BOSTON TO WASHINGTON 123 



under the Government. He was highly educated and had 

 seen much of the world, and we spent many pleasant hours 

 together. He introduced me to Mr. Daniel Lyman, solicitor 

 to the Treasury, a man of powerful physique and strong 

 character, who had for many years made a study of spiritual- 

 istic phenomena, and, like Sir W. Crookes, had had mediums 

 to live with him and be wholly subject to his own conditions. 

 Under such circumstances he had obtained phenomena of a 

 more astounding, yet more convincing nature than any person 

 I have met. He took us over the Treasury, showed us the 

 beautiful machinery for engraving bank-notes, so that every 

 fresh issue — and they are continually being made — may have 

 a new and highly complex pattern. We were also taken to 

 the Treasury vaults — some filled to the roof with bags of dol- 

 lars, others with gold in interminable ranges. One huge 

 vault, about sixty feet by thirty feet, with iron partitions, was 

 filled from floor to ceiling with bags of dollars, one thousand 

 in each bag. The total amount was fifty-seven millions, and in 

 another vault there was twenty-five millions in gold. The 

 large double doors closing these vaults are of steel, strength- 

 ened by massive cross-bars and with huge cylindrical bolts 

 at top, bottom, and sides, all connected by a clockwork arrange- 

 ment, which prevents the bolts from being moved till the hour 

 at which the clock was previously set. The doors and locks 

 were highly finished pieces of engineering, and must have 

 cost a very large sum each. These enormous stores of coin, 

 and the complex and costly arrangements for keeping them 

 safely, afforded a striking object-lesson to the Socialist of the 

 waste and absurdity of our existing systems of currency, which 

 would be completely unnecessary under a more rational social 

 organization. 



One day Mr. Allen went with me to the House of Repre- 

 sentatives, where we heard part of a debate on the Pleuro- 

 pneumonia Bill, State rights, etc. The arrangements differ 

 widely from ours. The whole building seems to be open to 

 the public. There is a very broad gallery all around the 

 chamber with comfortable seats, accommodating perhaps sev- 

 eral thousand people. Every member has a separate desk and 



