own official action, and that of his

subordinates.

The first popular candidate for the position of chief of the Treasury

Department was Oliver Wolcott, a son of a signer of the Declaration of

Independence, and his own services to his country, both under the

Colonial Government and the Union, were acknowledged to have been

important. Meanwhile Washington, who was more anxious to find out how he

was to get money to pay the public debt, than to find a man to pay it,

invited his intimate and tried friend, Robert Morris, to give him the

benefit of his advice. In one of their interviews, the great chief

groaned out: “What is to be done with this heavy national debt?” “There

is but one man,” said the astute financier, “who can help you, and that

man is Alexander Hamilton. I am glad that you have given me the

opportunity to disclose the extent of the obligation I am under to him.”

In ten days after the establishment of the Treasury Department,

Alexander Hamilton was appointed its chief. He was still in the flower

of his youth, but had already proved himself, not only in practical

action, but in the rarest gifts of pure intellect, to be the most

versatile and remarkable man of his time. Of good birth, yet, at twelve

years of age, dependent upon his own exertions for support, he bore, at

that tender age, the entire responsibility of a large shipping house. He

seemed endowed with the quality of intellect which amounts to

inspiration—unerring in perception, sure of success. The boy-manager of

the shipping house earned his bread in the day time, and in the night

wrote articles on commercial matters, equally remarkable for their

comprehensiveness and practical knowledge. A native of St. Croix, West

Indies, at fourteen he came to the United States; at eighteen, entered

Kings, now Columbia College, where he at once attracted attention by his

brilliant essays on political subjects. At the beginning of the

Revolution, he raised and took command of a company of artillery. The

same transcendent intuition which made him supreme as a financier, made

him remarkable as a soldier. In Washington’s first interview with him,

he made him his _aide-de-camp_, and through the entire Revolutionary

war, he was called “the right arm” of the Commander-in-chief.

At the close of the war he returned to New York, and stepped at once to

the very front of his profession. A more remarkable and interesting

group of men probably never discussed and decided the fate of a nation,

than Washington, Morris, and Hamilton. Morris, wise, experienced,

analytic; Washington, grave, thoughtful, far-seeing, slow to invent, but

ready to comprehend, and quick to follow the counsel which his judgment

approved; Hamilton, young, impetuous, impassioned, prophetic, yet

practical; in comprehension and gifts of creation, the supreme of the

three. Never was a nation more blessed than this, in the united quality

of the men who decided its financial destiny.

The first official act of Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury, was to

recommend that the domestic and foreign war debt be paid, dollar for

dollar. When the paper containing this recommendation was read before

Congress, it thought that the new Secretary of the Treasury had gone

mad. How was a nation of less than four millions of people to

voluntarily assume a debt of seventy-five millions of dollars! Hamilton

thought that this aggregated debt, created for the support of the

national cause, should be assumed by the individual States; the

outstanding Continental money to be funded at the rate of one dollar in

specie for each hundred in paper, and the whole united to make the

national resources available for the security of the public creditors.

The long strife in Congress over this great fundamental financial

question is a matter of history. There appeared to be no national

resources to meet such a demand. There was not money enough in the

Treasury to pay current expenses, to say nothing of paying a debt of

tens of millions. Probably no body of legislators in the world ever

represented wisdom, statesmanship, pertinacity of opinion so tried in

the fiery crucible of war, poverty and suffering, as did this first

Congress; yet it was left to the untried minister of finance of

thirty-three to save the national credit against mighty odds, and to

foresee and to foretell the future resources of a vast, consolidated

people. This inspiration of enthusiasm and faith, combined with

practical administrative force, and a broad financial policy, averted

the horrors of national bankruptcy, preserved the credit of the

government, and gave to the sufferings of Valley Forge and the surrender

at Yorktown their final fruition.

The young financier, bearing his burden alone, seemed to hold in himself

the guarantee of future triumph. He gave to the most despairing a

security of success when they remembered that, at the age of nineteen,

this same young prophet and patriot was the “right hand” of Washington.

The long struggle ended in the adoption of Hamilton’s great financial

scheme of funding the domestic debt.

When the government was removed to Philadelphia, the Treasury was

established in a plain building in Arch street, two doors east from

Sixth. Here Morris, Hamilton and Washington were united in the closest

bonds of personal friendship. Then followed, in rapid succession, those

great state-papers on finance from Hamilton, whose embodiment into laws

fixed the duties on all foreign productions, and taxed with just

distinction the home luxuries and necessities of life. From these were

evolved in gradual development the entire system of the Treasury

Department of the United States. Time has proved how perfect were the

plans which sprang without precedent from the brain of Alexander

Hamilton.

First, from his suggestions came the act which established the routine

by which customs were to be collected. Then came the acts for the

levying of taxes and the accumulation of the revenue. Then the

imposition on ships and our commercial marine, foreign and domestic.

Next, a bank was established for the depository of collected funds, and

their distribution throughout the country. Then was needed the crown of

the grand financial structure—a legalized institution for the coinage of

gold and silver. To accomplish this great design, Hamilton recommended

for the adoption of Congress the establishment of a mint for the

purposes of national coinage, and the act was passed April 2, 1792,

fixing the establishment at the then seat of government, Philadelphia,

from whence, through later legislation, it has never been transferred.

While consuming himself for his country, Hamilton was harassed by the

abuse of personal and political enemies, and suffering for the adequate

means to support his family. While building up the financial system

which was to redeem his country, the state of his own finances may be

judged by the following letter from him to a personal friend, dated

September 30, 1791:

“DEAR SIR:—If you can conveniently let me have twenty dollars for a

few days, send it by bearer.

A. H.”

The amount of personal toil he performed for the government was

enormous. Talleyrand, who was at this time a refugee in Philadelphia,

after his return to France, spoke with admiring enthusiasm of the young

American patriot. In speaking of his experience in America, he once

said:

“I have seen in that country one of the wonders of the world—a man,

who has made the future of the Nation, laboring all night to support

his family.”

Nobody believes that any servant of his country should be compelled to

this, to-day, yet had not long-sufficed selfishness made them insensible

to it, the over-greedy legislator of to-day might learn from the example

of Alexander Hamilton a salutary lesson.

After six years of personal service in the Treasury, amid personal and

political opposition, greater than has ever assailed any one statesman;

after seeing his financial system a part of the governmental policy of

his country, Hamilton resigned his office, and resumed the practice of

law in the city of New York.

Established in that day of small things, in human judgment it seems

impossible that the brain of one man could have devised a monetary

system that would anticipate all the varied, conflicting and unexpected

demands of a country as large and swiftly developed as ours. Yet, with

slight modifications, the system of Hamilton has met all exigencies,

saved the national credit, and assured the national prosperity through

the deepest trials. It paid the national debt of the Revolution, and of

1812, and in the War of the Rebellion, when the governmental expenses of

a single day were more than the national income for a whole year in

Hamilton’s time, the foresight and genius of this man of thirty-three

had suggested ways for the vast accumulation and disbursement.

Personally, Hamilton was under middle size, slight, well-proportioned,

erect and graceful. His complexion was white and pink, his features

mobile, his expression vivacious, his voice musical, his manner cordial,

his entire appearance attractive and refined.

Alexander Hamilton was succeeded by Oliver Wolcott, Jr., as Secretary of

the Treasury. The great act of Mr. Wolcott’s administration was the

revision and completion of the laws relative to the collection of the

revenue. He carried out, through his administration, the great

fundamental principles of national finance established by Hamilton, and

was re-appointed by John Adams.

When, in 1800, the Treasury Department performed its six days’ journey

from Philadelphia to Washington, it went into a plain, three-story

building, facing Fifteenth street, erected for the Treasury. It was near

the unfinished White House, and, like all the first Federal buildings,

plain and small. It was so small, when first taken possession of, that

it did not even afford sufficient room for the clerical force, then

fifty in number. Its cramped space made it necessary to deposit all the

official records brought from Philadelphia in a house known as Sears’

store, and the records, which would now be invaluable, were all

consumed.

The first official act of the Treasury Department of national interest,

dated at the national capital, directed that the Secretary should make

an annual report to Congress of the state of the finances of the nation,

containing estimates of the public revenue and expenditure, as well as

plans for improving and increasing the revenues. Hamilton had done this

voluntarily, and his example, of a Cabinet officer making communications

with Congress, was now made imperative by the action of law. May 10,

1800, Samuel Dexter, another signer of the Declaration of Independence,

was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in place of Oliver Wolcott. On

the election of Jefferson, the foe of the Hamiltonian financial policy,

the Washingtonian era of the Federal Government ended, and Mr. Dexter

found himself out of harmony with the Government. After the lapse of a

year, President Jefferson set the precedent of removal, and, January 26,

1802, appointed Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury.

Albert Gallatin was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1761. After

receiving a liberal education, he came to this country at the age of

eighteen. He became a tutor in Harvard College, but removing to

Philadelphia, then the national capital, rose so high in public esteem

that in 1790, at the age of thirty, he was elected to Congress, and

afterwards to the Senate. In this body, his reports on matters of

finance attracted universal attention, and, as a result, he was made

Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. President Jefferson, on

handing him his commission, said: “Mr. Gallatin, your most important

duty will be to examine the accounts, and all the records of your

department, in order to discover the blunders and frauds of Hamilton,

and to ascertain what changes will be required in the system. This is a

most important duty, and will require all your industry and acuteness.

To do it thoroughly, you may employ whatever extra service you require.”

Gallatin was an ardent partisan of the President, and declares, himself,

that he undertook his task of exposing Hamilton, and bringing his lofty

head low, with great zest and thoroughness. But his hunt for “blunders”

and venality merged soon into a labor of love. Upon his just and

comprehensive mind, Hamilton’s perfect system, day by day, revealed

itself. By the time he had mastered its details, and measured its

completeness, he was filled with admiration. “In the honest enthusiasm

of a truly great mind he went to Mr. Jefferson and said: ‘Mr. President,

I have, as you directed, made a thorough examination of the books,

accounts and correspondence of my department, from its commencement. I

have found,’ said the conscientious Secretary, ‘the most perfect system

ever formed. Any change under it would injure it.’ Hamilton made no

blunders, committed no frauds; he did nothing wrong.”

Albert Gallatin marked his administration by a series of reports

regarding the best method of canceling the national debt, the proper

policy of disposing of the public lands, and the legality and necessity

of establishing a national bank. Thus, contrary to his original

intention, he associated himself with Morris and Hamilton as one of the

three founders of the financial policy of the nation.

By the year 1804, the business of the Treasury had so increased, that an

effort was made toward the erection of a building, to become the

especial depository of the records. An idea may be given of the demands

of the infant government and its notions of economy, in the facts that

this vaunted fire-proof public building is much smaller than an

unpretentious private dwelling of the present time, and that it cost

less than the sum of twelve thousand dollars.

Mr. Madison, on his accession to the Presidency, retained Mr. Gallatin

at the head of the Treasury.

On March 1, 1809, an act of Congress directed that all warrants drawn on

the Treasury by the Secretaries of the different executive departments,

should designate the appropriation to which they were charged.

June 18, 1812, war was declared, and Congress was convened in special

session, to consider the necessities of the Treasury. Out of the

legislation which followed, came our present internal revenue laws. Mr.

Gallatin, after having held his office longer than any of his

predecessors, resigned, and went on a foreign mission. A period of

extreme money depression succeeded his resignation. August 24, 1814, the

British troops entered Washington, and, with the Capitol and other

public buildings, burned the Treasury. The business of the Treasury, for

a considerable time afterwards, was carried on in what was known as “the

Seven Buildings,” in the western part of the city.

George N. Campbell, of Tennessee, Mr. Gallatin’s successor, attempted to

negotiate a loan of twenty-five millions of dollars, but failed, and

resigned his office. The national credit was at its lowest ebb.

When the need of a great man is absolute, Providence usually has one

ready for the emergency. He appeared at this crisis, in the person of

Alexander J. Dallas, of Pennsylvania. On entering upon his office, as

head of the Treasury, he replied to the request of Congress, that he

should suggest ways for the restoration of the public credit, in one of

the most powerful documents extant in the archives of the Treasury. Mr.

Dallas so inspired the faith of the capitalists of the country, that the

national credit was at once restored. “The Treasury notes, issued on the

universal opinion that they would be a drug in the market, rose to a

premium.”

Mr. Monroe made W. H. Crawford, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury.

Under him, the routine of the Department was improved by the appointment

of a second Comptroller and four additional Auditors. Charges of

malfeasance were brought against him toward the close of his term of

office. They were examined by a committee consisting of John Randolph,

Edward Livingston, and Daniel Webster, who pronounced the charges false.

President John Quincy Adams recalled Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, then

Minister to England, and made him Secretary of the Treasury.

Under Andrew Jackson’s Presidency, the conservative management of the

Treasury Department changed into “the anti-bank period.” His

administration was marked by five different Secretaries, and a

prevailing state of excitement. The first Secretary of the Treasury,

under Jackson, was Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, whose trust ended

in a violent breaking up of the Cabinet. He was succeeded by William J.

Doane, of Pennsylvania, who refused to remove the national deposits from

the United States Bank, and was dethroned by Roger B. Taney, of

Maryland. The Senate refused to confirm his appointment, and Levi

Woodbury, of New Hampshire, was installed in the office, holding it to

the end of Jackson’s administration.

April 1, 1833, the Treasury Building was for the third time destroyed by

fire, and a large amount of valuable public documents destroyed.

Afterwards, the business of the Department was carried on in a row of

brick buildings opposite Willard’s Hotel. At this time the “Agent of the

Treasury,” was changed to Solicitor of the Treasury, and a sixth Auditor

was created. Jackson’s administration closed with an “apparent plethora

of money among the people, and the glorious consummation of paying off

the national debt.”

Mr. Woodbury continued at the head of the Treasury, under President Van

Buren. It was his fate to be its director “in the times of unparalleled

plenty, speculation and extravagance, and two years afterwards, to

witness a pecuniary revulsion that had no precedent in financial

history.” In 1837, financial ruin dismayed the Nation. Congress was

convened by special proclamation, to devise ways and means to relieve

the people. Specie payments were suspended, and all business involved in

apparent ruin. Binding laws were passed, divorcing the Government from

all banking institutions, and a new policy was created for the control

of our national finances.

Under Presidents Harrison and Tyler there were five Secretaries of the

Treasury: Thomas Ewing, of Ohio; Walter Howard, of Pennsylvania; John C.

Spencer, of New York, and George M. Beble, of Kentucky. President Polk

made Robert J. Walker the head of the Treasury. He was known as “the

apostle of free trade.” His administration was marked by the

introduction of the present warehousing system, based upon English

precedent; by his reciprocity system between Canada and the United

States abolishing all customs and imports, and the establishment of an

“Interior Department” upon the old overgrown Land Office, with a Cabinet

officer to administer its affairs, under the title of Secretary of the

Interior.

The Secretary of the Treasury, under President Taylor, was William M.

Meredith, of Pennsylvania; who was succeeded, under President Fillmore,

by Thomas Corwin, of Ohio. Secretary Corwin established the present

lighthouse department and wrote the instructions regarding

light-vessels, beacons and buoys. This beneficent legislation gave over

six hundred lights to protect the hitherto neglected mariner on his way.

The Chief of the Treasury under President Pierce, was James Guthrie, of

Kentucky. He is remembered as a strict and efficient officer, carrying

out in minutiæ, the duties and laws of the department. He discovered

outstanding balances against the Treasury, which, if collected, would

more than pay the national debt. Of this sum he collected hundreds of

millions into the Treasury, and raised the standard of efficiency in the

Treasury service by demanding monthly, instead of quarterly reports,

from all its _employés_.

Three Secretaries of the Treasury served under James Buchanan—Howell

Cobb, of Georgia; Philip F. Thomas, of Maryland; and John A. Dix, of New

York. A monetary crisis, almost as severe as that of 1837, marked this

administration. The throes of Secession shook the Union to its

foundation, and the Secretaries of the Treasury, like all other public

servants, were occupied with the “signs of the times,” the swiftly

advancing portents of revolution, more than with the mere financial

duties of the public Treasury.

Abraham Lincoln began his troubled administration by the appointment of

Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, as Secretary of the Treasury. Never was man

asked to help steer the ship of state through more overwhelming

breakers. With the dissolution of the Union imminent, the national debt

had increased to three times the amount it was at the close of the

previous administration. The number of clerks which, in 1861, was three

hundred and eighty-three, in 1864 was two thousand. Such a demand was

without precedent, and arose from the immense labor of examining

accounts, and of preparing and supervising the national currency and

securities.

The first important measure of Mr. Chase’s administration was the

“Internal Revenue Act,” which, in four years, increased the income of

the Government from forty-one millions to three hundred and nine

millions. Next came the great “National Currency Act,” which, though

severely criticised, and probably not free from defects, nevertheless

established a paper currency of equal value in every part of the Union,

and was, at least, in keeping with the principles of our Government, and

freer from chances of corruption and abuse than any other system yet

adopted. It met the awful demand of the hour, and offered the guarantee

of redemption, rather than of loss and ruin.

In a single month, the tax upon the income of the Treasury became

stupendous. In one day, it paid out for quartermasters’ stores alone,

forty-six millions of dollars—more than were needed to support the

entire National Government during the first year of Washington’s

administration. In four years, the public debt, from ninety millions,

had grown to be two thousand six hundred millions—yet under this mighty

demand, with two millions of its sons withdrawn from productive labor,

the exports of the country were double what they had ever been before,

and the credit of the Government of the United States day by day

increased.

When Mr. Chase was appointed Chief Justice by Mr. Lincoln, his high seat

in the Treasury was taken by Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, whose brief

career as Secretary of the Treasury was marked by a single State paper

of great ability. He was succeeded by Hugh McCulloch, of Indiana, who

dispensed the duties of his office creditably till the close of

Johnson’s administration.

President Grant, upon his accession to the Presidency, chose George S.

Boutwell, of Massachusetts, to be Secretary of the Treasury. Mr.

Boutwell had already served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and now

on him devolved the huge task of reducing the high impost and revenue

tax created by the war debt, and borne as a mighty burden by the people.

He had to lighten the load on the people’s shoulders, and yet keep the

national tax high enough to meet the interest, and reduce the amount of

the national debt—in fine, he was expected to relieve the Nation, and to

pay the national debt at the same time. A more conflicting demand never

rested on a Financial Minister. How ably he met it, the “monthly

statement” of the perpetual ebb of the war debt, with the constant

legislation to reduce all revenue taxation to the luxuries of life, were

ample proof.

Before the election of Mr. Boutwell, as United States Senator from

Massachusetts, to succeed Vice-President Henry Wilson, the President

appointed Judge Richardson, Acting Assistant Secretary, to be Secretary

of the Treasury. Judge Richardson stepped from comparative obscurity,

and an opposite sphere of labor, to his present high official position.

There are many who challenge his claim to it, and his fitness for it.

Time may prove one, and disprove the other. As Secretary of the

Treasury, his official record is yet to be made—until his administration

has been marked by an act of national importance, it is too early to

pronounce a verdict.

In the statistics of the Treasury Department, we read the marvellous

financial history of our country. In them we trace the material progress

of the Nation from its beginning. In the accounts current business of

the country, we learn that in the years 1793, ’94, ’95, ’96, the Nation

imported productions valued at one hundred and seventy-four millions of

dollars. In the years 1866, ’67, ’68, ’69, the United States exported

values to the amount of nineteen hundred millions. The value between

these sums marks the growth of population, territory, and material

resources in the space of seventy years—surely, a narrow span in the

life of a nation!

CHAPTER XXX.

INSIDE THE TREASURY—THE HISTORY OF A DOLLAR.

A Washington Tradition—“Old Hickory” Erects his Cane—“Put the Building

Right Here”—Treasury Corner-Stone Laid—Robert Mills’ Discolored

Colonnade—Where “Privileged Mortals” Work—A Very Costly

Building—Rapid Extension of Business—Splendid Situation of the

Building—The Workers Within—The Government Takes a Holiday—The

Business of Three Thousand People—The Mysteries of the

Treasury—Inside the Rooms—Mary Harris’s Revenge—The “Drones” in the

Hive—Making Love in Office Hours—Flirtations in Public—A Vast Refuge

for the Unfortunate—Two Classes of _Employés_—A List of Miserable

Sinners—A Pitiful Ancient Dame—A _Protégé_ of President

Lincoln—Women’s Work in the Treasury—The Bureau of Printing and

Engraving—A very Hot Precinct—Rendering a Strict Account—Not a Cent

Missing—The “Chief’s” Report—Dealing in Big Figures—The Story of a

Paper Dollar—In the Upper Floor—The Busy Workers—Night Work—Where

the Paper is Made—The “Localized Blue Fibre”—_The_ Obstacle to the

Counterfeiter—The Automatic Register—Keeping Watch—The Counters and

Examiners—Supplying the Bank Note Companies—“The American” and “The

National”—An Armed Escort—No Incomplete Notes Possible—Varieties of

Printing—The Contract with Adams’ Express—Printing the Notes and

Currency—Internal Revenue Stamps—Thirty Young Ladies Count the

Money—Manufacturing the Plates—The Engraving Division—“The Finest

Engravers in the Country”—The Likeness of Somebody—Transferring a

Portrait—“Men of Many Minds”—The Division of Labor—Delicate

Operations—A Pressure of Five or Six Tons—The Plate

Complete—“Re-entering” a Plate—An “Impression”—How Old Plates are

Used up—A Close Inspection—Defying Imitation—The Geometric

Lathe—Tracing “Lines of Beauty” for More than Forty Years.

It is one of the traditions of Washington that Andrew Jackson decided

the exact site of the present Treasury Building.

After the third destruction by fire, in 1833, of the early Treasury

Buildings, a great strife came up concerning the location of the new

Treasury. Worn out with the claims of “rival factions,” it is said that

President Jackson walked out a few rods from the White House one

morning, and thrusting his cane into the ground, exclaimed: “Put the

building right here!” This ended all disputes, and the end of the “old

hero’s” cane marked the north-east corner of the present site of the

Treasury of the United States.

Though nearly approached by the Patent Office, the Treasury Building, in

architectural splendor, ranks next to the Capitol. Its corner-stone was

laid in 1834 by Levi Woodbury, then Secretary of the Treasury. The

original building was designed by Robert C. Mills, whose long and

discolored colonnade on Fifteenth street is still visible. It was built

of the freestone brought from near Acquia Creek, Virginia, which has

touched with premature dinginess too many of the Federal buildings of

the Capital. But in the Treasury its long line of smut is lost in the

marble splendor of the extensions. The extension of the building was

authorized in 1835, and built from the designs of Thomas W. Walter. It

embodies the most perfect Grecian architecture, adapted to modern uses.

It surrounds a hollow square, on which its inner offices look out on

green grass and cooling fountain through the summer heats. Instead of

cooped-up cells, the lower stories of the Treasury are filled with airy

apartments, in which privileged mortals serve their country and earn

their bread and butter. The new Treasury is built of gleaming granite

brought from Dix Island, on the coast of Maine.

The walls of the extension are composed of pilasters, resting on a base

which rises some twelve feet above the ground on the southern or lower

side. Between the pilasters are _antæ_ or belt-courses, nobly moulded;

the facings of the doors and windows bear mouldings in harmony. The

southern, western and northern fronts present magnificent porticoes. Its

lofty pillars are of the Ionic order, and the entire building is at last

surmounted by a massive balustrade. The south wing was completed and

occupied in 1860. The west wing was completed in 1863—the north in

1867—the whole at a cost of $6,750,000. The exterior is four hundred and

sixty-four feet by two hundred and sixty-four feet.

The Treasury was begun and consummated on a truly magnificent scale, and

with the expectation that it would meet every demand of its own branch

of the public service for at least a century. Like every one of the

public buildings, it is already too small to accommodate the

over-crowded bureaus of its own departments, several of which, for want

of room in the Treasury Building, already occupy other houses in

different parts of the city; and yet there is not space left for those

who remain. Before the year 1900, another Treasury Building as

magnificent as the one now our pride, will be indispensable to the

ever-increasing demand of the departments of the financial service.

The Treasury borrowed its face from the Parthenon; and, as it turns it

toward the Potomac this May morning, it is one of the fairest sites in

Washington. From the southern portico we look across sloping tree-shaded

meadows. Beyond, we see the shimmering river, with its girdle of green,

and above, “the flush and frontage of the hills.” When flowers, and

trees and soft lights shall have taken the place of all this glare—how

beautiful it will be to the eyes of generations to come. But even now

the bright grass, flower-parterres and lapsing fountains are pleasant to

behold, while the southern front of the Treasury is an object upon which

the eyes must always rest with a sense of satisfaction.

The Capitol lords it over the east, but the Treasury reigns over the

west end. To be sure, it stands upon the poorest make-believe of an

Acropolis, but coming along Pennsylvania avenue we look up to its noble

façade and fair Ionic columns gleaming before us, as a compensation for

the poverty of beauty in the streets which we travel. The western

windows overlook the grounds of the presidential mansion, now gay with

flowers and dazzling with sunshine, their trees decked in the vivid

foliage of a southern June-time.

How many pairs of weary human eyes look up from their tasks within these

walls, and, without knowing it, thank God for this fair outlook. The

breeze-blown grass, the fragrant winds, the lavish light of these open

windows—to dusty lips and tired eyes which take them in—are God’s own

benedictions. Hundreds of such look up from their desks. Past the great

fountain, tossing its diamonds below, past the sunny knolls and mimic

mounds of newly-cut grass, above the bloom-burdened trees and all the

tender verdure of early spring and summer, they see the windows of the

presidential reception-room, whose doors, through all the winter months,

are besieged by an army of office and favor seekers, but which are shut

and silent and deserted now, while “the Government” drives among the

hills or loiters by the sea.

But I began to talk about the Treasury, and no matter how I wander for

ever so many pages, I must come back to it again.

It is easier to comprehend the outside than the inside of it. One might

as well try to snatch up a city and portray it in a sitting, as even to

outline the Treasury of the United States in a single chapter.

It holds a metropolis within its walls. It affords daily employment to

over three thousand persons, and thousands more daily throng its halls.

Just a glimpse into this vast human hive makes us long for a Dickens to

embody the romance and reveal the mysteries of the Treasury. The story

of the Circumlocution Office and the Court of Chancery pale before the

revelations and undreamed of human experiences which it holds. Before

you, behind you, and on either side stretch out the great marble paved

halls. Out of these open numberless rooms, whose shut doors stare

blankly, or whose half-open blinds wink and blink at each other through

the gleaming cross lights.

Over these doors you read significant inscriptions, such as First

Comptroller’s Office, First Auditor’s Office, etc. You ascend the great

stairs and find other halls, such as those below, and like them lined on

each side by doors. Over these you read, “Loan Branch,” “Redemption

Branch,” “Office of the Register,” “Office of Secretary of the

Treasury,” etc. Many of the open doors reveal to you large airy

apartments filled with busy men and women. Many more show you narrow,

one-windowed apartments, each containing a desk, or desks, with its

scribe, or scribes.

Here we see men who have grown gray, weak-limbed and wizened in those

rooms beside those desks. They have grown to be as automatic as their

pens, and as narrow as their rooms. Here also are thousands of men in

their prime and in their youth representing every phase of character. In

this hall, just by this door, Mary Harris watched for the man who had

robbed and ruined her—and just here she shot him. Poor thing! With her

blighted face she is a maniac, now in the Asylum across the river. These

halls are as thronged as Broadway, and their denizens are as

cosmopolitan. People of all nations and costumes come and go along their

vast vistas.

There are drones in this hive. These are office hours, yet here and

there may be seen a young man and maiden whose in-door costume marks

them as _employés_ of the Treasury, loitering in the shadow of pillar or

alcove, lingering by stair or doorway, saying very pleasant things to

each other, doubtless, after the manner of young maidens and men.

Flirting or making love in the flare of the public must always be a

desecration of the heart’s best sanctities. Beside, Sassafras and

Sacharissa, you ought to be at work. It is precisely such as you who

have brought discredit even upon the faithful and unfortunate, and

sometimes rebuke upon the whole Treasury Department. For, as a rule, the

Treasury, like all the other departments of Washington, is a vast refuge

for the unfortunate and the unsuccessful. The only exceptions are found

in two classes, viz.: those who use departmental life as the ladder by

which to climb to a higher round of life and service, and those who seek

it without half fulfilling its duties, because too inefficient to fill

any other place in the world well. Unpractical authors, sore-throated,

pulpitless clergymen, briefless lawyers, broken down merchants, poor

widows, orphaned daughters, and occasionally an adventurer, masculine

and feminine, of doubtful or bad degree,—all are found within the

Treasury.

I remember an aged woman, with bent back and long, wasted fingers,

sitting behind the door in the Redemption Bureau. Her dim eyes peered

through her spectacles and her poor fingers trembled, as she tried to

count the dirty, ragged currency. “Alas! sad eyes,” I thought, “by this

time rest from toil should have come to you.” “It is pitiful,” I said,

to the kind gentleman who reigned over the division, “that one so old

should have to come through rain and snow to fulfil a daily task. Is she

not too old to do her duty well!”

“No,” was the answer, “she does it very well. But if not, she would

never be removed. She is a _protégé_ of President Lincoln.”

But any one who fancies that even woman’s work in the Treasury

Department is a sinecure, should climb to the Bureau of Printing and

Engraving. You may climb, but you cannot enter unless you hold a written

“sesame” from the Secretary of the Treasury; so sacred and guarded is

this very hot precinct in which Uncle Samuel creates his “Almighty

Dollar.” The business of this Bureau is to engrave, print, and perfect

for delivery to the United States Treasurer, all United States notes,

Treasury checks, gold notes, drafts, fractional currency notes, all

bonds and revenue stamps issued by the Government of the United States.

At the close of each day, every fraction which has passed through the

division for the last twelve hours must be accounted for. If a cent is

missing, all the workers of the Bureau are detained until the missing

fraction is certainly found and safely deposited in the vault of the

Treasury. The vast monetary responsibility resting on the Chief of this

Bureau may be judged from a statement made, in his own report, for the

fiscal year ending June 30, 1872.

“There has been finished and delivered to the proper officers of the

Government by this Bureau, during the fiscal years ending June 30,

1870, 1871, 1872, in notes, bonds and securities, $2,050,141, and

331,273,955 stamps, and not a note, nor a sheet, nor a portion of a

sheet or note has been lost to the Government.”

But I hold the “open sesame;” so come with me and begin the story of a

paper dollar. Walking through the long, cool corridors and the airy

saloons of the lower Treasury, who would dream that afar up, close under

its clinging roof, ceaseless fires burn, engines play, eager shuttles

fly, and patient hands ply through all the nights and days to make the

people’s dollar! Here in these low, close rooms, these crowded halls,

whose roofs press down so low that even a child, in many places, could

not stand erect beneath it, patient men and women,—weary, gray, and

old,—and youth, with its first tints yet unbleached by the burning

atmosphere in which it toils,—all are at work making the paper dollar.

Sometimes in the dark night, down the granite colonnades, athwart the

great trees dimly waving in mid-air, across the lapsing fountains,

stream long gleams of light shooting from the tiny loop-hole windows

high up under the Treasury roof. They dart from the Printing Bureau of

the Nation. While the Nation sleeps, its servants, through the long,

still hours, go on making the people’s money!

First, the paper! It is all manufactured at “Glen Mills,” near

Philadelphia, by the Messrs. Wilcox, who own the mills, and are the

patentees of the “localized blue fibre,” made of jute, which runs

through the right-hand end of the fractional currency and United States

notes, and on the back of the bonds, etc. This fiber is _the_ obstacle

to the counterfeiter, and can only be overcome by oiling or soiling the

spurious paper, so that its absence cannot be discovered. The paper is

chemically prepared, and the application of an acid will change the tint

to one color, and an alkali, to another. Thus any attempt to alter the

filling-in or denomination of the stamped check, is defeated.

A Government superintendent resides at Glen’s Falls, who, with a corps

of assistants, receives the paper from the contractors, counts,

examines, holds it carefully guarded night and day, until delivered to

the Treasury of the United States. To each paper-making machine is

attached an automatic register, by which the mill-owners account to the

Government for every square inch and sheet recorded by this register,

the register being locked, and the key held securely in the pocket of a

Government officer, who watches the work. During its manufacture and

storage at the mills, this paper is guarded, by day and night, by a

regularly organized “watch.” The Government Superintendent has a corps

of counters and examiners under his direction, who examine and count the

paper, as received from the makers, before it is packed away for

shipment. The account is sent to the Department, and paid each day by

the Secretary.

The paper is supplied the Bank Note Companies only upon requisition from

the Bureau at Washington. Mr. Bemis, the Superintendent, makes a report

to the Printing Bureau, also to the Secretary of the Treasury, of all

the paper delivered to him. The first journey made by this governmental

infant, is to the Bank Note Companies—two of them, one in New York, the

other in Philadelphia—the American and the National—that there may not

be any dangerous monopoly of priceless charms. It is borne to the depot

by an armed escort, and conveyed on the cars by Adams’ Express. The New

York Company, printing tints, must turn over to the Company printing

backs, notes equivalent to the paper, and the second Company must

similarly account to the Government for every incomplete note

received—thus neither can possess itself wholly of this beloved child.

One Company prints the tints of one denomination, and the back of the

other, no Company executing on the same note both printings.

The national bank notes, hitherto engraved and printed entirely in New

York, coming only to the Government Printing Bureau for numbering and

sealing, hereafter will be exclusively engraved and printed in the

Treasury. The jute-fibred paper will also be used in their making, as it

is in the United States notes. The face of the Treasury notes is printed

in black and green, the back in green. The National Bank Note face dares

to be printed in black, and its back in black and green.

This tinted and outlined paper is conveyed to the Treasury by Adams’

Express, who have the contract for carrying all the Government moneys

and securities.

When it reaches the Treasury, the work yet to be done by the Printing

and Engraving Bureau, before the paper is complete as Government money,

is to print the face upon the United States notes, and hereafter, on the

National Bank notes, to plate-seal, to number, trim, and cut them into

single notes; to trim, surface-seal, and cut into single notes the ten,

fifteen, and twenty-five, fractional currency notes; to print the face

of, trim, surface-seal, and separate the fifty cent notes; trim,

surface-seal, and number the “funded loan bonds;” to trim, number, and

surface-seal, the national bank notes; and to print the faces upon all

the tints for internal revenue-stamps, already printed in New York.

Besides all this work, the following are entirely engraved and printed

in the Bureau of the Treasury: All strip-tobacco and snuff-stamps, stub

and sheet snuff-stamps, domestic and customs cigar-stamps, compound

liquor-stamps, crew lists ships’ registers, brewers’ permits, all the

new special tax-paid stamps, (sixteen in number,) all miscellaneous

bonds, gold notes, checks, drafts, etc.

When this precious paper, with its black and green lines and tints,

fresh from the Bank Note Companies, arrives at the Treasury, it is

placed into the hands of thirty young ladies for counting, one lady

counting it twice, then passing it to another, for verification.

The next act in the process of making a dollar, is the manufacture of

the plates used in printing. They are made in the engraving division of

the Bureau, under the supervision of Mr. Casilear, a gentleman

distinguished in his profession, who presides over a corps of the finest

engravers in the country. Their work upon the plate of the United States

note, is the engraving of its different parts. First, the face which it

is to bear. This is always noticeably a perfect likeness of the person

whom it represents. A daguerreotype or photograph is used. On the

metallic plate of the daguerreotype the features are drawn lightly, the

artist following accurately the lines of the portrait. If a photograph

is used, gelatine is laid over it, and the picture is traced. From this

outline on the plate, an impression is printed. This impression, by a

chemical process, is transferred to a steel plate covered with wax. The

outlines are then traced on steel, the wax removed, and the face, in

outline, is then on the steel. The shading is then completed.

So many phases of consummate skill are necessary to the completion of a

single dollar note, that “many men of many minds” are required to

perfect a single plate. One has a genius for landscape, another for

portraits, another for animal figures. The portrait is given to one, the

lettering to another, the ornamental work to a third, and on and on.

These fragments of the perfect picture to be, are executed upon separate

bits of soft steel. When the lines on them are completed, these

different bits of soft steel are put into an iron box, case-hardened and

annealed in a crucible of intense heat, then suddenly cooled by dipping

them in oil, which utterly hardens the soft steel. Rolls of soft steel

are then prepared. By the application of a powerful press, the various

pictures and lines, that the artists have engraved, are taken up by the

soft steel rollers from the hard steel plate. The intaglio work appears

on the roll, just as it afterwards appears on the note.

Now, the note-face is in fragments on the surface of the separate rolls.

Next, the rolls are hardened, and placed in a transfer press over a flat

plate of soft steel. Upon this plate, the operator of the press, by

applying the lever, can, if necessary, impose a pressure equal to five

or six tons. This pressure transfers the fragmentary picture to the

plate. Then its counterpart picture is set in exact juxtaposition. The

operator uses his steady hand, and skilled eyes, to set like a mosaic,

each fragment of the complete design. Then moving the roller softly, to

and fro, to equalize the pressure on every part of the picture, he

continues to do so till the plate is hardened. He then passes a soft

roll over it, and the entire note-face is taken up. In turn, this roll

is hardened, and the note-face transferred from it to a soft steel

plate. This final plate, hardened and polished, is the plate from which

the note is at last printed.

After this plate has been used for thirty thousand impressions, its

fading lines are restored by “re-entering” the plate with a roll. It is

then used for thirty thousand impressions more. When finally “used up,”

these plates are destroyed in the presence of a mixed committee of

Treasury officers and members of Congress.

Look closely at the United States notes, the fractional currency bonds,

and the most valuable revenue stamps, and you will see many lines

involved and intricate, running to and fro in the most marvellous

manner. These lines defy imitation. They are the best tantalizer and

detective of the most accurate counterfeiter. The most absolute

imitation, made by hand, can be instantly perceived under a glass. These

involuting lines are the work of the geometric lathe, an instrument

whose complicated wheels can be set to work out any combination of

curved lines which the human mind can possibly conceive. The

counterfeiter, with the same lathe, would be powerless to produce the

same complications—“he would grow gray in endless and useless

experiments, and even with a record of the combination, he could not so

exactly re-produce it, that an expert could not detect the imposition.”

The geometric lathe of the Treasury of the United States, is worked by

Mr. Tichenor, who has been a skilled artist in such machinery for more

than thirty years. There are no more interesting objects in the

Treasury, than the line of clear-eyed men who sit bent over their tasks,

their subtle lines tracing the exquisite vignettes which have made the

engravings of the United States Treasury so famous. Here is one who has

been tracing these lines of beauty for more than forty years: his hair

is white, but his keen, strong sight—drawing harmony, poetry, nature,

and life, out of barest outline—remains undimmed.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE WORKERS IN THE TREASURY—HOW THE MONEY IS MADE.

The Dollar with the Counters—In the Tubs—Getting a Wetting—Servants of

Necessity—That Scorching Roof—Brown Paper Bonnets—Earning their

Daily Dollar—The Work Progressing—In the Press—A State of

Dampness—Squaring Accounts—Calling for a Thousand Sheets—Accounting

for Them—Superintending the Work—The Face-printing Division—The

United States “Sealer”—One Hundred and Thirty-five Presses at

Work—Printing Cigar-Stamps and Gold-Notes of Many Colors—Presses

“Flying”—Quick with Dangerous Motion—With a Begrimed Face—The

“Help-mate” of his Toil—The Fiery Little Brazier—What the Man

Does—The Woman’s Work-The Automatic Register—An Observer Without a

Soul—Our Damp Little Dollar—The Drying Room—The First

Wrinkles—Looking Wizened and Old—Rejuvenating a Dollar—Underneath

Two Hundred and Forty Tons—Smooth and Polished—Precious to the

Touch—A Virgin Dollar—The “Sealer” at Work—Mutilated Paper—What the

Women are Paid—The Surface-Sealing Division—Seal Printing—The

Aristocratic Green Seal—The Numbering Division—Attended Solely by

Women and Girls—Critically Examined—A Lady Charged with

Errors—Securing Adequate Care—Dividing the Dollars—To Start

Alone—Ladies Serene at Work—Snowy Aprons and Delicate

Ribbons—Needling the Sheet—A Blade that Does Not Fail—Sorting the

Notes—The Manipulation of the Ladies—The Dollar “in its Little

Bed”—Dollar on Dollar—“Awaiting the Final Call”—The Mandate of Uncle

Sam—Fourteen Divisions—Making up Accounts—Tracing a Note—A Perfect

System of “Checks”—The Safeguards—The Chief of the Bureau.

O my! that dollar! I left far back, flying through the fair hands (more

or less) of thirty lovely “counters,” to find it here, sopped in the

tubs of the “wetters.”

Long trough-like tubs run down the middle of an attic-room, at whose

sides the roof slopes so low, a child could not stand under it. Even at

its apex, a slender girl beside her tub can scarcely stand upright. At

either side of the long troughs are rowed maids and matrons, some fair

and young, some old and worn, all bearing unmistakably the mark of the

servant of necessity. So near and hot to the brain is the scorching

roof, each woman wears upon her head a covering of brown paper, for

protection. Who will say these lowly servants of the Government do not

earn the scanty pittance of their daily dollar?

In the “wetting division” is received, counted, and “wet down,” all the

paper that is to be plate printed. Here, in different stages of

progression, we see blank sheets wetted for first printing, and sheets

in preparation for second, third, and even fourth printing. The counters

of this division put every twenty sheets in the hands of the wetters,

who place them between cloths and submerge them in the liquid of the

tubs before them. Every one thousand sheets, thus wetted, are placed

between wooden boards, under the pressure of two hundred and fifty

pounds. In these cerements they remain for three or four hours, when

they are taken out, the top sheets made to change places with the middle

ones, that uniform dampness may be secured. The sheets are then laid

again between the weights, to remain till the next morning, when they

are taken out, piled up under damp cloths to wait the call of the

plate-printers. All this systematic saturation is indispensable to the

securing of a fine print impression.

[Illustration: MAKING MONEY.—THE ROOM IN THE TREASURY BUILDING WHERE THE

GREENBACKS ARE PRINTED]

A distinct account is kept with each printer, which must be “all right”

before he goes home. For example, a plate-printer calls at the wetting

division for a thousand sheets. These are given him, and charged at once

on the books of the division. As fast as he prints his work, he sends it

to the office of his printing division, and is credited with all the

work that he has accomplished. At the close of the day, if he has any

sheets left unprinted, he returns them to the wetting division, and is

credited with them as sheets returned. His work performed and work

returned must then be ascertained, and his account strictly balanced,

before he can leave the Treasury.

The wetting division is superintended by Mr. J. H. Lamb, who, with Mr.

Ward Morgan, the head of the face-printing division, Mr. Edgar of the

examining division, and Mr. Evans, the United States Sealer, have all

been chosen to preside over their distinct divisions on account of their

practical experience in plate-printing, gained by personal toil at the

press itself.

Now we come to the Face-printing Room of the troublesome little dollar.

One hundred and thirty-five presses are flying in this room and another;

the latter printing the seals and tints of cigar-stamps, gold-notes,

etc., in hues as varied as the leaves in autumn. Standing in this door,

looking down this long apartment, we see seventy-five presses flying at

once. The air is quick with dangerous motion. Great shuttle-like fans

flap above our heads. At every angle, presses, eager and accurate, seem

ready to strike you, as well as the dollar, with unerring skill and

execution. Beside each one stands a man, with face begrimed. Beside each

man stands a woman, the helpmate of his toil. Between each flames a

fiery little brazier, holding the gleaming plate to keen heat. The face

printer runs his roller, wet with ink over the face of the absorbing

plate. A cloth in his hand comes swiftly after, leaving only the fine

lines of the plate traced with ink. The ready woman lays the moist paper

on the warm ink-lined plate. The printer touches the wheel, turns it,

the sheet flies up. Lo! at last, the beautiful new dollar! The girl

takes it instantly, lays it, face down, on top of its new-born brethren.

Already the roller is passing again over the polished plate, and her

hands are outstretched to lay another sheet upon the waiting plate. In

less than a minute another dollar is made.

An automatic register is connected with each press; thus every sheet,

note, or stamp printed, is recorded, and serves as a check on the

counter and printer. The register is locked, and the key kept with the

keeper of the registers, appointed by the Secretary.

After leaving the press and being heaped a few moments by its side, the

next thing that happens to our damp little dollar, is to be dried. The

moist sheets, spread upon racks, are carried to the drying room until

the next morning. The drying process leaves the sheets with a rough,

wrinkled surface. The little dollar comes forth from its first bed,

looking wizened and old, and is immediately sent to the “pressing

division” to be rejuvenated. Here every thousand sheets, for six

minutes, are subjected to a slow, steady pressure of two hundred and

forty tons, from which every sheet issues smooth, soft, polished, and

precious to the touch, as every soul will say who has been the first

possessor of a virgin dollar.

The pressing division is superintended by Mr. Rallon, the “Nestor” of

the Bureau. Mr. Edgar, superintendent of the examining division,

assisted by thirty young ladies, takes care of the face-printed work.

Mr. Evans, the United States Sealer, examines all the seal and tint

prints. All mutilated, are carried to the counting division before being

sent to the Secretary for destruction. Each printer is allowed a small

percentage for unavoidable mutilation. If at the end of the month his

number of mutilated exceeds this allowance, he is obliged to pay for the

excess. Each printer works by “the piece,” and pays the woman who helps

him—the price being regulated by the Bureau—one dollar per day.

After coming forth from the hydraulic presses, softly polished, every

exquisite line and figure embossed in keen relief, the United States

note sheets pass to the surface-sealing division. The process of

seal-printing is the same as the first, and each sheet has to go through

the same process the second time. Under the superintendence of Mr. Gray,

six “Gordon” and six “Campbell” presses print the beautiful pink

surface-seals. Here the small currencies, the national bank notes, the

new special tax-paid stamps, receive the internal revenue seal. The

“funded loan bond” alone is stamped with the aristocratic green seal.

Having been sealed, the dollar must now be numbered, and for that

purpose passes into the numbering division, where it receives the last

touch of printing from machines attended solely by women and girls. This

machine works on the same principle as the famous paging machine. The

numbers are set on the surface of a small wheel, and with every stroke

of the stamp the next consecutive number flies up into its place; with

the same stroke, a small roller, taking the red ink from the plate and

feeding it to the type. These machines are regulated to change the

numbers for a whole series. Two red numbers on each bill are put on by

these machines. Intense care is necessary in this work, to prevent

mistakes, and each bill is critically examined to ascertain its

correctness. If mistakes are discovered at once, they can be rectified;

but the red ink soon hardens and becomes indelible. If the mistake is

discovered too late to correct it, it is charged to the lady who made

it. This has been found to be the only way to secure adequate care on

the part of the numberers.

The last line of printing is received in the red number set at top and

bottom; all that remains for the dollar, before starting on its journey

into the wide, wide world, is to be divided from its brethren, that it

may start alone. Thus the United States note sheet is carried into the

separating and trimming room. This used to be done by scissors, and gave

to women, I believe, their first work in the Treasury. This room is one

of the largest and busiest in the Bureau, and second only to the

printing-room in interest. The wheels, straps and pulleys reaching to

the ceiling, with which its air is perforated, give it, at first glance,

a complicated atmosphere, till the eyes rest upon the many ladies

sitting serenely at work below.

[Illustration: AMONG THE GREENBACKS.—THE CUTTING AND SEPARATING ROOM IN

THE TREASURY BUILDING.—WASHINGTON]

This work being all clean, and some of it dainty in its character, the

result is visible in the tasteful attire of the workers, whose snowy

aprons and delicate ribbons are in direct contrast to the worn and

soiled raiment of the weary sisterhood of the tubs, and the inky presses

of the wetting and printing divisions. Part of the woman’s work of this

room is to needle the sheets, which must be done so accurately, that

when hundreds together are laid in the cutting machine, the glittering

blade will strike through a single line, not wavering a hair’s width

through two hundred sheets. The room is thronged with those little

guillotines, whose gleaming blades are in constant execution. Each

Treasury note sheet which passes under them is cut into four notes at

once, each sliding down, correctly sorted, into its own little box

waiting below. Excepting the fractional currency cutters, all these

exquisite machines are worked by ladies, who manipulate them with

unerring accuracy.

In this Bureau but one more thing remains for our dollar, that it should

be laid “in its little bed,” before it goes down to the Treasurer. This

is speedily done, and its bed is a very dainty affair,—a pretty box,

made in an adjoining room by pretty hands; and pretty hands lay our

dollar away; indeed dollar on dollar, so many in a box, which shuts them

in—fair, tempting, tantalizing—out of sight, to await the call of the

Treasurer and the mandate of Uncle Samuel.

There are fourteen divisions in the Printing and Engraving Bureau. Yet

it is its unyielding rule that not a sheet of paper can pass from the

hands of one superintendent to his operatives without a verified count

and a written receipt, which is made a permanent record in a book kept

for the purpose. At the close of each day’s labor, the operatives in

every room report to its superintendent, before they leave the building,

how much paper they have received, how much finished, returning the

balance. The superintendent of each room makes a report, on a printed

form, at the end of each day, showing the amount of paper received,

delivered up to the morning, through the day, the amount delivered that

day, the amount on hand. This report is delivered to the Chief of the

Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and a duplicate sent to the Secretary.

From these reports the Secretary compiles his report of the work of the

entire Bureau, which must correspond with the report made by the Chief

of the Bureau.

When any given issue of notes or bonds is completed, the Secretary of

the Treasury holds a report, which is a complete history of the issue

through all its stages of growth, from beginning to end. The test of the

utter thoroughness of this system, is that every note printed in this

department from its beginning, if returned to superintendents, could be

traced, through every stage, back to blank paper; the books showing the

date of its arrival, and by whom it was printed, sealed, numbered,

separated, and delivered to the Treasurer of the United States.

The system of checks used by the Bureau of Printing and Engraving is so

perfect that it is almost impossible for the Government to lose a

fraction from it. The paper is registered at the mills—every sheet

accounted for. Every sheet manufactured is accounted for every day. To

perfect a fraudulent issue, there would have to be a universal collusion

between all the superintendents of all the divisions and all the

operatives, and between the superintendents and operatives. Several high

officers of the Printing Bureau are appointed by the Secretary,

independent of the Chief of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, which

is another security against danger. These are but a part of the

safeguards within which the United States Treasury holds its dollars.

Mr. McCartee, the present Chief of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving

of the United States Treasury, is so utterly the master of the momentous

machinery which he “runs,” that you cannot ask him a question concerning

the labor in detail of his eleven hundred _employés_, that he cannot

answer more perfectly than the person doing the work.

Beside his own practical knowledge of the business committed to his

charge in minutiæ, he employs only men trained from their youth up in

the art of plate engraving, to perform the skilled labor, or to

superintend the divisions of this most important Governmental Bureau.

The responsibilities and mental anxieties of its chief are so

inexorable, that he must be at his post by a little past seven in the

morning, and remain till five P. M. He must return about seven P. M.,

and remain until ten at night. Often the wheels and presses, and patient

hands of this department, go from day to day to be able to meet the

enormous demand of the country upon its resources. No added comment is

necessary to prove how honorable is its lowliest toil, or how

indispensable to its chief are the highest mental and moral qualities.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE LAST DAYS OF A DOLLAR.

The Division of Issues—Ready for the World—Starting Right—Forty

Busy Maids and Matrons—Counting Out the Money—Human Machines—A

Lady Counting for a Dozen Years—Fifty Thousand Notes in a

Day—Counting Four Thousand Notes in Twenty Minutes—Travelling

on Behalf of Uncle Sam—In Need of a Looking-Over—“Detailed”

for the Work—What has Passed Through _Some_ Fingers—Big

Figures—Packing Away the Dollars—The Cash Division—The Marble

Cash-Room—The Great Iron Vault—Where Uncle Sam Keeps His

Money—Some Nice Little Packages—Taking it Coolly—One Hundred

Millions of Dollars in Hand—Some Little White Bags—The Gold

Taken from the Banks of Richmond—Anxious to Get Their Money

Back—A Little Difficulty—Not yet “Charged”—A Distinction

without a Difference—Charming Variety—A Nice Little Hoard—Five

Hundred Millions Stored Away—The Secret of the Locks—The

Hydraulic Elevator—Sending the Money off—How the Money is

Transported—Begrimed, Demoralized, and Despoiled—Where is our

Pretty Dollar?—The Redemption Division—Counting Mutilated

Currency—Women at Work—Sorting Old Greenbacks—Three Hundred

Counterfeit Dollars Daily—Detecting Bad Notes—“Short,” “Over,”

and “Counterfeit”—Difficulty of Counterfeiting Fresh

Notes—Vast Amounts Sent for Redemption—Thirty-one Million

Dollars in One Year—The Assistant Treasurer at New York—The

Cancelling Room—The Counter’s Report—The Bundle in a

Box—Awkward Responsibility—“Punching” Old Dollars—They are

Chopped in Two—Paying for Mistakes—The Funeral of the

Dollar—The Burning, Fiery Furnace—“The Burning Committee”—What

They Burn Every Other Day—The End of the Dollar.

Following our dollar, we come this soft summer morning to the Division

of Issues. It is in the Treasurer’s Bureau, and here, crisp, new and

ready for its adventures, our dollar has arrived. The fate that may

await it out in the world, the wildest fancy cannot foretell; but before

it starts on its long pilgrimage, it must be again manipulated by fair

fingers, to see that it starts “all right.”

We enter a long, light, airy room; and here at a table sit forty or more

maids and matrons, counting the new notes. Pretty maidens! Pretty

dollars! Our dollar among the rest. Crinkling, fluttering, flying, the

dollars! Serene, silent, swift, the maidens! That anything can be

counted so rapidly and yet so accurately, defies belief. It is the

marvel of this counting, that it is as infallible as it is flying. The

fingers of forty women play the part of perfected machinery, the

numbered notes passing through them with the celerity and regularity of

automatic action.

This perfection of mathematical movement is acquired only by long

practice and by one order of intellect. There are persons who can never

acquire this unerring accuracy of mind and motion combined. There is a

lady sitting here who has been in this division since it was organized,

in 1862, who can, upon demand, count fifty thousand notes in one day. As

the department hours of work are from nine to three o’clock, and half an

hour is taken at noon for lunch, these fifty thousand notes must all be

counted in the space of five and a half hours. This is at a rate of nine

thousand and ninety notes each hour, one hundred and fifty each minute

and two and a half each second. The same lady will count four thousand

legal tender notes in twenty minutes. These lady counters, with a number

of their sister peers from the Redemption Division, perform numerous

journeys for Uncle Samuel whenever the Treasury Offices in other cities

need a “looking over.” At such times they are “detailed” to go and count

the Government funds there.

Through the fingers of these ladies has passed every note—legal tender

or fractional—which has been issued by the United States since the

beginning of the war of the rebellion. Every note, ever touched or seen,

with all the gold-notes and the millions of imperfect bonds and notes

never put in circulation—every one has passed through these same deft

fingers. The total value of this vast amount, up to July, 1872, was

about two thousand nine hundred million dollars, more than two hundred

and twenty-three millions of which was in postal and fractional

currency.

As soon as the new money is counted, it is again put away—the legal

tenders in strong paper wrappers, the fractional currency in paper

boxes. All are sealed, put on a hand-cart, and rolled off to the vaults

of the cash division, whither we still, you and I, pursue our little

dollar.

Passing through the cashier’s office and the superb Marble Cash-room (to

which we will soon return), at the opposite end we reach one almost

exclusively occupied by the iron vault of the United States Treasury.

The double iron doors swing slowly back, and we stand in the money vault

of the nation. It looks light and airy as a china-closet. The sealed

packages, lining the shelves to the ceiling, are full of money. I hold a

small package in my hand of crisp, stamped paper, tied with common

twine, and “take it coolly” when the keeper of these coffers tells me

that the string ties in one hundred millions of dollars. It doesn’t seem

much!

On the shelf of a cosy closet are piled some little white bags which

have done a deal of travelling. They hold the gold captured from

Jefferson Davis’s fleeing trains, taken from the banks of Richmond. You

know the banks of Richmond have been very anxious to get their money

back, and have sent numerous messengers after it. A small obstacle, in

the shape of a fact, separates them from the object of their desire.

This gold was rifled from the mint in New Orleans, and before it came to

the banks of Richmond belonged to the Treasury of the United States.

In this vault is packed away all the money not needed for circulation. A

large portion of the money which lines these shelves has never been

charged to the Treasurer on the books of the department, therefore,

technically, is not yet money, although all ready for use. Every kind of

note which the ingenuity of Uncle Sam and his servants ever devised, is

here packed and guarded. The compartments of the safe not affording

sufficient space, the floor is piled—and as carelessly, apparently, as

if with potato or apple bags; but not in fact. The value of every bag

and package is known, and not one cent could be taken without being

swiftly discovered and pursued. Piles on piles of little bags and

packages! this is all, and yet they hold five hundred millions of

dollars. Little bags and packages these are, all, and yet for them men

toil, struggle, sin—sell their bodies and their souls!

On each of the doors of this iron vault are two burglar-proof locks, of

the most complicated construction, each on a combination different from

the rest. But two or three persons know these combinations, and no

person knows the combination to the locks on both doors. Thus it is

impossible that they should be fraudulently opened, save by collusion

between two persons who know the combination. This is but one of the

safeguards which the Government sets about its treasures.

A few paces from the door of this vault is the elevator communicating

with the room of the agent of Adams’ Express Company, on the basement

floor below. The motive power of this elevator is Potomac-water, from

the water-mains. Two iron pistons, about eight inches in diameter,

attached to the elevator platform, one on each side, move smoothly up

and down in perpendicular iron cylinders. A turn of the handle admits

the water into the cylinder beneath the pistons, which are forced up by

the pressure, and with them the elevator. A reverse movement of the

handle allows the water to escape from the cylinders, and the elevator

descends. Its movements are noiseless, and it is managed with remarkable

ease. Up and down, this servant, swift and silent, bears the moneys of

the people. It is just descending, piled high with packages, some

directed to banks, railroad and manufacturing companies. Others are

addressed to assistant treasurers and depositors of the United States.

Much is going to replace the old money already sent back to the Treasury

for destruction. All will be carried away, as it was brought in its

neophite state, by Adams’ Express Company, which is bound by contract to

transact all the vast money transportation business of the Government.

This contract confers mutual advantage, both on the Company and the

Government. To the latter, because it obtains transportation at a much

lower rate than it could otherwise do, paying but twenty-five cents for

each thousand dollars transported; while, at even this per cent., the

Company can grow rich on the monopoly of the vast money transportation

business of the Government of the United States.

* * * * *

Alas! for our dollar that went forth from the paternal door—as many

another child has done—unsullied, only to return at a later day from its

contact with the world, begrimed, demoralized, despoiled. Where is our

pretty dollar, fresh and pure? Every delicate line defaced, tattered,

filthy, worn out—this wretched little rag, surely, cannot be it! And yet

it is. This is what the world’s hard hand has made our dollar.

We have reached the Redemption Division of the Treasurer’s Bureau, and

stand in one of the rooms devoted to the counting of mutilated currency

and the detection of counterfeits. This difficult and responsible labor

of the public service is performed solely by women.

In the long rooms on either side of the marble hall, on the north ground

floor of the Treasury Building, may be seen one hundred and fifty women,

whose deft and delicate fingers are ceaselessly busy detecting

counterfeits, identifying, restoring, counting and registering worn-out

currency which has come home to be “redeemed.” Each lady sits at a table

by herself, that the money committed to her may not become mixed with

that to be counted by any other person.

The fractional currency sent to the Treasury for redemption is usually

assorted by denominations only. The work of assorting by issues remains

to be done by the counters of the Treasury. As there are four distinct

issues of most of the denominations, each of which must be assorted by

itself, this labor alone is a vast one to the counters. Looking on their

tables we see them heaped with little piles of currency, each made of a

denomination or issue different from the rest. Thus every new issue

increases the labor of currency-redemption. With clear eyes and patient

hand, the lady bending over this table takes up slowly every bill and

scrutinizes it, first, to see if it be genuine. Over three hundred

dollars in counterfeit notes are found in the fractional currency,

daily. This fact alone is sufficient to make the counting of the

Redemption Division far less rapid than that of the Division of Issues.

The first thing that a lady at a redemption table does with her money

packages is, to compare their number with the inventory which

accompanies them. If there is none, she makes one. If there is a

discrepancy between the packages and the number claimed, she refers to a

clerk, that there may be no mistake. She then proceeds to the

examination of a single package. After she has placed all the rest in a

box, so that no strap or stray scrip from another bundle may mix with

the first; when she has scrutinized and counted every note in the

package, she puts the strap on again, marking it with her initials, the

date, the amount, the “shorts,” “overs,” and “counterfeits.” Thus she

continues till every package has been counted. She then proceeds to

assort the notes into packages, each containing one hundred notes, each

of the same denomination and issue, which she binds with a “brand new”

printed strap again, marked with her initials and date. All the notes

over even hundreds she places by themselves. These in turn are given to

distinct counters, whose sole business it is to make even hundreds out

of these odd numbers.

The first counter then enters in a book, having a blank form for the

purpose, printed in duplicate on one side of each leaf, a statement of

the result of her count, containing the net amount found due to the

owner, the aggregate of the “shorts,” the “overs,” the “counterfeits”

discovered and the amount claimed. One of these duplicates is retained

in the book as her voucher; the other is attached to the letter which

accompanied the money; all together are handed to the clerk, who draws

the check which is to be sent in return; or, if new currency is to be

sent from the cash division, the clerk writes the order on which it is

to be forwarded.

This is the story of but one package of mutilated money of the tens of

thousands that are received at the Treasury every day. The Government

has provided the most munificent facilities for the redemption of its

currency and the maintenance of its credit in circulation. To what an

extent the nation avails itself of these facilities no one can realize

who has never visited the Treasury. Regular transportation, at the

expense of the Government, is provided by express for the redemption of

all currency. Everything demanded of its holders is, that they should

send it in proper amounts; then its transportation is paid, and new

currency sent back in its stead. This liberality in the Government is

partly accounted for in the fact that fresh notes are a prevention of

counterfeits. A fresh, new note cannot be counterfeited. Its exquisite

tints and lines cannot be reproduced by any false hand. Only after its

beauty has been obscured is the attempt made. Thus it is said that

counterfeiters “soil and rumple their spurious notes, to give them the

appearance of having been in circulation a long time.” Thus many banks

never sort over or pay out any fractional currency which they receive,

but put it into packages and send it to the Treasury at the close of

each day’s business, so that nothing but clean notes are ever paid over

their counters. By doing this they are saved the immense labor of

reassorting old notes, and afford their applicants the happiness of

always receiving new ones.

Only the room in which the express messengers deliver their remittances

can give any idea of the vast amounts sent daily to the Treasury for

redemption. Here we find counters, tables, and the floor piled high with

damaged money from every State in the Union. Two and three hundred

packages are often received by express in a single day. The greater part

of these contain postage and fractional currency. The Assistant

Treasurer of New York forwards a remittance of fractional currency every

ten or twelve days, never less than one hundred thousand dollars, and

the amounts sent from other treasury officers are proportionately large.

Over thirty-one million dollars in fractional currency were received and

counted during the last fiscal year—about one hundred thousand dollars

for each working day. Every note in this large sum has to be counted,

studied, assorted with all others of the same denomination and issue;

strapped, labelled, reported, delivered—all done by women.

The last room to which the counter carries our dollar is the cancelling

room. She has just reported to the chief of the Redemption Division the

result of her count, in the following duplicate report on the broad

paper strap which binds her bundle of soiled notes:

AMOUNT, $5,000.00

_From Fiftieth National Bank, New York City._

Received July 9, 1873, by MARY JONES.

══════════════════════════╤══════════════════════════════════

Legal, $4,000.00│Counterfeit, $20.00

Full Currency, 900.00│Discount, 5.00

Odds, 40.00│Rejected, 5.00

Discounted, 20.00│Short by Inventory, 15.00 ———

————│Short by Strap, $45.00

$4,960.00│Over by Strap, 5.00

│ ———

│Net Short, $40.00

══════════════════════════╧══════════════════════════════════

The $4,960 is immediately sent to the bank in any denomination of new

notes requested, or if no such request has been made, it is sent in

exactly the denominations received. And now our lady-counter proceeds to

attend the cancelling of the notes which she has counted, and which the

Treasury has already redeemed. A messenger carries her precious bundle

in a box, but she must keep messenger, box, and bundle in sight; for,

from the moment that she receives it, till she places it in the last

cash-account clerk’s hands, she is personally responsible for its

contents. If, by any possibility, it could be spirited away, she would

be obliged to pay for every ragged dollar out of her little stipend.

This is a bustling sight. Messengers, each with a counter, are rushing

in and out with their boxes full of strapped and labelled currency.

Round a large table crowd many fair women, while every instant “thud!

thud!” strike the precious packages. Each in turn is taken up by the

canceller and set between the teeth of Uncle Sam’s cancelling machine.

This is fashioned out of two heavy horizontal steel bars, five feet in

length, working on pivots. To the shorter end of each is attached a

punch, while the other is connected by a lever with a crank, in the

sub-basement below, which is propelled by a turbine water-wheel

furnished with Potomac-water from one of the pipes of the building.

Under its grinding “punch” our poor little dollar goes, and with it a

hundred dollars beside. With a savage accuracy it stabs two holes

through every one. This is done for the purpose of absolute

cancellation. Then each bundle is returned to its box, the messenger

picks it up, the counter follows, and both hasten to the cash-account

clerk of the division, whose business it is to see if all the money

received and delivered to the counters, has been returned and accounted

for. Not until she sees her box of cancelled notes safe in the hands of

this clerk, does the counter’s personal responsibility end.

Near the punches in the cancelling room is a ferocious-looking knife,

set in an axle, which is consecrated to the purpose of cutting the

cancelled bundles in two, through the middle of each note. These are

made into packages of one hundred thousand dollars of fractional

currency, and larger sums of legal tender notes; and are sent back to

this office to be cut asunder by this knife. The duplicate paper and

strap which our fair counter bound about this bundle, is so printed as

to show, upon each half, the denomination, issue and amount of the notes

enclosed. The counter’s initials and the date of counting are also

recorded at each end, as well as a number or letter to identify the

bundle. These sundered notes are now sent, one-half to counters in the

Secretary’s office, the other half to counters in the Registrar’s

office, where every little wretched rag is re-counted. This is done as a

check on the Treasurer’s counters, and to secure absolute accuracy. If

these second counters discover a “short” or a “counterfeit” passed over

by the first fair fingers, the full amount is taken out of the wages of

the counter whose initials the tell-tale package bears.

[Illustration:

BURNT TO ASHES.—THE END OF UNCLE SAM’S GREENBACKS.

The above is a graphic sketch of the destruction of the worn and

defaced currency constantly being redeemed by the Government, which

is here burned every day at 12 o’clock. On one occasion considerably

more than one hundred million dollars’ worth of bonds and greenbacks

were destroyed in this furnace, and the burning of from fifty to

seventy-five millions at a time is a matter of ordinary occurrence.

]

The Treasury mills grind slowly; but in the slow fullness of time the

separate “counts” of three offices—the Treasurer’s, the Register’s, the

Secretary’s—are finally reconciled. The integrity of the Government,

throughout the whole existence of its minutest fraction, has been

maintained and demonstrated. In the process there is not much left of

our poor little dollar, and nothing left for us but to go to its

funeral. Like most of us, it has had rather a hard time in this world of

ours. Where has it not lived—from a palace to “a pig’s stomach;” and

what has it not endured—from the scarlet rash to the small-pox—and to

think that nothing remains for it now but to be burned! Only through

purgatorial flame can it be fully and finally “redeemed.”

About a quarter of a mile from the Treasury Department, in what is

called “White Lot,” stands the furnace which is to consume our dollar.

The furnace, and the building in which it stands, was built expressly

for this purpose for the sum of ten thousand dollars. The furnace is ten

feet high, seven in diameter, circular and open at the top. With it is

connected an air-blower, which is attached to an engine, the steam for

which comes from a boiler some twenty rods distant. On the ground about

lie piles of cinders—the metallic ashes of extinct dollars, compounded

of pins, sulphur, printer’s ink and dirt.

To this furnace, filled with shavings in advance, every other day comes

“The Burning Committee,” bearing the boxes of doomed dollars, sealed

finally in the Register’s and Secretary’s Bureaus. This Committee is

formed of a person from each of these Bureaus, with a fourth not

connected with the Departments. In their presence the final seals are

broken—the complicated locks of the furnace opened. Then the packages

are thrown into the flames, each “lot” being called and checked by the

Committee, the amount averaging about one million five hundred thousand

dollars every other day. At the same hour about one hundred thousand

dollars in national bank notes are burned at another and smaller

furnace. Beside cancelled money, internal revenue and postage stamps,

checks and defective new money are all consumed in this furnace.

Here the three official delegates, with a few spectators, stand to

witness the sight. Worn out, used up, gone by—all pass into the furnace,

our dollar with the rest. The furnace is locked, by official hands, with

nine distinct locks. A match is set to the shavings; the smoke of the

sacrifice begins to ascend—the Committee depart. The fire and the money

are left alone together for the next twenty-four hours. To-morrow a

smutty aerolite, smothered in ashes, will be the significant “finis” of

the story of our dollar. It has had its day!

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE GREAT CASH-ROOM—THE WATCH-DOG OF THE TREASURY.

No Need for Dirty Money—The Flowers of July—Money Affairs—The Great

Cash-Room—Its Marble Glories—A Glance Inside—The Beautiful Walls—A

Good Deal of Very Bad Taste—Only Made of Plaster—The Clerks of the

Cash-Room—New Money for Old—The National Treasury—“The Watch-Dog” of

the Treasury—The Custodian of the Cash—A Broken-nosed Pitcher—Ink

for the Autographs—His Ancient Chair—“The General”—“Crooked,

Crotchety and Great-hearted”—“Principles” and Pantaloons—Below the

Surface—An Unpaintable Face—An Object of Personal Curiosity—Dick and

Dolly pay the General a Visit—How the Thing is Done—“Pretty

Thoroughly Wrought Up”—A Couple without any Claims—Gratified in the

Very Jolliest Fashion—Getting his Autograph—A Specimen for the Folks

at Home—Realizing a Responsibility—Where the Treasurer Sleeps—Going

the Round at Night—Making Assurance Sure—Awakened by a Strong

Impression—Sleepless—In the “Small Hours”—Finding the Door Open—A

Careless Clerk—The Care of Eight Hundred Millions—On the Alert—The

Secretary’s Room—Three at the Table—Doings and Duties—The Labors of

the Secretary and Comptrollers—The Auditors—The Solicitor’s

Office—The Light-House Board—The Coast Survey—Internal Revenue

Department.

Nobody need ever carry a smutty bit of money in Washington. Lay down the

worst looking fraction you ever saw, upon the marble counter of the

Cash-Room, and a virgin piece, without blemish, will be given you in its

stead. Do you wish ten unsoiled “ones” for that ragged “ten” of yours?

Take it to the Cash-Room, and the desire of your heart will be granted

in a moment.

To do this you turn out of Pennsylvania avenue towards the north front

of the Treasury. On either side, spread away broad beds of flowers. In

April, their hyacinths sent great drifts of fragrance, blocks away; in

May, it was one great garden of roses, and now it has burst into a

passion of bloom, a very carnival of color—the burning scarlet of the

geraniums mocking the dazzling azure of the sky. On either side run

these lavish hues. Before you, cooling the marble court beneath your

feet, the great fountain tosses its spray. Toward you stretches the long

restful shadow of the northern portico, inviting you to enter in.

[Illustration:

THE NEW MARBLE CASH ROOM, UNITED STATES TREASURY.—WASHINGTON.

The most costly and magnificent room of its kind in the world.

]

If your visit means “money,” as it may, you pass directly through the

portico to the Cash-Room, into which it opens. No other room in the

world as magnificent is devoted to such a purpose. It is seventy-two

feet long, thirty-two feet wide, and twenty-seven feet six inches high.

Exclusive of the upper cornice, the walls are built entirely of marble.

Seven varieties meet and merge into each other, to make the harmony of

its blended hues. From the main floor it rises through two stories of

the building. Thus it has upper and lower windows, between which a

narrow bronze gallery runs, encircling the entire room. The base of the

stylobate of the first story is black Vermont marble, the mouldings are

Bardiglio Italian, the styles dove Vermont marble, the panels Sienna

Italian, and the dies Tennessee. Above the stylobate, the styles are of

Sienna marble. With these are contrasted the pale primrose tints of the

Corinthian pilasters and a cornice of white-veined Italian marble.

Opposite the windows, and in corresponding positions at the ends of the

rooms, are panels of the dark-veined Bardiglio Italian marble, the exact

size of the windows. The stylobate and the styles and pilasters of the

second story show the same tints and variety of marbles which mark the

first. But the panels are of Sarran Golum marble, from the Pyrenees. The

latter is one of the rarest of marbles; at a distance, of a blood-red

hue. Upon nearer inspection, it reveals undreamed-of beauties in veining

and tint.

The pilasters of the second story are not like those of the first story,

pure—but complex. They support a cornice, not of wrought marble, as all

the remainder of the room would promise, but of plaster of Paris,

fantastically wrought and profusely gilded. This cornice is another blot

of that meretricious ornamentation which in so many noble spaces

disfigures the Capitol.

Extending the length of the room is a costly counter, of various

marbles, surmounted by a balustrade of mahogany and plate-glass. Within

this are busy the clerks of the Cash-Room, and over this marble counter

you, as one of its many proprietors, may receive, for the asking, ten

“ones” for one “ten”—new money for old.

From this superb room of the people we pass to that of the

Treasurer,—“the watch-dog of the Treasury,”—the man who holds and guards

the untold millions of the nation. It is a plain room, very. No thought

of luxury, it is easy to see, has touched an article of its furniture,

from his well-worn chair to the broken-nosed pitcher which holds the

General’s ink; that ink, thick as mud and black as Egyptian night, out

of which he constructs these marvellous hieroglyphics, which, on our

legal-tender notes, has become one of the most baffling studies of the

nation.

“The General!” That’s his name, from the roof to the cellar of the vast

Treasury; crooked, crotchety, great-hearted; nobody swears so loud, or

is so generous, or just, as “the General.” Every afflicted soul, from

the women, poor and old, who stand by the printing-presses under the

scorching roof, to Mary Walker, whose devotion to “her principles,” in

the form of a pair of hideous little pantaloons, causes her justly to

shed tubs of tears,—all are sure of a hearing, and of redress, if

possible, from “the General.” His face is as astonishing as his

signature. It is a Lincolnian face in this, that its best expression can

never be transferred to a picture. In life it is rugged, ugly at first

glance, genial at the second. The eyes twinkle with humor and kindness;

the wide mouth shuts tight with wilfulness and determination; the whole

expression and presence of the man indicate energy, honesty, and power.

General Spinner is an object of personal curiosity to all sight-seers

who visit Washington. Dick and Dolly having puzzled their eyes for an

hour, studying some fresh legal tender note, to discover by what process

of evolution and convolution the remarkable signature which it bears is

fashioned, when they came to the Capital, proceeded to the Treasury to

see, not only the man who makes it, but how he makes it. Bluff, and even

snappish at first approach, after a little wilful snarling, our General

subsides into the most amiable of mastiffs. He is an exception to the

official class, in his hate of exclusiveness and his never-failing

accessibility. Indeed, he would have far less to irritate him, if he

made himself more unapproachable and remote. As it is, all sorts of

tormenting people, finding it perfectly easy to “get at him,” do not

neglect the privilege, and altogether keep him pretty thoroughly

“wrought up” with their never-ending and perpetually conflicting woes.

Dicky and Dolly, fresh from their farm, who ask for no “place” in any

“division” whatever, who have no alert grievance grumbling for redress,

who wish for nothing but, “Please, sir, _will_ you just show us _how_

you make it—that queer name?” are sure to be gratified in the very

jolliest fashion. The General stabs the old pen with three points down

into the pudding-like ink which sticks to the bottom of the broken-nosed

pitcher, and proceeds to pile it up in ridiculous little heaps at cross

angles on a bit of paper. The result of his “piling,” which Dick and

Dolly watch with breathless interest, is his signature, which our happy

friends bear off in triumph to show to the “folks at home.” “Yes, sir,

the autograph of the Treasurer of the United States! and we saw him make

it, we did! A queer lookin’ man, but good as pie, I can tell you; has a

feelin’ for folks, as if he wasn’t no better than them, if he does take

care of all the money of the United States Treasury, which, I tell you,

is a heap!”

The taking care of this money is a mighty responsibility, which General

Spinner realizes to the utmost. From his small room in the Treasury, a

door opens into a still smaller one. In this little room, beneath the

mighty roof of the Treasury, the keeper of its millions sleeps. Before

he essays to do this, twice every night the guardian of the people’s

treasure goes himself to the money vault, and, with his own hand upon

their handles, assures himself beyond doubt that the nation’s money

safes are inviolably locked.

In order that he may do this every night before he attempts to sleep,

and that he may never be beyond call in case of accident or wrong doing,

the Treasurer of the United States absolutely lives, by day and by

night, in the Treasury. It is told of him that, “Once, before he began

sleeping in the Treasury, he was awakened in the night by a strong

impression that something was wrong at the Department. He lay for a long

time, tossing uneasily upon his bed, and trying to close his eyes and

convince himself that it was a mere freak of an over-taxed brain; but it

would not be driven away. At last, about two o’clock in the morning, in

order to assure himself that his impression was at fault, he arose,

hastily dressed, and set out for the Treasury. On his way he met a

watchman from the Department, hastening to arouse him, with the

information that the door of one of the vaults had just been found

standing wide open. A careless clerk, whose duty it was to close and

lock the door, had failed to perform his duty that night, and the

watchman, on going his rounds, had discovered the neglect.”

Since that night the Treasurer has slept in the Treasury, and been

night-inspector of its doors and locks himself.

It is not difficult to appreciate his personal anxiety and consciousness

of vast responsibility, when we remember that he is the hourly keeper of

at least eight hundred million dollars which belong to the nation. There

are very few officers of the Government who are called to bring to bear

upon their daily duties the ceaseless vigilance, the sacrifice of

personal ease and comfort in the service of the State, which

characterizes the honest, tireless, invincible “watch-dog of the

Treasury.”

The room of the Secretary of the Treasury, in the Treasury building, has

its outlook on the eastern side and grounds of the Executive Mansion. A

wonderful fountain throws its million jets into the air at the foot of

the great portico below, and another tosses its spray amid the green

knolls opposite the President’s windows. These grounds, swelling

everywhere into gentle hills, covered with mossy turf, filled with

winding walks, and brightened with _parterres_ of flowers in summer

months, are enchanting in their beauty.

Thus, you see, the Secretary’s windows quite turn their backs on the

noisy avenue. Their outlook is most serene. So is the aspect and

atmosphere of the room. It is a nun of a room, folded in soft grays,

with here and there a touch of blue and gold. The velvet carpet is gray;

the furniture, oiled black walnut, upholstered with blue cloth, each

chair and sofa bearing “U. S.” in a medallion on its back, while the

carved window-cornices each hold in their centres the gilded scales of

justice above the key of the Treasury. A full-length mirror is placed

between these windows. On one side of the room is a book-case, in which

the works of Webster, Calhoun, Washington, and Jefferson, are

conspicuous. The walls are frescoed in neutral tints, and the only

pictures on them are chromo portraits of Lincoln and Grant.

In the centre of this room, at a cloth-covered table, sits the Secretary

of the Treasury and his assistants, besides, usually, a third dejected

mortal, on the “anxious seat” of expectancy for an office.

The Secretary’s office is charged with the general supervision of the

fiscal transactions of the Government, and of the execution of the laws

concerning the commerce and navigation of the United States. He

superintends the survey of the coast, the light-house establishment, the

marine hospitals of the United States, and the construction of certain

public buildings for custom-houses and other purposes.

The First Comptroller’s office prescribes the mode of keeping and

rendering accounts for the civil and diplomatic service, as well as the

public lands, and revises and certifies the balances arising thereon.

The Second Comptroller’s office prescribes the mode of keeping and

rendering the accounts of the army, navy, and Indian departments of the

public service, and revises and certifies the balances arising thereon.

The office of Commissioner of Customs prescribes the mode of keeping and

rendering the accounts of the customs revenue and disbursements, and for

the building and repairing custom-houses, etc., and revises and

certifies the balances arising thereon.

The First Auditor’s office receives and adjusts the accounts of the

customs revenue and disbursements, appropriations and expenditures on

account of the civil list and under private acts of Congress, and

reports the balances to the Commissioner of the Customs and the First

Comptroller, respectively, for their decision thereon.

The Second Auditor’s office receives and adjusts all accounts relating

to the pay, clothing and recruiting of the army, as well as armories,

arsenals, and ordnance, and all accounts relating to the Indian Bureau,

and reports the balances to the Second Comptroller for his decision

thereon.

The Third Auditor’s office adjusts all accounts for subsistence of the

army, fortifications, military academy, military roads, and the

quarter-master’s department, as well as for pensions, claims arising

from military services previous to 1816, and for horses and other

property lost in the military service, under various acts of Congress,

and reports the balances to the Second Comptroller for his decision

thereon.

The Fourth Auditor’s office adjusts all accounts for the service of the

Navy Department, and reports the balances to the Second Comptroller for

his decision thereon.

The Fifth Auditor’s office adjusts all accounts for diplomatic and

similar services, performed under the direction of the State Department,

and reports the balances to the First Comptroller for his decision

thereon.

The Sixth Auditor’s office adjusts all accounts arising from the service

of the Post-office Department. His decisions are final, unless an appeal

be taken within twelve months to the First Comptroller. He superintends

the collection of all debts due the Post-office Department, and all

penalties and forfeitures imposed on postmasters and mail contractors

for failing to do their duty; he directs suits and legal proceedings,

civil and criminal, and takes all such measures as may be authorized by

law to enforce the prompt payment of moneys due to the department,

instructing United States attorneys, marshals, and clerks, on all

matters relating thereto, and receives returns from each term of the

United States courts of the condition and progress of such suits and

legal proceedings; has charge of all lands and other property assigned

to the United States in payment of debts due the Post-office Department,

and has power to sell and dispose of the same for the benefit of the

United States.

The Treasurer’s office receives and keeps the moneys of the United

States in his own office, and that of the depositories created by the

Act of August 6th, 1846, and pays out the same upon warrants drawn by

the Secretary of the Treasury, countersigned by the First Comptroller,

and upon warrants drawn by the Postmaster-General and countersigned by

the Sixth Auditor, and recorded by the Register. He also holds public

moneys advanced by warrant to disbursing officers, and pays out the same

upon their checks.

The Registrar’s office keeps the accounts of public receipts and

expenditures, receives the returns and makes out the official statement

of commerce and navigation of the United States, and receives from the

First Comptroller and Commissioner of Customs all accounts and vouchers

decided by them, and is charged by law with their safe keeping.

The Solicitor’s office superintends all civil suits commenced by the

United States (except those arising in the post-office department), and

instructs the United States attorneys, marshals and clerks in all

matters relating to them and their results. He receives returns from

each term of the United States courts, showing the progress and

condition of such suits; has charge of all lands and other property

assigned to the United States in payment of debts (except those assigned

in payment of debts due the post-office department), and has power to

sell and dispose of the same for the benefit of the United States.

The Light-House Board, of which the Secretary of the Treasury is

_ex-officio_ president, but in the deliberations of which he has the

assistance of naval, military and scientific coadjutors.

United States Coast Survey. The Superintendent, with numerous

assistants, employed in the office and upon the survey of the coast, are

under the control of this department. A statement of their duties will

be found in a future chapter.

The new rooms of the Internal Revenue Department are very beautiful.

They run the entire length of the new wing of the Treasury, looking out

on the magnificent marble court, with its central fountain below, the

north entrance, the Presidential grounds and Pennsylvania avenue. They

are covered with miles of Brussels carpeting, in green and gold. Their

walls are set with elegant mirrors, hung with maps and pictures. There

are globes, cases filled with books, cushioned furniture—all the

accompaniments of elegant apartments, and one opening into the other,

forming a perfect _suite_.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

WOMAN’S WORK IN THE DEPARTMENTS—WHAT THEY

DO AND HOW THEY DO IT.

Women Experts in the Treasury—General Spinner’s Opinion—A Woman’s

Logic—The Gifts of Women—Their Superiority to Men—Money Burnt in the

Chicago Fire—Cases of Valuable Rubbish—Identifying Burnt

Greenbacks—The Treasure Saved—The Ashes of the Boston Fire—From the

Bottom of the Mississippi—Mrs. Patterson Saves a “Pile” of

Money—Money in the Toes of Stockings—In the Stomachs of Men and

Beasts—From the Bodies of the Murdered and Drowned—Not Fairly

Paid—One Hundred and Eighty Women at Work—“The Broom

Brigade”—Scrubbing the Floors—The Soldier’s Widow—Stories which

Might be Told—Meditating Suicide—The Struggle of Life—How a Thousand

Women are Employed—Speaking of Their Characters—The Ill-paid

Servants of the Country—Chief-Justice Taney’s Daughters—Colonel

Albert Johnson’s Daughter—A Place Where Men are Not Employed—Writing

“for the Press”—Miss Grundy of New York—The Internal Revenue

Bureau—“Marvels of Mechanical Beauty”—Women of Business Capacity—A

Lady as Big as Two Books!—In a Man’s Place—A Disgrace to the

Nation—Working for Two, Paid for One—How “Retrenchment” is Carried

Out—In the Departments—Beaten by a Woman—The Post Office

Department—Folding “Dead Letters”—A Woman who has Worked

Well—“Sorrow Does Not Kill”—The Patent Office—The Agricultural

Department—Changes Which Should be Made.

In several branches of the Treasury service, women have risen to the

proficiency of experts. This is especially true of them as rapid and

accurate counters, as restorers of mutilated currency and as counterfeit

detectors.

General Spinner says: “A man will examine a note systematically and

deduce logically, from the imperfect engraving, blurred vignette or

indistinct signature, that it is counterfeit, and be wrong four cases

out of ten. A woman picks up a note, looks at it in a desultory fashion

of her own, and says: ‘That’s counterfeit.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because it is,’ she

answers promptly, and she is right eleven cases out of twelve.” Yet this

almost unerring accuracy is by no means the result of mere instinct, or

of hap-hazard chance. It is the sequence of subtle perception, of fine,

keen vision, and of exquisite sensitiveness of touch.

All women do not excel as counterfeit-detectors; nor can all become

experts as restorers and counters of currency. But wherever a woman

possesses native quickness, combined with power of concentration, with

training and experience, she in time commands an absolute skill in her

work, which, it has been proved, it is impossible for men to attain. Her

very fineness of touch, swiftness of movement, and subtlety of sight

give her this advantage. Thus when notes are defaced or charred beyond

ordinary recognition, they are placed in the hands of women for

identification.

After the great Chicago fire in 1871, cases of money to the value of one

hundred and sixty-four thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven dollars

and ninety-eight cents, were sent to the United States Treasury for

identification. They consisted of legal tenders, National State bank and

fractional notes, bonds, certificates and coupons, internal revenue and

postage stamps, all so shrivelled and burned, that they crumbled to the

touch and defied unaided eyesight. All these charred treasures were

placed in the hands of a committee of six ladies, for identification.

What patience, practice, skill, were indispensable to the fulfilment of

this task, it is not difficult to conjecture.

“After unpacking the money from the raw cotton in which it travelled, as

jealously swathed as the most precious jewellery, the ladies separated

each small piece with thin knives made for the purpose, then laying the

blackened fragments on sheets of blotting-paper, they decided by close

scrutiny the value, genuineness and nature of the note. Magnifying

glasses were provided, but seldom used, except for the deciphering of

coupon-numbers or other minute details. The pieces were then pasted on

thin paper, the bank-notes returned to their respective banks, and the

United States money put in sealed envelopes and delivered to a committee

of four, who superintended the final burning. The amount of one million,

two hundred and twenty-six thousand, three hundred and forty-one dollars

and thirty-three cents was identified—over seventy-six per cent. of the

whole.”

A year later, Boston, from the ruins of its great fire, gathered the

ashes of its money and sent it to the United States Treasury, begging

identification and aid in restoration. Eighty-three cases came from that

city, and these were so carefully packed that the labor of

identification was greatly lightened. Of the eighty-eight thousand,

eight hundred and twelve dollars and ninety-nine cents, which they

contained, over ninety per cent. of the whole was identified by the same

six ladies, who saved so much to individuals and to the Government from

the Chicago fire.

Besides money, a large amount of checks, drafts, promissory notes,

insurance policies, and other valuable papers were identified by these

same clear eyes and patient hands, and restored to their owners. The

entire responsibility of the whole amount rested on them. The money was

delivered to them, when it came, and on their reports all remittances on

it were made. It took over six months of constant labor to identify the

money from these fires.

The names of this committee of six are Mrs. M. J. Patterson, Miss Pearl,

Mrs. Davis, Miss Schriner, Miss Wright, and Miss Powers. “Mrs. Patterson

has been engaged for seven or eight years on what are called ‘affidavit

cases’—cases where the money is too badly mutilated to be redeemed in

the regular way, and the sender testifying under oath that the missing

fragments are totally destroyed, receives whatever proportion of the

original value allowed by the rules.”

The most noted case that she ever worked on was that of a paymaster’s

trunk that was sunk in the Mississippi, in the _Robert Carter_. After

lying three years in the bottom of the river, the steamer was raised,

and the money, soaked, rotten and obliterated, given to Mrs. Patterson

for identification. She saved one hundred and eighty-five thousand out

of two hundred thousand dollars, and the express company, which was

responsible for the original amount, presented her with five hundred

dollars, as a recognition of her services.

All the money which she identifies passes from the hands of this lady to

a committee of three—two gentlemen, one from the Treasurer’s and one

from the Register’s office, and a lady from the Secretary’s office. The

duties of these three persons are identical. They re-count the money,

seal it with the official seal of the three offices, and for so doing

receive, per year, the gentlemen each eighteen hundred dollars, the lady

twelve hundred dollars—one more illustration of the sort of justice

between the work of men and women, which prevails in the Treasury

service!