THE TREASURY.

THE TREASURY is on Pennsylvania avenue at 15th street. Open from 9 to 2 daily; but the tour of the building may be made only between 11 and 12 and 1 and 2.

THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING is on 14th street, south of the Monument grounds. Reached by Pennsylvania avenue cars, which transfer at 14th street to 11th street car (2 cents extra fare). Open to visitors from 9 to 11:45 and 12:30 to 2:45. No pass required.

S

ECOND only to the Capitol itself in architectural importance is

the Treasury Building, an imposing structure of sandstone and granite, having a total length of 450-ft, and a width of 250-ft. The east front on Fifteenth street is adorned with a colonnade of stately Ionic columns, after those of the Temple of Minerva at Athens; and on the north, the west and the south fronts are porticoes of similar columns. There is reason to regret that the architect, Robert Mills, did not have his way in the design of setting the building amid grounds commensurate with it in dignity and beauty, instead of obtruding it unceremoniously upon the thoroughfare; but the story goes that President Jackson became impatient at the long delayed choosing of a site, and finally stuck his cane into the ground one morning and ordered, "Build it here." And here it is to-day.

The impression the structure gives is of enduring solidity and security, and it is fitting that this should be so; for, while the 200 rooms on each floor of the building are devoted to a surprisingly varied range of activities, the Treasury is first of all a financial institution, and it is as such that it has most interest. To study its various operations, one should visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (in another building); the Division of Issue, the Redemption Division, the Bond and Silver and Gold Vaults, and Cash Room. The Cash Room may be seen at any time from 9 to 2; no pass is required. To be shown the other rooms, one should time a visit between II and 12, or 1 and 2.

The Cash Room is near the Pennsylvania avenue entrance, on the first floor; but may be seen to better advantage from the gallery, to which doors give access from the corridor of the second floor. The walls are of choice American and Italian marbles, and the room is one of the costliest in the world. As the name denotes, the Cash Room is a cashier's office. Here the Treasury cashes the various warrants drawn upon it and presented here for payment. The daily transactions run into the millions; a warrant once handed in and cashed without a moment's delay came over from the Pension Bureau, and the figures upon it called for $1,000,000. The visitor himself may have a part in the business of the Cash Room by presenting at one of the steel screened windows a warrant on the Government, in the shape of a national currency bill, and, receiving coin for its face value, may thus complete the round of circulation of that

particular piece of paper as money. Having gone out originally from this very building as new currency, having passed through innumerable hands in exchange for a thousand and one different things, and having now found its way back again, old and worn, it will here be redeemed, and then as money no longer, but just plain paper, it will be destroyed. Treasury Tour. The system of making new money, exchanging new for old, and destroying the old, is what one sees at the Treasury; and it is all so interesting that we are likely to count the half-hour spent here as among the best to be remembered of the National Capital.

From II to 12 in the morning, and from 1 to 2 in the afternoon, visitors who present themselves at the office of the United States Treasurer, Room 96, on the first floor, are escorted through the money departments of the institution. If you give your attention to the very courteous and well-informed messenger who conducts the party, you will hear him relate of the several phases of the work what is told in the following pages. We shall depart, however, from the order in which for convenience the several rooms are shown, that we may follow the course of a piece of paper money through all the successive stages of manufacture, issue, redemption and destruction. To do this we must begin at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a branch of the Treasury. Here are printed the Government bonds and the national currency, together with postage and revenue stamps, military, naval and diplomatic commissions, passports, etc. Specimens of the work of the Bureau are exhibited in the waiting room and in the halls, and series of currency are displayed in various stages of completion. There is a series of old-time fractional currency-shinplasters; and a $10,000 gold certificate, the largest note issued.

Plates. The actual work of engraving the plates is not shown. This is surrounded with the utmost precaution to guard against abstraction of the plates; they are closely watched by day, and are locked in the vaults by night. The original plate itself is never printed from, but a replica is made of it for actual use. This is the Bureau's device to guard against the possibility of being itself a counterfeiter of the currency. For, if an accident should happen to a plate, it would have to be replaced by a new one; and no matter how nearly like the original the new one might be engraved, it would not be that original, but a copy of it, and a note printed from the new plate would not be an original, but a copy of that original, i. e.., a counterfeit. Whereas, if the replica should be injured, a new replica would be a new original printing plate.

Printing the Notes.-The first process that one witnesses is the printing of the notes. In this 625 employes are engaged. The paper used is the peculiar silk-fibered paper made at the Crane Mills in Dalton, Mass. Its manufacture is a closely guarded trade secret, and the law forbids pos

session by others of any such paper or its imitation. It is received in packages of 1,000 sheets. This 1,000 count, beginning at the paper mill in Massachusetts, is maintained throughout every department of the Bureau, and is continued after the notes reach the Treasury. To each pressman 1,000 sheets are given at a time. The printing is done on handpresses. Each pressman has a young woman assistant. Each sheet makes four notes. A pressman prints 500 sheets a day, on one side only. Formerly the notes were trimmed and sealed in the Treasury Department. Since July 1, 1910, by the installation of new and improved machines, the notes are sealed, numbered, counted and collected into packages of 100 notes by one operation in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

There are fourteen departments; each piece of work passes through the hands of thirty different people. An elaborate system of receipting prevails, and at the closing hour everything is delivered into the hands of the custodians, and every count is verified before the force is dismissed. The rule prevails not only here, but in the Issue and Redemption Divisions in the Treasury Building.

Division of Issue.-This Division, although a part of the Office of the Treasurer of the United States, is now located in the building of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the quantity of currency finished each day is delivered to that Division, and is counted and verified by expert counters to determine that each package contains 100 notes.

The average daily volume of new money passing through the hands of the counters is four million dollars, made up of over 800,000 separate notes. Every package is receipted for by each person into whose hands it comes. Having received the final count, the money is intrusted to the sealing clerk, who wraps up the packages (containing from $4,000 to $4,000,000 each) in plebeian brown paper, and seals each package with the Treasury Seal. The amount of money received by him at the close of the day must tally to a dollar with the amount received from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Four million dollars a day of this new money is taken to the office of the Treasurer at 9 o'clock each morning, in a vehicle built of steel, and protected by heavily armed guards. This money is deposited in the currency reserve vaults (not shown to visitors) where it remains for two months or

more.

As one new lot is added each day to the vault, another lot is taken out for issue, to be put into circulation, a goodly proportion of it destined eventually to find its way back to this building as worn and mutilated currency, to be redeemed in the Redemption Division.

Redemption Division. In the Redemption Division old currency is received to be exchanged for new. It comes in from banks throughout the country and from the Sub-Treasuries.*

*There are Sub-Treasuries at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and San Francisco. The Mints are at Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver, Carson City, and San Francisco.