Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/488

472 Much of the silver is delivered to the consignees at their counting houses in the city, and there recounted, and repacked in smaller bags containing but one thousand dollars each. I saw in the house of Schliden & Co., one day, a party of natives at work counting and repacking a half million of these bright new dollars. They get twelve and a half cents for each one thousand dollars which they count and sew up in the new bags, and are very expert in detecting defective or base coin. It is said that when they pour a bag of these dollars upon the table, they will decide in an instant whether they are of the coinage of Zacatecas, Guanajuato, or Mexico, by the difference in the ring of each, though it is wholly imperceptible to the ear of the uninitiated. If the bags are found short the deficit is charged to the shippers at Mexico or Guanajuato; if in excess—and this is not uncommon—the overplus is credited to the shippers.

I have never seen any specie-counters or experts, who, could beat these uneducated Indian-blooded Veracruzanos, save the Chinese experts, who do the same business for the banks in San Francisco, and who can discount the world beyond a doubt.

The scene reminded me of an incident which occurred at the city of Mexico when Gen. Scott entered the capital in triumph. A detachment of Harney's dragoons were quartered in the Palacio National, and before order was fully restored they broke open a room in the Treasury department in which they found a large number of Mexican dollars—fourteen or sixteen large sacks, if memory serves me.

In an instant they went for the coin, and a general scramble took place. One would get a sack upon his