The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 28, 1901, Page 6

t—he pock: stitcnes bef his sat At the time the me a f som exc hLis legs € Tk torneys for the def the trial made the alle that flu the refinery was sadly in need of repair, per- mitting g « pe in unnecessary state. This was forced by the state- ment the assayer, whose reports de- termine the va to the ue of the builion wild, unre t the defer eaked “hot W dropped out of sight—the reporfed an ex-thief any d. The money 1d acquitted”’—where usand nine hundred and fifty- was lost 186 urs, wh n some: the Mi oney That looks 1 a big task at On second thought, however, is it a task? Not if all ds work like the chief weigher, who counts $1000 in dimes (10,00 pieces) in t¥ minutes! This x is a wonder: he handles $600,- 000 twice daily with as much nonchalance as you displs our tea bas he twenty-six years, has t time $900,000,- 000, and not coin of it has gone astray. Gold coins and dollars | are ounted by we 1t. The smaller coins are both co by numbers and weighed. A cunting board” is used for count- ing e dimes, gquarters and halve a board for ezch denomination. The are grooves cut ir. each board, such a mann “quarter dime boa When the boards are full, all you've to do 15 to count the boards. t the chief weigher wants to be sure, 0 he dumps the dimes intp a pan and weighs them. The welight shouid balance " with the count. Gold coin is put up in sacks of $5000 each, and silver (with the exception of dimes) in sacks of $1000 each. The. dimes are put up In sacks holding $500. bree*Mint repr atives superintend the ng and weighing of each and every g sack, which is tied with a strong cord and a seal of lead placed upon it with the Superintendent’s name and title stamped thereon; hence if the sack is tampered with the fact will be known. « \ | WEIGHING, THE GoL® BRICKS You will observe that under these condi- tions the sacks are merely “inspected” if a recount desired. If all seals are sound of course counting and weighing is is unnece! ry. completed in de- s responsible for After all operations tail the superintendent the coin. A heavy responsibility, indeed. A somewhat intricate system of ac- counts is in vogue at the Mint, and abso- 1y the aggregate For instance, computation is e millionth of a cent, hence a stretches before the error anded, as lute accuracy is dem esp k dered are | to row of .fig mere s the ru culation. Here is gymnastic ex- ercise for the orain! The head bookkeeper is cognizant of a!l ese complicated transactions, as all ac- of the various departments pass through his ha: He compiles these ac- counts and forwards them daily, monthly or semi-annually to Washington, just as ortance of the reports demands. increase of the bullion fund in the four years is remarkable; the credit In 1897, when Frank A. Leach \ppointed Superintendent, the amouant w 54,601,411 09, and jast January the credit was over $108,000,000. An actual theft at the Mint is a difficult proposition. It is certain no one can gain entrance into the building at night; and oughout the day it would seem impos- ble to carry uway any large amount of ds. the i is doubled. W coin. Almost a score of watchmen guard the treasure-house day and night. Half the little army go on day duty, and the remainder watch through the sile bours. The,latter sion is divided two squads, one to partol outside the building, the ot to keep an eve on things within. They are rlaced at sta- tions on the different floors, and each has a beaten path to wander over every half hour. At the end of his beat he notifies the doorkeeper that “All's weli!” by ring- ing a gong. When the man at the door fails to hear the signal he causes an in- vestigation to be made. A system of ing is av only alarms all over the build- able night and day, and is used should be notified of t. when evers one e trouble This is all ate, and a great from the Mint €an That was established in '54, Commercial S Montgom- When the cornerstone of the present int was laid, in 1870, there’ were great pians ahead. The cost ot site and build- ing amounted to $5,130,512,150. ‘“We must live up to this cost,” said the powers that were. S0 they set abcut making elaborate tems by which to carry on the business of the largest mint)in the world. This system was all to protect Uncle Sam's money against the knave and the fool. It hasn’t worked. development Francisco. on in street, above K3 #ow the JSmokers JShow Jher Characleristics g ess a4 most secretive nature, he may have a face as des- titute of meaninz as a stone wall and a mauner of speech absoluteiy Av MAN may p non-commitL but watch him over his cigarette: note his manner of holding it between his lins or his fingers; see how he puifs the smoke out of his mouth, what with the ash, if he consumes the ump or throws it a nd, sure as fate, you will read his character like a book. Cigar- ette, I sald, for a.cigarette and a cigar in a lesser degree are much better character revealers than a pipe. A man sticks a pipe into the side of his mouth and puffs , and there’s an end of it. You dis- r next to nothing unless, indeed, he happens to puff very violently, which Is a certajn indication of a nervous, irritabie temper. From the filling of a pipe, to be he & sure, many luminous little hints may be gathered. You see a man stuff his bowl quickly and lavishly, letting laose threads of tobacco dangle over the brim while he applies the match; if he be not good na- tured, generous to a fault, careiess, indo- lent, quick to make friends, quick to for- get them, I'shall be much astonished. One notices men very often taking their cigars from an upper walstcoat pocket 1nto which they have been stuffed. Too poor to buy themselves a cigar case? Not a bit of it, but too untidy to keep one or too lazy to arrange their cigars into one. And the same men almost invariably bite the tips off their cigars, instead of using a penknife or a cigar clipper—a shocking habit that not merely fills the mouth with tobacco grit, but disarranges the outer leaf, often spoiling an otherwise excellent smoke. The cigar once happily prepared for THE SUNDAY CALL smoking, observe how your man holds it between his teeth. But stay! The opera- tion of lighting has also its interest. The tobacco epicure grips his cigar not merely with his teeth when applying the match, but with the finger and thumb of his left hand also, and between every third puff draws the weed from his mouth and ex- amines the glowing end. in order to make sure that it has been ignited equally all round. The majority of men hold their cigars with the (ront teeth and puff the smoke out on either side of it. A large minority hoid them iu the corner of the mouth, so that if you happen to be walking behind them on a dark night you catch sight of the glowing end protruding just below the ear. Others, again—and these, as a rule, are persons of vivacious temperament— seldom keep their cigars for two consecu- tive moments between their lips. They take a few puffs, and then the cigar is given a rest between finger and thumb., A man of determined character, ener- getic, pugnacious, impatient, often be- trays himself by giving his cigar an up- ward tilt while consuming it—a favorite method with the Yankee, to whom the above epithets are distinctly applicable. The contemplative, dreamy individual will let it droon toward his chin; while level- headed persons—and fortunately they form the vast majority—hold theirs hori- zontally. Naturally insolent people fre- quently omit to remove the cigar from their mouths when speaking to you, while others of a sullen, brooding disposition chew the end into horrible pulp. And is there anything more eloquent of stingi- ness than the habit, largely indulged in by Germans, of sticking the stump of a cigar on the small blade of a penknife and con- suming it until the glow almost touches the lips?—The Royal Magazine. IN 5,000,000 THE GOLD VAULT g— of — Jhe Many Pecularities } the Great Composers | o HERE are few things, said a well- Tknnwn musician, about which there 5o much popular misconception the’ way in much music is com- posed. There are, I believe, thousands of people whé§ are firmly convinced that a musical composiion is laboriously built up with the help of a piano or other in- strument, and a few sheets of paper on which the notes are jotted down as they are found. Nothing could be really wider of the truth; for the man who cannot compose without the aid of an instrument has cer- tainly mistaken his profession. In fact, if you were to shut a musician in a white- washed cell and give him a pencil, he could write his compo:ition on the walls with as much facility as if he were sur- rounded by all the musical facilities yeu can conceive. Much of the best work of a friend of mine has been done in trains or on omni- buses, the motion of which somehow seems to furish the necessary inspiration; and the music, as it comes to him, is jotted down on the backs of envelopes or any odds and ends of paper he may have in his pocket, X3 Sir-Arthur Sullivan used to work under every possible condition. He could com- pose as fluently in a crowded room, tak- ing part in the conversation at intervals, as in his own study. Much of the best and brightest music was written in bed between paroxysms of pain; znd “The Lost Chord” came to him when he was watching by the bedside of his brother. Mr. Chevalier wrote both words and music of “My Old Dutch” with the light of street lamps as he was walking one wet, wintry evening to Islington. My own happiest inspiration came to me at Vaux- hall station, when I was waiting for my daughter to arrive from Southampton; and I am sure you can’'t imagine any more urinspiring environment than that. A friend of mine told me that a very popular composition of his, which is a great favorite with all music lovers, came to him while trying to listen to a dreary sermon, and was jotted down on the blank leaves of his prayer book. There is scarcely any condition you can imagine under which good musi: has not been written; and I need scarcely tell you that the composer can judge its effect just as well as if he heard it played by GOLD BRICK EXALT SIZE the best orchestra of the world. What is, perhaps, less intelligible to a Jayman is the rapidity with which a musi- cian can score his compositions for each instrument of a large orchestra, writing down his notes with almost lightning rapidity. As he writes he can hear th orchestra in full swing, and knows exactly the part he must assign to each instru- ment in producing the general effect, with all its delicacies of “light and shade.” The scoring is the drudgery of a ecom- poser’s working life, and to some men it is very irksome, while others, like the late Sir Arthur Suilivan, perfectly revel in it. He performed prodigies. in it, often working at it for a dozen hours at a stretch, and producing an amount of work which would ta men-as many days. . You may take it for granted that, just as a clever artist ke most can see the complete picture in his mind’s eye before he puts a brush to his canvas, a composer who is worthy of the name can hear his complet- ed composition as he scores it as fuily and accurately as when it bursts on the car of the public.—London Tit-Bits.