106 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



Street operation than dynamiting the banks 

 would have been. Of this, too, in its turn I shall 

 write. 



From the first the delivery of coin was irk- 

 some. It was impossible to open each bag sup- 

 posed to contain $5,000 in gold. It was thrown 

 on the scales and rejected if light, but there 

 might be sections of lead pipe inside. Each 

 bag was tagged and when received a boy 

 marked on it the date and the party from which 

 it came, that is if there was time. When some 

 one opened the bag and found it short a claim 

 for reclamation started back through the scores 

 of houses named on the dozen tags in the bunch. 

 Much of the gold in the bags was "chicken feed" 

 as dollar gold coins were dubbed. 



Often a bag burst in the hands of a boy as he 

 was rushing along sidewalk or street to deliver 

 it. As five thousand tiny pieces of coin spread 

 out on a crowded sidewalk it seemed a wonder 

 that half could be saved. But the miracle was 

 the other way for seldom was a dollar lost. The 

 accident happened often to us but so far as I 



