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Show A SILVER AVALANCHE. A Slide of Tiro Million Silver Dollars at the Philadelphia Mint. A portion of the $50,000,000 that was stored away in vault C at the mint came very close to being a cause of disaster dis-aster to several clerks who were counting count-ing the coin on Tuesday afternoon. An avalanche of silver dollars, released from their bundles through the rotting of the bags, poured down into the space where the clerks were standing, and only through their hasty escape was a loss of life prevented. The coin was piled up in bags to a height of 1 2 feet and a width of 8 feet. The vault is damp, and the bags had become moldy ana Iran. About 3 o'clock, as Welington Morris, on employee, was standing on top of the pile raking in some loose dollars, he trod into a bag, and the silver dollars at once began to slide out. Like a snowball snow-ball on a mountain side, the mass of silver dollars grew in size. There was an ominous rumble, and the clerks at the foot of the pile looked up in surprise. sur-prise. Seeing the impending danger, a wild break was made for the door. Serious Se-rious injury to Morris was feared, but he succeeded in escaping unhurt. The impact of the dollars shook the mint building as by an earthquake, and intense excitement prevailed among the employees. It is estimated that the amount which fell was valued at fully $2, 000, 000 and weighed 112, 000 pounds. The accident caused a change to be made in the method of counting. Heretofore Here-tofore the counting has been facilitated by the use of a pair of scales, $1,000 being counted and weighed at a time. Now it will be necessary to count the dollars one by one, and the work will probably consume six months, possibly an entire year. Under the old system the count would have been finished by July 1. Philadelphia Press. |