Page:WALL STREET IN HISTORY.djvu/88

80 was the exhuming of its corner-stone, a short time ago, while repairing one of its famous vaults. A glass bottle filled with historical documents, was discovered, and contained the following written scraps:

"This bottle, which cost one dollar, was bought for this purpose by Richard M. Lawrence, Esq., President of the Union Insurance Office.

"J..

"May 23, 1823."

"Deposited on the 23d May, 1823. If it should be the fate of these papers to be discovered many centuries hence by the descendants of the present inhabitants of New York, for the gratification of reading the description of the present state of this aspiring city they will be indebted to persons who feel the same interest in its prosperity as if they were to occupy it forever."

", May 23, 1823.

"This bottle is deposited by Lang, Turner & Co., editors and proprietors of the New York Gazette. The contents of it may be useful and interesting to some future generation. The population of this city is about 130,000. This may again come to light a thousand years after this period.

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The bottle further contained a copy of "Longworth's American Almanac," or City Directory, containing much curious information. Also a copy of the "Stranger's Guide to the City of New York," which stated that the number of negro slaves in the metropolis had decreased until they counted at that date only 617.

The utility of the Assay Office is in taking the people's bullion, ascertaining its exact value, refining it, and returning its equivalent to the owner in coin or stamped bars. The first room on the ground floor, after passing the vestibule, is where the bullion is received from depositors and weighed, and where it is paid for when its value has been found. The first "melting-room" is to the right of the "weigh-room," and here the gold is boiled down, so to speak, and poured into molds. In a vault beyond repose a collection of gold bricks to the amount of any number of millions in the course of a season. The assay laboratory is on the floor above, where experts are employed to decide upon the proportion of gold and silver contained in the deposits. The balances here used are the most delicate that genius can invent, and the slightest breath of air must be