Evening Star Newspaper, November 21, 1896, Page 20

-20 THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1896-24 PAGES. TREASURY AT NIGHT How Uncle Sam’s Money is Guarded From Burglars. MIDNIGHT AMONG THE MONEY BAGS What a Star Reporter Saw at the Time of Guard Relief. a PROTECTION SECURED -__-— STAR REPORTER prowled through the Treasury Depart- meat from subcellar to attic when graves A\\ yawning at midnight of Thurs- day last. His acces not surrepti- s, however. Hi: ee in the build- known men to of too much picket & the war to permit in piping of them had at his seven-chambered army as if h hesi- would tate the fract art of a second to use his me yon if the’ occasion were. than a United States ‘on, ence had this proved Mr. Hus- | a band of necessitated ngress to have a debt of a few odd mi of dollars removed from b's shoulders. § for nearly a month, he slept in the treasurer's room in: the tre ur One 1 suggestion of the then teh, he slipped off his shoes, put on a pair of carpet slippers, and began a tour of the corridors, in or- der to Satisfy himself that the watchmen were performing their duty. He hadn't glided twenty feet from the door of his own room before he heard a “Halt! that sounded like the snapping of a loose jib. Tea feet ahead of him a man had a bead on Fis heart with a gun, whose muzzle looked bigger than that of a fifteen-inch smoothbore. The treasurer's hands went up. “Not guilty the treasurer. He Did His Daty. “Treasurer, are you?” replied the watch- man. “I don’t know that. Never saw the gentleman. Don’t know who you may be. But whoever you are, you're going to stand right there in that spot with your hands up until I find out your name, address, oc- Search me,” said he. “I’m cupation, and present disinterestedness.” Then he touched an “tric button. The treasurer of the United States stood in his undignified position for ah ute. He could not be conv that he had not examined the foresight of the watchman’s gun for at least an hour. The lieutenant of the watch then appear- ed, identified him, and he was permitted to enjoy the circulation of blood in his arms ut half a min- ced afterward again. “Why,” said he the next day, “that fel- low might have shot me!” “Certa < d the captain of the watch, complais: 1 of wiich tends to show that there are easier things in Ife than to make a haul at sury Department, sup- pos ve frame of mind : eme. Among the tchmen there lamented Jesse tinct tours, on seven f the Treasury De- ye to bus: This visitors, who. after | ackage of greenbacks, 00,000, are willing to ames never held at, and his emi- State that it of the Alleghany i eend probably belongs to the cherry tree and hatchet type. A Tr at Midnight. In order to make his midnight tour of the treasury, The Star reporter was obliged to Procure a very much signed and counter- Signed pass. No cne ts admitted to the building after 4 o'clock in the afternoon without one of these passes. If the Sec- retary of the Tr uw should present him- self at the main door for admittance at five minutes past 4, having left his pass in one having handled sald to believe anyth of the pockets of his other clothes at home and not be recognized he would to «9 home after it before he | get in. This happened to Secretary er on two occasions, and both times he commended the captain of the watch for his zeal in following orders. In ali there are seventy guardians of the sreasury, under the direction of a captain and two lieutenants of the watch. Caat. P. S. Talbert is the present head of the force. Nearly all of the watchmen are men who were in the war as mere boys, and are therefore now in the prime of life. They are thoroughly trained and reliable men. Very few treasury watchmen have been discharged for negligence since the founda- tion of the government, The possibility of a raid upon the treasury is regarded as re- mote, but the watch force is disciplined to stand by for such a raid at any time. Precautions Are Observed. in the building. THe watchmen were tso- lated and had no facilities for cailing for help other than common police whistles, the sound of which would echo and. re-echo throughout the labyrinthine corridors in such bewildering fashion that it took from fifteen minutes to half an hour for a searching party from the main door to asceriain its source. Before the System Was Changed. Watchmen thus conditioned might easily have been overcome by determined burg- lars, who would have had no difficulty in gaining access to the building, owing to the insufficicney of the force distributed at vul- nerable points of entrance. The safes, of which there are more than a hundred scat- tered throughout the various divisions of the treasury, were largely on the old-time lcck and key order, calculated to wreathe the countenances ef expert cracksmen into oleagincts. smiles on account of their prim- itive simplicity. It 1s remarkable that,with these advantageous conditions under which to work, the virtuosi of safe-cracking wno adcrned their profession during the seven- ties did Lot essay to effect a partition of the treasury’s wealth. ‘The watch system was completely changed and reorganized under Mr. Folger's regime. An elaborate electrical alarm system was introduced, the force of watchmen was greatly amplified, and the old iron safes were replaced by the modern steel affairs with intricate combinations. The gold and silver vaults were given steel casings around their common shells of masonry, and fitted with,time-locks, different parts of the com- binations of which were distributed among various officials in the treasurer's office, so that the vaults could cnly be opened with the concerted action of all of them, and then only at the stroke of the hour to which the time-locks were set. The neces- sity of keeping pace with the improve- ments in the fine profession of modern burglary was first recognized by Mr. Folzer. If there were no watch force on constant guard at the Treasury Department, how- ever, burglars could do about as they chose with the safes in the Treasury building. The safes are as good’as any made, but even manufacturers of safes are compelled to reluctantly admit that the safe has not yet heen devised that the modern cracks- man cannot get into. The best that makers of safes can do nowadays js to build them in such fashion as to involve the greatest possible consumption of time on the part of the cracksmen who attempt to get into them, thus rendering their detection dur- ing the progress of their work’ more likely. Ex ert Safe Openers. An expert manipulator of safe combina- tions was summoned to the treasury from New York not long ago to open a safe that declined to respond to its figures. The ex- pert opened the safe in half a minute. Then he made a tour of the building, and opened ery one of the safes. There was not one of them that he did not get into within fourteen minutes after making the first turn of the combination handle. He mod- estly stated to the officials accompanying | him that he did not amount to much as a safe opener, and that there were cracks- men at large who might have done every- thing he did in less time. The watch force 1s divided into three re- liefs, like an army guard, only the treas- ury watchman is on post longer than the soldier. His tour of duty lasts eight hours. The first watch of the day goes on at 8 in the morning. It is relieved at 4 in the af- ternoon by the watch which remains on duty until midnight. The midnight watch, which is regarded as the most important of the three, completes the triple-linked guard chain, and goes off at 8in the morn- ing. There are only fourteen men in the day watch, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each of the other two watches consists of twenty-eight men. Although, as has been said, the “mid” watch, so called, {s considered to carry the greatest weight of responsibility of the three, on account of the well-known nocturnal prefererces of burglars, Capt. Talbert, the head of the watch force, is of the opinion that the day guard needs to be more on the alert for surprises than any of them. Aid Can Be Summoned. “Each of the night watches,” he said to The Star man, made up of twice the number of men in the day watch, in spite of the fact that {f an attempt should ever be made to loot the treasury the job would unquesttonably be attempted in the day- time At night it would be impossible for an organized band of robbers to gain ac- cess to the building, for all of the en- trances, except the main one on 15th street, are securely locked after 4 p.m. and strictly guarded. A gang of robbers, to affect am entrance at the main door after nightfall, would have to use a battering ram on the iron outer door, and by the time they had stove it in they would be flanked by the en- tire police force of the District, the soldiery from Fort Myer and the arsenal and the marines from the barracks, with all of which forces we have direct alarm connec- tions. “Such an assault is about as probable as another sacking of Washington by the Brit- At the Main Door. ish. We should have much more difficulty in repelling a day invasion. A large num- ber of robbers, for instance, might walk into the building in broad daylight, when the department is open to visitors, entering at the many different doors so as not to attract attention. At a given signal, all of them having assembled at a convenient joint, they might make an onslaught on he cash room, where in the neighborhood of $600,000,000 is kept all the time In cur- rency, and hold up all the clerks and other employes in the room at once. A Band of Daylight Robbers. “An attack of this sort would give the fourteen men of the day watch a heap of thinking to do in a short space of time. Of course, even if a band of daylight robbers successfully accomplished this trick, they could not get away with their booty, even if they had race horses waiting for them outside the building. They would be swooped down upon by uniformed men of various services in such numbers that with To observe the fashion with which the |-them it would be a case of ‘hands up’ be- night watchmen “cover” their posts, it might easily be thought that the secret service is In constant receipt of information as to contemplated treasury robberies. Yet never a dollar has ever been taken from the treasury by force. A sneak thief once got in his work to the extent of $60,000 in bills, which he expertly plucked from one of the tables in the redemption divisicn. But there has never been a hold-up. ‘The secret service knows that many cele- brate.. cracksmen, including “Little Jim- my” Hope. who successfully pulled off the great Manhattan Bank robbery, have from time to time contemplated the conversion of a few millions of treasury money to their private use, but they all thought better of it. They decided the undertaking to be of too colossal a character. Down to the incumbency of Secretary Folger there would, tt is claimed, have been no great difficulty for accomplished and nervy cracksren of the first rank to have done a good bit of nightwork in the big marble cash repository of the government. When Mr. Folger took the reins of the treasury there was not an electrical alarm fore they reached the exits. Notwithstand- ing all this, a daylight robbery of the treasury is much more practicable than a night robbery, although I should not par- ticularly care to be a ringleader of such foolhardy robbers either at high noon or 4 midnight. There would be some tall old shooting in and around this building on such an occasion.” There is something eerie about the big treasury building at night, when the street noises have ceased, and the clangor of an occasional passing cable car sounds like the rumbling by of a regiment of light artillery. Ten minutes before midnight the watchmen of the “mid” watch are all on hand at the main 15th street entrance, ready for duty. They are required to thus assemble ten minutes before going on Post in case there are any special instructions to be given by the Ifeutenant of the “mid” watch, and they all make their appearance at the fron door at once, to the very min- ute of time, apparently springing from the ground. The silence ts only broken by the frequent ringing of the post-register above the head of the lieutenant of the watch. The watchmen greet each other with “Good morning,” anticipating the new day by a few minutes, and then quietly go to their posts. Their lowered voices seem to fit with the surrounding solemnity. From their manner one might easily imagine that there was heavy fighting work cut out for them before dawn—a kind of ‘‘just-before- the-battle” manner that is distinctly im- pressive. At Their Posts of Duty. Each watchman has a regular perma- nent post, and there is rarely any shifting of posts. On relieving the man of the old watch the “mid” watchman takes the pis- tol belonging to the post from the drawer of the table in which it is placed, sees that it 1s in proper shape, asks the 4 to 12 watchman if everything is all right, and Always Ready. sits down under the incandescent light to put in his eight hours, most of which are passed in Buddhe-like contemplation of the walls ind the shadowy, silent corridors. The watch is not permitted to smoke, read or write while on duty. His business is solely to watch. If he goes to sleep and is discovered by the watch patrol he is certain to he discharged upon be- ing reported the next days. Only a very few such cases have occurred, and in each case the sleeper has confessed that his drowsiness was caused by flask drink- ing after having gone on watch, which did not improve his situation so far as regain- ing his Job was concerned. Rigid sobriety is required of treasury watchmen, both on and off duty. It is considered ‘that the watchman who makes a practice of nib- bling at Mquor during his hours of recrea- tion cannot be in shape to perform guard duty when it comes his turn to go on watch. The watchmen confess that within the compass of an eight-hour night watch they have plenty of time to array before them in orderly mental fashion the mistakes of their past lives, and they are a unit in ex- pressing the belief that the strain of sit- Ung still and doing nothing for exactly one-third of each day, year-in and year-out, would drive them mad ‘were not the time broken by the complete round of thetr beats, which they are required to make every thirty minutes. The Watch Patrol. At the end of each of these rounds the watchman touches his electrical button, which informs the Neutenant of the watch at his desk at the main door that every- thing is well with him. The watch patrol, consisting of four men detailed for this duty every night in each watch, and whose duties are similar to those of police rounds- men, are on tour through the corridors all the time, partly for the purpose of seeing that the watchmen are alive and alert, and partly to attend to the system of electrical button registering, which they in turn are obliged to carry on to indicate to the lieu- tenant their own wide-awakeness, The two most important posts are those which include within ther limits the gold and silver vaults, which are side by side at right angles tn the sub-basement, and the cash room vault, which is built in a gal- lery above the main floor. The watchman who looks after the cash room vault is locked in the cash room when he goes on post, and patrols the gallery at frequent intervals, registering each visit to the door of the vault as he passes the electrical button. Thus, if a robber contrived to get into the cash room and_ overcame the watchman, the cessation of registering re- ports would inform the lieutenant of the watch that something had gone wrong on that post. Giving the Alarm. Then, by means of the electrical signals, the lHeutenant would quickly assemble a force of watchmen of whatever size he considered necessary. These watchmen would go to the room of the captain of the watch, to the left of the main entrance—in which room, by the way, is hung, framed, the silk American flag in which Booth’s spur caught when he jumped from the Ford's Theater box after having shot Pres- ident Lincoln—take each a Springfield rifie from the rifle rack, strap on one of the army campaign belts crowded full of cartridges, and proceed in a body to the cash room, whence the electrical reports had ceased to come. The burglars, if any happened to be there, would receive short shrift at such hands. The watchman who stands guard over the gold and silver vaults Is locked in an ante-room, the hall end of which is formed of heavy wire, leading to the vaults. He remains thus locked up during the entire eight hours of his guard.tour, and {s seated beside the vault doors. He touches off his registering apparatus at regular intervals. At the present time the watchman guard- ing these vaults has the responsibility of $140,000,000 in silver coin and $3,000,000 in gold coin on his hands. The bulk of the United States gold bullion and coin ts kept at the subtreasury in New York. The sil- ver is packed in oblong boxes, ten bags to a box, one thousand dollars to a bag. The silence of the tomb reigns In the where the vault watchman pu eight hours. Apt to Stir the Imagination. The watchman on duty when The Star reporter made his visit said that he often felt as if he were dead and buried, and oc- casionally pinched himself to get rid of the hallucination. By pressing the ear against the vault doors, the faint clicking of the time locks, penetrating the six tons of steel, may be heard. The patrol passes the cage very frequently, and somehow it 1s hard to throw off the impression that this Patrolling watchman is a prison turnkey, the chief of a death watch, keeping his eye upon the warder, who, in his turn, in- cessantly embraces within his view a criminal passing his last night upon earth. The sub-basement of the treasury at inid- night is calculated to render the most pro- saic and phlegmatic man into a morbidly imaginative person. ‘Two or three times a month, on an aver- age, treasury employes in charge of safes in their respective divisions forget to lock them up at the close of the day’s business. It is the duty of the watch patrol not only to see that none of the safes are open, but to try them to see that they are locked. When one of these patroimen happens upon an unlocked safe, he immediately in- forms the lieutenant of the watch, who without making any attempt to lock the safe, places his seal over a point covering the door and the frame, and stations a special watchman to see that it is not tam- pered with. When the employe who has negligently left the safe open reaches his division the next mornirg he must stand by for squalls, for an elaborate report is made of every case of the kind. A Slight Scar: Not long ago, @ sensational New York newspaper published an account of the al- leged discovery of a plot, engineered by no- torlous burglars, to penetrate into the treasury building by means of the under- ground electrical conduits running along Wth street. ‘Once in the building, these robbers were to crack the safes, remove their contents and place them in inflated rubber bags, and to float these bags along the conduits, which were to be flooded for the purpose, to their pals in waiting at the conduit openings. This extraordinary yarn was laughed at by the watchmen when they read it. About a week after the story was pub- Ushed, however, at the witching hour of 2 in the morning, the iron coverings of the electrical conduit right outside the main 15th street entrance to the treasury went up in the air with a roar. Simultaneously, all of: the clesfric’ lights -in the treasury went out. Lieut. Stevenson, who was in charge of the watch, says-that the excite- ment among ‘the watchmen scattcred around the building was of the profoundest character, and admits that he felt a little shaky himself. All hands tiought that the plot was about to be consummated, and the gas throughout the; building was lit with phe- nomenal quickness. For the first time in many years all of the watchmen were sum- moned from their posts to the main door, and some of them strapped on a cartridge belt for the first time since the rebellion. When the Treasury Department engineer on night watch came up from the sub- basement ands told them what the matter was, there were a lot of watchmen, says Lieutenant Steyenson, who appeared to have Known what the trouble was all the time, and who only grabbed their muskets in concession to the whimsical alarms of thetr comrades. WIND UNDERGROUND. A Remarkable Draft of Wind From a Well. From Popular Science. Arizona possesses some of the greatest natural wonders in the world, not the least of which is this phenomenen of a current of alr issuing from or going into the bowels of the earth through sundry natural and artificial openings made in the earth’s crust. Something over a year age a Mr. Couf- man undertook the drilling of a well at his place. Everything went well to a depth of some twenty-five feet, when the drill _sud- denly dropped some six feet and a strong current of air issued from the hole. The es- caping air current was so strong that it blew off the men's hats who were recover- ing the lost drill. The well was of course abandoned and left to blow, but there are some peculiari- ties about It that are worthy of observa- tion. The air will escape from the well for days at a time with such force that pebbles the size of peas are thrown out and piled up about its mouth until it looks very much like the expanded portion of a funnel. At the same time it {s accompanied by a sound much like the distant bellowing of a fog horn. ‘This noise is not always present, because the air does not at all times es- cape with the same force. Again there will be for days a suction current, uaaccom- panied by sound, in which the current of air passes into the earth, with some less force than it escapes, and any Hght object, as a feather, piece of paper or cloth, will, if held in ciose proximity, be Immediately sucked into the subterranean labyrinth of Aeolus. Just the cause of this phenomenon no one has vet been able to determine, but it {8 supposed that there is an underground opening between the Grand Canon of the Colorado, which cleaves the earti for inore than a mile in depth, and the Sycamore Cenon, some eighty miles to the south of {t, of the same proportions, but much shorter. 3 This would secm possible from the fact that the current of air 1s always passing from north to scuth or vice versa, varying, of course, a few pcints of the compass from the true meridian, but ulways in these gen- erai directions, as determined by exper!- ment, and then the stratum underlying the quaternary !s of volcanic cinder. This is very porous, and in many places so called bottomless holes exist. Have Rees Conscience? From the London: Spectator. This question was raised in my mind, and answered in the affirmative, by the follow- ing incident whiett I observed in the course of a country ramble on the coast of Devon. There were ‘several small bumble bees steadily at work’ among the many gay- colored blossoms which form a perfect flowerbed on either side of a cliff walk on that lovely premontory opposite the little fishing town of Salcombe. Each bee kept to his own particular flower, as (so Sir John Lubbock tells us) all well-conducted bees should do. But one became puzzled by the likeness in color between black knap- weed and putple thistles. His flower for this outing Was evidently the knapweed, and when he had, exhausted all its blossoms in the immediate neighborhood he was be- uiled by similarity in color Into trying a thistle, but, dn afighting, he instantly dis- covered his mistake, and flew abut looking for more znabre a, which he might cesily have found bY' flying a few yards further. Instead, ‘however, he réturned to the invit- ing thistle head, and this time gave him- self up with perfect abandon to its luscious delights, stifling the voice of consctence which on his first visit he had so instantly obeyed. These little bumble Lees well repay the time spent on watching their small, busy lives. On another occasion, when camping for the day in a fir wood, my sister became aware of two of these soft little creatures buzzing round and round the skirt of het dress in such a determined and spirited way that we felt they meant business and not mischief. My sister drew her skirt away, when the bees instantly made for a uny hole in the bank, evidently their house door. Their gentle, persistent mauner of making their meaning known to us was most striking. ————_+e+. Business Stagnation. Frem the Chicago Record. “What made you so !2ng buying that spool of thread?” “Why, I had to wait until some shop la- dies got through telling each other what they dreamed last night.” —+ee——_____ Unanimously Correct. From the Detroit Free Press. Teacher— Entire choru: “A conjunctio: e+ ____ A showy player.—Life. ALLEY PROBLEMS Pauline Pry Chats About the Poor and Money Saving. BANK ACCOUNTS IN A SMALL WAY Industries Which Only Flourish Among the Conditions of Alleys. THROUGH BACK ———— GATES HAVE BEEN Studying finance in our alleys the past week. I began, pri- marily, to learn how poor people save money. I learned something of this, and of much else in- cidentally, and the sum of my efforts was what all learn- ing amounts — to— merely a de: to know a great deal more. Last spring I spent an afternoon in the alleys, taking a lesson in peactical socioi- ogy, under the guidance of Mr. Wilson, general secretary of the Associated Chasi- ties. As we wended our way from hovel to hovel, my pessimistic soul sank deeper and deeper in despair of altering the con- Gitions or characters of the submerg Grounded in poverty, and the filth that is inseparable from hunger, cold ness, the people we encountered appeared to me so clearly a final equation of utte selessness that when Mr. Wilson spok: as he did, to several about trying to sav some money during the summer, 1 was postively ashamed of him. To talk to these people of saving money seemed to me either brutal irony or simple idiocy, ani I did 10t hesitate to speak my convictions. Naturally enough, ther:fore, when I met . Wilsor last week and he in- formed me with a ‘sort of maliciously tri- umphant J-tolc air that 1 poor famil re 0 ar at this from the Mistrict now I was curfous to kn: had been wrought. I learn from the As rounds of the alley week, and colle, ple, which, when th re deposit pauper and pos precise the 1 that an agent ties makes the rtain days every savings of the p amount to a dolla qin a bank, and the erstwhi ‘omes that eminently respectable worthy person in a commu the or of 2 bank account. To know the circumstances governing such a grand transformation, I accompanied one of the agents on her round of alleys in the northeast, where some of the most desti- tute and depraved people of the city reside. Philovophy of Saving. Do you understand the philosophy of sav- ing money? Mr. Wilson has pointed out to me that in enabling people in the alleys to accumulate two or three dollars to their credit in a bank the economy expressed in dollars and cents is of minor importance as compared with the investment in an im- proved character which this saving sents. “‘As these people get a little ahead,” says Mr. Wilson, “they develop a their possessions which en; spect, and fosters self-denial. Th not obtain help from us while th this money in the bank, and rather than draw on this amount, they will go without what they want, even to the point of suf- fering. Now, suffering is what many of these characters most need. Thus their activities are stimulated; they thus be- come more ambitious to serve their own necessitles, and their powers of endurance are strengthened against evil to the extent of the capacity for suffering they have developed.” This is a theory of modern scientific charity which is so admirable as a theory that when a man as earnest in the exerc! of a sclentifie charity as Mr. Wilson gives vcice to it I find it for the moment almost | convincing. However, my own view of the matter involved is this Saving money is a means of elevating ckaracter only as the intention of the act 1s a noble one. Saving money for self ends cannot be more than a prudent me: ure of economy. It involves not self-denial, but deferred self-indulgence, and the suf. fering so entailed develops only such powers of endurance 7s a miser exhibits while the activities of a person thus stimu. lated by suffering, having no object but in view, seek not the best, nor even a development, if circumstances chance *o provide self-protection in any channel of wrongdoing that will serve the need e perienced. That is to say, a degenera Whose pride in his bank account promp: him to go hungry rather than draw a chee for five cents to buy bread h: tion but that which comes ach to shape his cou If to steal, or if any other crime or vice inherent in him- self or his environment suggest an instant means of putting bread in his mouth, his powers of endurance will develop just far enough to determine whether he is likely to be caught. His suffering represents no principle that supplies him an end of ac- tion beyond himseif, and for this reason his i ter will remain the same, though ondition may improve. Scientific char ity thus may serve economic, but not moral, 3s. It lacks the Logos of Christian char- love—love of God and of one’s neighbor vhich established as an end of action de- fines a principle of conduct that in every extremity, among all ne tends co- stantly to direct a man’s efforts along the line of his greatest possibilities. Scientifi charity, therefore, while it may aecompl much for a man, lacks the one thing neci sary to enable a man to do the most for if. In this lack it violates the es- truth of charity, which is recogn tion that all men are equally the vehicles of divine power, and though by its opera- tlons paupers may diminish, it is, in the nature of its theory, forever incapable of rendering mendicanis to the noblest extent men. h A Scene of Poverty. It was with this bellef in my heart that I set out with the agent of the Associated Charities, and, after visiting fifteen or twenty homes in the alleys where a bank book divides the honor of the varlor man- telpiece with an illuminated marriage cer- tificate in a frame, I learned nothing to alter my belief. The first house we visited was one of a dismal row, and in front of the door nauseating filth discouraged an effort to enter. Repeated raps evoking no response, we tried the door, and overcoming a slight resistance on the other side, we came upon as pitifully comic a picture as I ever saw. Dirt and disorder reigned over everything the dark room contained, and clinging close to one another were three children, the eldest about five, the youngest, a baby, less than a year. ‘All were clad in the oddest assortment of rags a garbage Darrel could furnish. The eldest, a little girl, sat ‘m a low chair, mothering the other two. ‘Tho mother was out washing, and a boy about seven years of age had been left in charge of the family. He had more tm- portant business outside, however, pre- sumably looking for the footprints of a brother still older, who has already arrived et the reform school. It was lunch nour for the poor, funny babies, and the little mother was feeding them—on what do you suppose? Dried beef and water. The two- year-old’ baby was able to do his own masticating, but in order to get the dried beef in proper form for the other one, the Uttle mother first chewed it herself and then fed the macerated mess to the two- toothed baby. The mother of this family has saved $1.50. She keeps her bank book at the office of the Associated Charities, because her husband, disapproving of any uch plutocratic indulgence as a bank ac- count; tears up the book when he can lay hands on it, and beats the wifo till she draws a check for her wealth in his favor. The baby seems to have inherited the mother’s economical tendencies. I gave him a penny, and instead of going cut and equandering it on candy, as his older brothers did with a similar amount, he romptly put it up where it can't be erent. [e swallowed it. I haven't heard whether the has since died. If he has, of course, the whole matter will be written down in selence‘as an instance of the evil of indis- criminate charity. An investigation as to whether he belonged to the worthy poor would doubtless have resulted in sparing me the reckless extravagance of giving away a whole penny, and would also have shared his baby digestion any misery the penny may have caused him. Clearly scientific charity serves well in some cases. How well it serves to build character there was nothing here to manifest. Different Points of View. At the next house we visited the bank ac- count is kept by a woman nearly seventy years old, who was out washing, and, like the other one, had not left a deposit to be collected. “I reckon mother ain't got any m@oney to put by toda: said her son, almost an old man, and a cripple. “Times is mighty hard, iiss, and what few pennies we take in has to go to keepin’ us, an’ we don't live very high, neither.” The poor, lean, hungry mortal looked the truth of every word he said, and up and down both sides of the aliey in which w stood straggled other human beings as destitute, ignorant and generally helples as he. Swarms of babies and small chi dren smeared with dirt, that is remo: frcm them only as it rots and drops of were playing and fighting all about us. In the midst of this spectacie of want—w: that is not alone of the body, but plai so want of mind # I dectare, the nly intelligent charit the moment ; Seemed to me to sei: portuni achs offes upon the y of happiness (hese peop cram them wiih tood—cak erything that ta AM them so full ¢ Mt vion foreve That's the — hu irs and eve Ume inspiraticn to into the alleys 4 try to teach the people there that the thing they need most is mot Whether a bank account or im acter, or both, are to result j tice in suffering is daily for for my part I would iike to s of a little happiness. One § orc » I'l take that back. 1 saw a bit « happiness applied to wreteh er day, and it was more } than any suffering I ever iy The stor commonp! that of a b teen years ol f along th i y one frosty mo is only jt Were a pair o} ated over and thin cotton shirt Deed, the: lady: but I doan't I've work clothes I g We anybody a cent, and and took care of myself since six years old.” ant some new clothes? Well, he reck- oned he did. ‘Then s taken into a r He ha m stockings lon over his overalls. “I r did see such clothes as t # suit like this n four ¢ a was brc sight of this h 1 to foot a ou must me takin’ on s @ coat on my back He kept up the tdiotic c struggled ito the garment, sank down on his kn: ying in d laugh- an ing at once, while he i clawed at the wom‘n’s skirt 5 3 sake, lady, don't put > nice things on me and then laugh at me and take them Can you faney ty so ridiculous For the moment this so trifling in comparison with brutal need of human happiness they might serve, I thought serlously—I really did—of going without a new gown thi: selling all I have to give to the poor. naturally I soon got the better of any such mere clothes making an’ happy to seem the great number of poor persons who have accu- mulated as much as $9 in the bank, it seems almost absurd to speak of economy among the poor. Poverty is necessarily extravagant. I made inquiries in the homes we visited concerning how supplies are purchased in the alleys, Coal is boight by the 5 ceats and 10 cents’ worth at a ative Increase of cost nearly double the price of a whole ton. Meat is bought of the very lowest grade—refuse of the mar- kets, in fact—which ts peddled from Mutch- ys’ carts that depend on the alleys for their trade. Bread of adulterated sub- stance, made into under-welghi loaves, and potatoes, bought by the few pennies’ worth at a proportionate increase of cost relative to the price per bushel, are other items of | the extravagance of poverty. Mo ecmparatively ttle food so su nutritive as bread, me pW pennies on ha - ss than the » sities are expended = or grog, te and the sation of both hur of candy acing for a Measure of beer going as a subsiit Loth fcod and cloth the parents. » subme: mo OO Nurser ht or nine balite younger, who are hers, who fill “ser p these poor, filthy, ures Iving, squatti e smail beings | if not it oceurs to on house in conne nt be made a ve Subse The the bit tr the p after am of gatety te Mn mada rk. Ry seek pst y the afternoon man int from ti As I said at the » leys to learn how > complish: than anyih fortable homes Sura disorders t our children, our unk us, are introduced in these dark selfish interest, if the w of back } tomed to doing. 1 sively in the st nd communic: more than we aps you liv t you have no b © necessarily w jower than is entitied to pene sphere through the front basem Then the Associated Charithes you the str e seme family in an alley leading fr stn There is no excuse for your not krowing the poor within your reach, and | if you fail to find in them any hint or hope ] of the millennium, you will accomplish the next best thing—lose yourself temjy which is the first fruit of paradis: ing to the notion of PAULINE a = A BARN THAT G Ew. I¢ Was Still Growing When the Man Who Was Lixtening Disappeared. ble impulse as that, and for | Pm the New York Tribune “y's p don’t tell what I have told “Say, stranger: how hich mo that you to my sclentific friends: I never asked | building be?” asked a countrytied-looking at boy about nis charact 1 etceact tate Weegee perorne NOY Of a coat or Hig | iMdividual, as he stood at Broadw nd drive him to ail sorts of excesses | ADM street, gazin a te citizen of him, if, indeed structure being erected Ut ans of sending his unw: The man of whom he asked the question soul straight to pcrdition. lently thought he would have some fun Money-Saving System, with the farmer. He looked at the latter a You can readily see I am scarcety a tt | moment, and then “Oh, that little person to walk at the Is Of sctentitic | house there. Ch, that’s about 300 feet high. charity ir the alleys. I can’t hold to scientific point of view in regarding works. Thus as I proceeded with agent of the Associzted Charities, this earnest little person comms admiration and affectionate este simplicity and sin y with whic her task, it was very ness how the people she is serving resp: to her endeavors. “I can’t take any stamps today, miss. the od the while she «id funny to me to wit- ad At house after house she received that message from women, who by their words and manner expressed the vaguest pos- sible urderstanding of what they were do- ing in acquiring a bank account. The agent receives sums of 5 cents or more, and until the woman saving h: acquired a dollar, when an eecount » bank is opened in her name and a bank book issued to her, she keep by means of stamps repre: ich are pasted in a book she receipt for her deposits with agent. This agent has the rare abi putting herself in touch with the in the alley She inquires after member of the family as if she we to them all, and does it with such-s mats DP that the women instinctively like her, the “m to want to buy a stamp ju because the lovable little agent has them the mon f not} to sell. If they haven't appear to feel so ashamed to oblige her by pur that I frankly told the of them would sj cent to buy a stamp if they got the chance, rather than fail thus to accommodate her ch, le inte tion toward them. Th that she thought he but sull was eptim no one had 2 lence of a} fashion. In one of the ay vhich is thoroughly not if a fight-was going on, but just how many fights were going on, and wh would be likely to hit us if we ventu’ through, there were a number of wome of such hopelessly hardened chara: they looked ready to back up their w with their fist if the agent ap red to like it that they “could not take y.”” One old woman, who ¥ “of a small store, took seve stamp: This was grea aMuenc asked her if she is in any life r not company, and she answered, 11 isn’t; them li men done me times enough. “Yes, an’ how man won't beat you again? neighbor, standing suspicious spirit the ignorance thing pertaining to simple bu: which prevails among people Insurance Metho I had asked about Ife insurance every house we visited, and there was not one who had not a dismal tale to tell of how these insurance men prey upon the al- leys. “Why, they swarms in here like bees some days,” one old woman told me, who told me further that she had lost $60 in two or three different insurance companles. These institutions send their agents into the alleys, and not only men and women, but little children, are insured at a weekly rate of five or ten cents, according to the amount of the policy. Many agents will make the first two or three payments them- selves to get one of these ignorant crea- tures started, and then, no matter how much the poor mortal has paid in, If she fails to keep up her dues for three weeks, she forfeits everything she has invested. Colored people have a pecullar horror of not enjoying a “nice burying,” and many of them, I found, go into these insurance companies, not for the benefit of their fam- ily or friends, but merely to insure what one woman named to me as a “respectful funeral.” They get a guarantee of a fu- neral, to cost not less than ten dollars, but a funeral policy, no more than any other, guarantees them against the loss of all their savings in event of their failure to regularly continue payments. In competing against these life insurance ebarks the savings bank plan of the As- seciatei Charities is unmistakably ber.efit- ing the people in the alleys. The agent told me scores of instances where persons have saved a few dollars, and then falling sick, have been able to provide for them- selves until they were well, when they have reopened a bank account, thus at all times and unde: all circumstances réap- ing the benefit of their -conomy. Necessarily Extravagant. In spite of the fact that records show a men at with | | rant green hemlock, and | to wet it built be wait for the wood wood was of But that’s nothing to several buildings that are going to be put up further up the street.” “Shu, you don’t ot” exclaimed the fermer. “How high mought some of them buildings going to be “Six to eight hundred feet, not counting towers,” replied the man. “Shu, you don't say so!” ejaculated the farmer, “But, say, ncer, fh the people to get up to the top of them “Oh, that’ thinking y're going to ha You get into a 1 up to the roof in tw . you don't say "once more re- the farmer. “Your houses don’t much ground, stranger, do they? out in my part of the cour £0 an high | Wa tas n ur town put bri that barn covered all the buildings i low,” replied the re talking through, » No man could build as big a bart a That's all ri i” os the farmer j my brother's barn wasn’t no ordir ly It wasn't so big at the took win nd funny it a ore 1 whole it narked the , Who had been having the What are you drivi ard of a barn gro’ ny people, TM admit, stranger he farmer, “It was t heard of one: but 1 said Mher's barn wasn't no ordinary he by it of rn up, warm, i to get the sap began to | that Set the wood to growing. | you never saw any't! crow ; like it before in your life alk aw wt your in this town, why t can't with the way my brother's barn ed. He would go to bed at night thinking he hed located the door of his barn L right; but when he 1 up in the "he would have to walk # quarter further to get into the barn to hors It got to be monotor us, . until the barn nd go over Bill Bills great store on that wheat mortgage on his farm, and he inter I the wheat and pay off—" But the farmer stopped, and f. he had been talking to himself. was , and he was walking as if he to post for his wife, or an ex- tremely important engagement to keep, o- ng Wrong Somewhere, From the Atlanta Constitution, The following telegram was sent from Atlanta to an interior Georgia town: “Look out for incendiary. Six feet high: scar on left cheek; limp in left leg.” Pretty soon following telegram came in reply: “We've got a man what says he burnt a house down, but that ain't his name what you said!” long my throat was filea with sores, lange lumps formed on ms neck, and a horrille ule broke out on my Jaw.—says Mr. 0. H. Elbert, who resides at 714 Eighteenth st., G: Texas. Me was three times pt cured by ominent physicians, but dread- fal disease always returned; be w then q 5 > 4 that \ Viwas the Mis hair bad all fallen out, and he was in a sad yp After taking one bottle of S. 8. to improve, and two dozen bottles cured him completely, 80 that for more than six years be has had po sign of the disease. § hn SS Book on the disease and ite treatment free by Swift Specitic Co., Atlanta, Ga, mailed