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WHY 
 
 The Safe Deposit Co. 
 of New York, 
 
 KO. 146 BROADWAY, 
 
 Corner Liberty Street, 
 
 IS A 
 
 PUBLIC NECESSITY. 
 
 THE FIRST ESTABLISHED IN THE AYORLD. 
 CHARTERED 1861. 
 
 INTERESTING TO ALL HAVING SECURITIES, FAMILY PLATE, 
 JEWELRY, OR VALUABLE PAPERS. 
 
 READ AND INFORM OTHERS. 
 
Eatered according to Act of Congress, in the vear of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and 
 
 Sixty-eight, by 
 
 FRANCIS H. JENKS, 
 
 In the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Xew York. 
 
OFFICE OF 
 
 THE SAFE DEPOSIT CO. OF N. Y., 
 14G Broadway, 
 
 Cor. Liberty Street, 
 
 The Safe Deposit Co. of ISTew York, chartered 
 April, 1861, was, when it went into operation, the 
 FIRST AND ONLY Incorporated Institution in the world 
 OF its kind. 
 
 Its increase of business has been all that could 
 reasonably have been expected for the development of 
 a new idea, involving in its working, interests of such 
 importance to each of its patrons. 
 
 That its usefulness and security is appreciated by 
 the community is demonstrated by the business it is 
 doing, both in its extent and the character of those 
 from and through whom it conies. The public has 
 given it their generous confidence ; and it has been 
 largely indebted to all the Banks and the other 
 moneyed Corporations of this city for much of its 
 business through their kind recommendation ; while 
 it has been to the Company an approving endorsement 
 of their efforts, that so large a portion of its new busi- 
 ness is found to come from its favorable mention, 
 and often its earnest recommendation by its Dealers. 
 Their universal expression of satisfaction with our 
 arrangements and the conduct of our business, and 
 their frequent expressions of grateful appreciation of 
 the comfort and security they have enjoyed in the use 
 
4 
 
 of the facilities we offer, have been not the least 
 among the compensations to those who took the risk 
 of starting the untried enterprise. 
 
 1^0 expense has been or will be spared to secure 
 perfection in safety and the utmost convenience to 
 its patrons. The cost of its fixtures has been large, 
 and the great current expenses of the Company, from 
 the nature of its business, are larger in proportion to 
 receipts than those of any other financial corporation. 
 All these render necessary a very considerable increase 
 of the business of the Company, if its present exceed- 
 ingly low rates are to be continued, in order to assure 
 to its Stockholders a reliable and fairly remunera- 
 tive return for the risk of their investment, and for 
 their further personal liability as Stockholders, in what 
 was, at the time of their subscription, an experiment. 
 
 To realize the results the acknowledged merits of 
 the Institution seem to justify, and which its expenses 
 demand, the public have to be educated to its use, 
 by placing and keeping before them the risks of the 
 present customary mode of keeping Securities, Plate, 
 Jewelry, and the various valuable Papers and Articles, 
 for the safe-keeping of which the Company was organ- 
 ized. 
 
 With that view we issue this sketch of the Reasons 
 Why this Company, now become an Institution of the 
 country, and being imitated in other cities in America 
 and Europe, is a Public E'ecessity. 
 
 And the Company respectfully solicits of its friends 
 and the readers of this pamphlet their aid in dissemi- 
 nating the information and suggestions it contains. 
 
REASONS WHY THIS COMPANY IS A 
 PUBLIC NECESSITY. 
 
 In Case of Loss of Government Coupon Bonds. 
 
 It has been settled by legal decisions, that the 
 innocent holder of a Government Coupon Bond, or 
 other such Security, has a good title to it, though it 
 may have been lost or stolen from a former owner 
 and advertised by him. Before the title of a present 
 holder to a Coupon Bond can be made invalid, it must 
 be proven that when he took it he knew it to have been 
 lost or stolen, or that he had reason to presume that 
 the party through whom it came had no right to con- 
 vey a title to it. The importance, therefore, of a 
 Place of Absolute Safety for all such Securities, 
 is obvious. 
 
 Attention is invited to the following : 
 
 Treasury Department, April 27, 1867. 
 
 In consequence of the increasing trouble, wholly 
 without practical benefit, arising from notices w^hich 
 are constantly received at the Department, respecting 
 the loss of Coupon Bonds which are payable to the 
 bearer, and of Treasury i^otes issued and remaining in 
 blank at the time of loss, it becomes necessary to give 
 the public notice : 
 
 That the Government cannot protect, and will not 
 undertake to protect, the owners of such Bonds and 
 
6 
 
 Notes against the consequences of their own fault or 
 misfortune. Hereafter all Bonds, ITotes, and Coupons, 
 payable to bearer, ^nd Treasury Notes issued and re- 
 maining in blank, will be paid to the party presenting 
 them, in pursuance of the regulations of the Depart- 
 ment, in the course of regular business, and no atten- 
 tion will be paid to caveats which may be tiled for the 
 purpose of preventing such payments. 
 
 (Signed,) H. McCULLOCH, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 Leaving Tin Boxes &c., at Banks. 
 
 Those who leave at their Bank their Securities in 
 Tin Boxes, and much more, open, or merely in En- 
 velopes, with the Cashier or the Teller, know that they 
 are taken with reluctance, that the service is looked 
 upon not only as altogether gratuitous, but onerous 
 and outside of the legitimate business of the Bank, 
 and that it is done only through a desire not to give 
 offence by a refusal, and they are told, when they leave 
 them, that the Bank will not be responsible for them. 
 
 The establishment of this institution possessing, as 
 it evidently does, the confidence of the community, 
 leaves no excuse for thus forcing an unwilling and 
 profitless service upon the oflicers as well as the Stock- 
 holders of the Banks, apart from any consideration of 
 the relative security of the two methods. 
 
 Boxes left at the Banks are in charge simply of the 
 Porter. They are not put in the same place of security, 
 nor in a place of equal security Avith those of the Bank, 
 
7 
 
 and as a general custom the vault in which the Boxes 
 are i)ut is open and accessible to every and any em- 
 ploye of the Bank daring business hours, and gener- 
 ally to Depositors of the Boxes also, who in designating 
 within the vault which one belongs to them have the 
 op])ortunity of taking any other in place of their own. 
 
 The vault of the Bank is kept open after business 
 hours and consequently after tlie officers and clerks 
 have left, perhaps for the accommodation of some 
 clerk unavoidably behindhand in his writing, or of 
 some Dealer who is late with his Box, — as the Porter 
 gets from the latter an annual fee for his trouble. 
 Meanwhile the vault, full of Tin Boxes, is in exclusive 
 charge of the Porter, and subject also to all the con- 
 tingencies of a concerted attack of desperadoes which 
 the circumstances invite. The lock on a Tin Box is of 
 course no security at all. 
 
 Contrast this mode of Safe-Keeping with the security 
 offered by this Company, through every guard and 
 check that the most solicitous caution has thus far 
 devised, and- the purpose to adopt without regard to 
 expense, every further security that observation and 
 experience may hereafter suggest, — and the advan- 
 tages this Compan}' offers will be the more apparent. 
 
 One of our most eminent lawyers remarked at the 
 time this Company was organizing, that in defending 
 a suit against a Bank here for the loss of a Box left 
 with it, he had been astounded to learn with what 
 reckless carelessness on the part of their owners, so 
 vast an amount of property was handled as the Boxes 
 thus left with the Banks involved. This is still con- 
 
8 
 
 tinued by so many doubtless from their being habit- 
 uated to this mode, and from a want of knowledge of 
 and reflection upon the risks run, and of a realiza- 
 tion of the disastrous results to its owner should he 
 lose his Box. 
 
 A gentleman read before starting from his home in 
 Brooklyn the newspaper account of the robbery of a 
 Box containing a very large amount of Securities from 
 the Bank in which his own Box was kept. He said 
 that no consideration could induce him to risk again 
 passing through all his anxiety till he could cross the 
 ferry, and know to a certainty whether his own Box 
 was still safe. He got it from the Bank vault, and 
 forthwith took a Safe with this Company. 
 
 Another gentleman says he bad for some time 
 intended at a convenient season to call in and see for 
 himself whether he had not better follow the advice 
 of friends, and take a Safe with this Company, but 
 the time never came when he could readily call in ^'just 
 then.'' On going to his Bank for his Box he found the 
 Porter handing out in succession half a dozen Boxes 
 to a clerk of one of its Dealers for his recognition, 
 till at last the clerk took the seventh Box. He said 
 lie thought it now time he should make it convenient 
 to call and see what better security this Company 
 could oflfer, and so took his Box in turn and came 
 ^'straight" to our Vaults, and forthwith rented a Safe 
 therein, — securely locked with his own key, inaccessi- 
 ble to any one but himself, and to himself accessible at 
 all times of the day between 9 and 4 o'clock, — thus 
 giving an hour before the Banks open and an hour 
 
9 
 
 after the Banks close, — and accessible as many times 
 during those hours as he pleases, without any 
 apologies. 
 
 Here lie feels that he is enjoying a n^^^A^ that has been 
 paid for and belongs to hwi, and not a mere courtesy that 
 has been neccessarily reluctantly accorded him ; — here he 
 is considered a desirable patron, and not as in the other 
 case an unavoidable nuisance; — here the deposit of his 
 Box is sought as a business, and consequently as a busi- 
 ness cared for, rather than, as in the other case, taken 
 on virtual compulsion, with perhaps the secret and 
 natural feeling that the less care shown to be taken of 
 it, the less likely will he be to continue to annoy the 
 Bank with the unwelcome burthen. Here he secures for 
 himself a place where convenient, separate desks are 
 provided, each secluded from all others, and where he 
 may overhaul the contents of his Box at leisure, in 
 perfect privacy, and carefully fenced off from any in- 
 trusion, with those only about him, who like himself 
 have been admitted as Renters only on personal, 
 responsible introduction, and m entire security from 
 thief, pickpocket, grabber, slung-shot or other device — 
 and without feeling that he is either out of place or 
 ''in the way" of anybody. Here, too, if through 
 absent-mindedness, he should chance to leave any of 
 his Securities upon the desk, all the chances are in 
 favor of their being returned to him ; watchfulness for 
 the inadvertence of the Eenters themselves bemo: a 
 part of the Police of the office. 
 
 By this provision of Desks on the spot for Renters, 
 are avoided all the risks of taking the Box from the 
 
10 
 
 premises, as well from the messenger employed to carry 
 the Box through the streets, as from his assault by 
 highway robbers, of which we have recently had so 
 many warning instances. In a recent robbery of some 
 millions, the messenger of one of our City Banks on his 
 way to the Clearing House with his valise of checks 
 etc., was attacked and robbed at noon in Wall street. 
 
 In another recent case, the messenger of a wealthy 
 mercantile firm was waylaid as he was carrying their 
 Tin Box to their counting room on the second floor; 
 at the street entrance he was seized and held by 
 three men concealed behind the door who threw red 
 pepper in his eyes, and tried to wrench his Box from 
 him. 
 
 Among other cases illustrating the insecurity of 
 leaving Boxes in Bank vaults, a gentleman took home 
 from his Bank a Box he supposed his own, and finding 
 his mistake on opening it, took it back to the Bank 
 and exchanging it for his own hastened in anxiety to 
 the owner of the Box he had taken, and requested 
 him to go at once with him to examine the Box, to be 
 assured that nothing had been taken therefrom by him. 
 He then learned there was in the Box over a million 
 in value, the larger portion in Coupon Bonds. 
 
 An illustration of the justifiable, and indeed un- 
 avoidable feeling of Bank Officers in the matter of 
 Boxes thus left in their vaults, is impressivel}^ shown 
 in the following instance. A well-dressed thief hung 
 about the front of one of our leading Banks near the 
 close of its business hours, watching prey, till seeing a 
 lad enter the Bank with a Tin Box bearing the name 
 
11 
 
 of a well-known wealthy Banking-house, he followed 
 him in, passing behind the lad through the counter-gate, 
 and along behind the counter, back of several clerks 
 and Ji teller or two, to the place near the vault where 
 the lad left the Box on the floor to await, as is usual, 
 the convenience of the Porter to place it in the vault. 
 The thief stood aside till the lad had gone a few steps 
 on his return, when he coolly took up the Box, and 
 retraced his steps to the street with his booty, several 
 hundred thousand dollars in value. An Oflicer of 
 the Bank in answer to a question " Did 3'ou notice 
 the man as he passed you?" replied, "^^o; I was 
 busily occupied with ni}' own business, and if I had 
 seen him I should have had nothing to say to him; 
 it is not one of my duties. If folks will leave their 
 Boxes here when Ave tell them we will take no respon- 
 sibility in regard to them, they must look after them 
 themselves ; we can't ; they must take their chances. 
 What would our Directors say to me, if, through chal- 
 lenging messengers bringing and taking Boxes, I 
 should commit some error in my duties, and damage 
 the Bank? They would tell me they paid me to attend 
 to the business of the Bank, not to look after people's 
 Tin Boxes." 
 
 To those who leave their Securities with Country 
 Banks or Bankers, the danger is greatly increased, 
 from the very much greater risk there of robbery of 
 the Bank Vault or Safe ; as instanced in the man}^ 
 newspaper accounts of recent Bank Robberies in vari- 
 ous ways, even to tying and gagging the Cashier, or 
 locking him up in his own Safe, or rousing him from 
 
12 
 
 sleep at midnight with a pistol at his head to enforce 
 the demand that he proceed forthwith noiselessly to 
 the Banking Room and open its Vaults to them ; or 
 even to killing him on the spot in broad daylight 
 while at his desk in the Bank. It would not be agree- 
 able to parties in interest to have their misfortunes in 
 losing Boxes from Banks, raked up and paraded anew 
 before the public for the benefit of this Company, but 
 let any one interested in a Box thus left with a Bank 
 inquire somewhat into the statistics of Boxes thus lost 
 and if his nerves are not somewhat shaken till he 
 provides himself hetler security, he must be less cautious 
 in his aflairs than his possession of anything worth 
 safe keeping would seem to indicate. 
 
 As to Securities Open or Sealed up left with 
 Cashiers and Tellers of Banks. 
 
 The risk is less than on those left in the Vault in Tin 
 Boxes as above referred to : but even this mode is not 
 without its risk, as all Bank Officers assure those so 
 leaving securities with them, while they also warn 
 them that the Bank takes no responsibility in regard 
 to them. 
 
 This insecurity was strikingly illustrated with one 
 of our leading Banks. A large amount of Bonds 
 had been left for safe-keeping with the Cashier, and 
 was in this case put in the Tin Box appropriated b}^ 
 the Bank to its own Securities ; the Box was taken 
 from its place in the inner Vault or Safe and placed 
 upon the Cashier's desk, and there opened for refer- 
 ence ; this package of its Dealer's Bonds happened to 
 
13 
 
 lie at the top of the contents; was seen tliere when the 
 Box was opened, and while tlie Box remained open was 
 suddenly missed, and has not been heard of since. It 
 was doubtless taken by some professional "grabber." 
 
 There is a risk attending leaving one's Securities at 
 a Bank, either in a Tin Box in its Vault, or with a 
 Cashier or Teller, open or sealed, or in leaving Silver 
 Plate with a Bank, which probably has not occurred 
 to all who are in the practice. A suit against a 
 Bank in this city has long been pending to recover 
 the value of the contents of a Tin Box left with 
 it in the usual way, which was delivered in good 
 faith upon a Forged Order. Who of all who thus 
 leave their Tin Boxes or Securities with Banks is ex- 
 empt from the possibility of such a mishap, and to 
 how many of those would such an occurrence be abso- 
 lute ruin. This Company recognizes no orders re- 
 ceived through or by a second person. It is against 
 our rules ; such an occurrence could not take place 
 with this Company. 
 
 In a suit at Boston by a Mercantile House there, 
 whose correspondents here had left in the usual way 
 in a Kew York Bank with which they kept their 
 account, their Tin Box containing a large amount be- 
 longing to the Boston firm, Avhich Box was stolen from 
 that Bank, it has been recently decided that the Bank 
 was not responsible. 
 
 The Controller of the Treasury in reply to inquiries 
 from Baltimore Banks, has issued his opinion that 
 National Banks jeopard their charters and may seri- 
 ously compromise their Stockholders by allowing 
 
14 
 
 Securdties to be left at tlie Banks, either in Tin Boxes 
 as usual, or Open, or in Envelopes, with an}- of their 
 Officers. 
 
 Family Plate 
 
 Is a bulky thing to burthen a Bank with. The 
 recent agitation of the subject of such deposits in con- 
 sequence of the establishment of this Company in- 
 duced a Bank in Boston, to overhaul their own deposits 
 of this character ; they found a Box of Plate that had 
 laid there some thirty or forty years, its w^hereabouts or 
 even existence unknown to its owners, who had depos- 
 ited it there through a friend in view of a temporary 
 residence abroad; there being no record of its deposit. 
 
 A Trunk of Silver Plate left with one of the Banks 
 in this city was found on its delivery to have been 
 emptied of its contents by the bottom of the trunk 
 being forced open and then replaced. !N"o clue to the 
 thief could ever be obtained. 
 
 The question naturalh^ suggests itself, is it quite 
 " the thing" thus unnecessarily to impose upon the 
 kindness of a Bank Officer with responsibilities and 
 harassments enough ]3ertaining to his legitimate duties, 
 gratuitous care such as may in certain and various 
 contingencies not only place him in very embarrassing 
 circumstances, but even jeopard his character as well 
 as his position ? 
 
 Plate left with a Jeweler 
 
 For gratuitous safe keeping is of course understood 
 to be wholly at the owner's risk as to Fire, Theft, 
 
15 
 
 Forged Orders, etc. ; nor is it expected to be in any 
 Safe or Yanlt, but like other merchandise, in the store 
 or cellar. 
 
 Where Family Plate is valued as an Heir Loom, its 
 security is not a question of dollars, as dollars could 
 not replace it. 
 
 Keeping Securities in Private Safes. 
 
 There are certain objections applicable to all private 
 Safes, however located, as the depositories for Securi- 
 ties and Valuables. 
 
 The knowledge that you possess a Safe suggests 
 valuable contents and attracts the thief or burglar and 
 shows him where to look. 
 
 No Safe is absolutely secure against an expert 
 burglar, if he have sufficient time and opportunity, 
 undiscovered. There has been a great advance of late 
 years in the security of both Safes and Locks. But 
 the advance in the art of getting into them has fully 
 kept pace with their improvement. The exploits in 
 England some years ago, of Hobbs, the American 
 lockmaker and picker, waked up both buyer and seller 
 of Safes. 
 
 Private Safes are not under constant, special watch, 
 on Sundays, holidays, and at night. 
 
 Among the many illustrations of this with which 
 the newspapers teem, a case recently occurred in South 
 street, where the Burglars were prevented getting to 
 a large amount of bonds in the Counting-house Safe on 
 Sunday, only by the unusual visit of the occupant of 
 another office in the same building. 
 
16 
 
 Even with the most careful principals or employes, 
 Private Safes are liable to be left unlocked though 
 closed. 
 
 No one can be always guarded, against absent- 
 mindedness, pressure of engagements, haste to catch 
 a train, an untimely visitor, etc., etc. 
 
 The modern custom of many offices in one building 
 and several occupants in the same office, greatly 
 increases the facilities for the robbery of private Safes, 
 not only from the chance that a dangerous man may 
 get an office or a desk for a bad purpose, but from the 
 carelessness or collusion of a Janitor or his female 
 employes. What tenant ever stipulates that the Jani- 
 tor shall search his room after the street door is closed ? 
 The outer door of one of these buildings was locked 
 upon two gentlemen, engrossingly engaged till after 
 dark in conversation in one of these offices, the Janitor 
 beino^ unaware of their beino: there. 
 
 As the writer was organizing this Company, a 
 prominent lawyer of this State who occupied an office 
 in one of these Office Buildings, remarked to him "If 
 your Company had been established a few years earlier 
 it would have saved me the loss of papers of over 
 $50,000 in value to me and my family, stolen from 
 the Safe in my office during my absence from the 
 city." 
 
 No better proof could be adduced of the apprecia- 
 tion by business men of the advantages this Institution 
 offers as a Safe Deposit for Securities compared with 
 even the best private Safes, than the fact that a large 
 number of the leading Insurance Companies of this 
 
17 
 
 city are among our Renters and Special Depositors ; 
 strong Insurance Companies spare no expense to 
 procure the best private Safes to be had ; each such 
 Company has a large Board of Directors of practical 
 business men, and of course the measure is thoroughly 
 canvassed at the Board before any action is taken in 
 so important a matter. The same reasons that would 
 determine an Insurance Company are even more for- 
 cibly applicable to individuals. 
 
 Private Safes are valuable and necessary things, and 
 no one who has Books of Account to keep should be 
 without one ; indeed if he asks credit, he should no 
 more receive it if he does not thus insure his Books, 
 than if he does not insure his goods ; but clearly they 
 are not the thing in v/hich safely to keep Government 
 Bonds, more especially those negotiable by delivery, or 
 Gold, Jewelry, &q. This Company has no disposition 
 to disparage the use and value of private Safes ; but 
 in the interest of the public and itself simply to point 
 out the adaptability of their use and the reasons 
 therefor. 
 
 It has latterly been the custom to put Safes in first- 
 class Residences, and the owners of them have assigned 
 the fact of their possession as a reason why they did 
 not need the use of this Company. They are doubtless 
 valuable for holding Family Plate and Jewelry in 
 current use, as against Fire, one's own Domestics, 
 " sneak thieves," and other lower orders of robbers, 
 because while the family is at home that is the best 
 security the circumstances will allow ; but as against 
 the professional Burglar they are of little value. Sup- 
 
18 
 
 pose the owner waked by two or more men at his bed- 
 side, as have been several, with a demand noiselessly 
 to open that Safe, enforced by a pistol at his head. 
 The newspapers recently recorded a robbery at a pri- 
 vate house in this very form ; after the robbers had 
 obtained their victim's Securities they returned to his 
 bed chamber, and commanding his wnfe to show her 
 hands from under the bed clothes, took the very rings 
 from her fingers. 
 
 How unfit then for the Safe Keeping of Government 
 or other Bonds is a Safe so located ! 
 
 It is not unusual wdth these robbers when they find 
 nothing in a Safe of value to themselves, to destroy in 
 spite what therein they think may be of value to the 
 owner. 
 
 One of our Renters, residing in one of the first- 
 class houses up town, recently called at our oflftce and 
 said that Burglars had robbed the lower floor of his 
 house and stolen all his clothes from his bedside, and 
 that the key of his Safe in our Vault was in his pocket. 
 He had bolts on his chamber door inside; but presumed 
 he must have forgotten to bolt them on that night. 
 Suppose he had had a Safe in his house, being asleep 
 he was wholly in the power of the Robbers to com- 
 pel him to open it for them. We promptly changed 
 his lock, although the key gives no clue to the num- 
 ber or ownership of the Safe, and under the require- 
 ments of the Company, aflfords no facility of access 
 to it. 
 
 The house of a friend of his in the upper part of 
 the city had also been recently entered by Burglars, 
 
19 
 
 who took a few articles, but some noise having alarmed 
 them, they decamped without awaking the family, who 
 found in the morning they had themselves left unlocked 
 the door of their Safe. 
 
 A friend inquired some months since at our office, 
 the rates for a box of valuables that he described. He 
 recently informed the writer, calling to mind his 
 inquiry, that he had not deposited the Box with us 
 because he purchased at a low price at auction a 
 superior Burglar Proof Safe, costing new eleven 
 hundred dollars, which he had placed in his Dining 
 E-oom and put his Securities, Silver, etc., in it. On 
 going to the Safe one morning to make preparation 
 for breakfast, .they found it had been unlocked, and 
 all their Silver and Securities to a considerable amount 
 had been taken. They or the maker of the Safe 
 could only account for the unlocking on the presump- 
 tion that the Burglars had taken an impression of 
 the Key at the auction and then ascertained the 
 buyer. Why may not this be done also at private 
 sales ? 
 
 If a Burglar is willing to take a Burglar's chances in 
 the attempt, no convenient and available means have 
 yet been discovered effectually to keep him out of 
 your dwelling or even bedchamber. He can readily 
 remove a window pane or a door panel, or cut a hole 
 and draw the bolt or turn the key, or pick some outside 
 door lock, or open it with your own key if left in the 
 lock, by gripping from the outside the end with an 
 instrument they have for the purpose. 
 
20 
 
 The insecurity of Private Safes generally as 
 Depositories of Bonds and similar 
 Valuable Papers. 
 
 There are three kinds of Private Safes : Fire Proof, 
 Burglar Proof, and Fire and Burglar Proof. 
 
 As against a Fire, the reliability of a Fire Proof 
 Safe depends much upon its locality ; whether built 
 in the wall, and its chances there against the heat 
 as well as the falling of the wall ; next, whether it is 
 upon a floor liable to be hurled to the cellar as the 
 floor burns ; and how far it would thus fall ; and how 
 likely it is to stand the crash, and the crushing weight 
 of the ruins, for once open it ever so little and its 
 contents are gone. 
 
 These depend upon its material and how that is put 
 together. What does any purchaser of a Safe for his 
 own use know of either of these two points ? The 
 Safes of thirty years ago were pronounced by their 
 venders as invulnerable, yet who would trust an old 
 almanac in a ''thoroughly Fire" and even "Bur- 
 glar Proof Safe " of thirty years ago '( They were the 
 best security that could be had at that time ; but then 
 Burglary was neither so much of, nor so profitable a 
 profession, as since the wider field has opened to 
 criminal enterprise in the immense issue of Bonds 
 not only of Government but of States, Cities, Coun- 
 ties, Towns, Railroads, Mining Companies, and every 
 description of Corporations needing money. Much 
 Mercantile Paper is now drawn to the order of the 
 drawer and by him indorsed in blank, to facilitate 
 negotiation by delivery "without recourse." The 
 
21 
 
 public are learning, though slowly, that what would 
 do in times past for safe keeping a Certificate of Bank 
 Stock is not the thing now for Government and other 
 Bonds. 
 
 No vender of filled Fire Proof Safes claims for them 
 any Burglar Proof qualities. The modern ones have 
 a smaller inner cast iron, or Avhen specially ordered at 
 an added expense, steel and iron closet with a lock, for 
 better security of more valuable papers while the Safe 
 is open; these are termed "Burglar Proof Boxes," and, 
 in a limited sense, not inappropriately. But, the Safe 
 once opened, what is to prevent this Box being 
 wrenched from its place, taken off bodily, and smashed 
 open at leisure, as was done m a recent Burglary up- 
 town ? A Fire Proof Safe, so-called, should not be 
 expected to stand any very severe tests. With those 
 made of rolled iron and filling, the safety of their con- 
 tents depends partly upon the non-conducting power 
 and thickness of that filling, but more upon how the 
 Safe is fitted and secured together with reference to the 
 exclusion of air from entering, especially about the 
 doors, as it is the access of the fresh exterior air to 
 the heated air inside that causes combustion of the 
 contents. 
 
 The Fire Proof cast iron Safes with filling, are 
 liable to cracking from the expansion by heat of so 
 large a surface of casting in one piece, and from the 
 contact of water from the engines upon its heated 
 surface, through which cracks as well as those about 
 the door, the external air may reach the heated interior 
 and cause combustion. 
 
22 
 
 Nineteen twentieths of all the Safes sold are of the 
 Fire Proof kind. 
 
 But few mere "Burglar Proof Safes" are made, 
 and usually to order. They have no tilling and are 
 usually made of layers of rolled iron and steel. Its 
 merit as Burglar Proof consists in the steel being 
 hardened to the proper point; not too hard so as to 
 be too brittle, nor too soft so as to admit of being 
 drilled ; as well as in the way the steel is secured 
 between the layers of iron, and then the general work- 
 manship in putting the whole together, all of which 
 must necessarily with the purchaser be a matter of 
 faith. In regard to the " Burglar Proof Safes " made 
 from chilled cast iron, those who adopt the steel style 
 say they can be readily drilled. AVe do not propose 
 to discuss the relative merits of the different modes of 
 making safes, but simply to explain generally the con- 
 tingencies to which all private safes are liable. 
 
 A Fire and Burglar Proof Safe is a Burglar 
 Proof Safe encased in a Fire Proof Safe filling and is 
 seldom made. Some of the cast-iron styles without 
 filling claim to rank as Fire and Burglar proof. 
 
 A Safe was recently drilled and blown open in 
 !N'ew Jersey, and rifled, being muffled in carpetings so 
 successfully that though surrounded by buildings in 
 a thickly populated town, the explosion attracted no 
 attention. 
 
 The weakest part of a private Fire Proof or of a 
 private Burglar Proof Safe, against burglary, next 
 after the chance of drilling into it, or pickmg or blow- 
 ing off* the lock, is the chance of tearing out the door, 
 
23 
 
 or tearing apart the fastenings at the angles by wedges 
 driven in the cracks of the door. 
 
 On New Year's Eve, in a prominent store up-town 
 a jack-screw was fixed to one of the Safe doors, which 
 was thus drawn out without noise. The little Burglar 
 Proof Box, so called, was wrenched out bodily and 
 carried away. The store was entered through the roof 
 from an adjoining house. 
 
 About Locks. 
 
 The subject of Locks opens a wide field, which we 
 do not propose to enter upon. Locks, which a few 
 years ago were considered a reliable protection, are 
 not now considered as any protection against an expert 
 hand. There are some which have never been picked. 
 This country is far ahead of Europe in Locks. Where 
 there is a large access for a Key, there is the same 
 access for Gunpowder. 
 
 The Locks upon Fire Proof Safes are of a cheaper 
 class than those upon Burglar Proof Safes, as with 
 suitable tools ready access may be had through any 
 part of the Fire Proof Safe. 
 
 If a new Lock appears on the market, the burglars 
 are among its earliest buyers, and hardest and most 
 ingenious students, promptly to determine its true 
 value. 
 
 How Securities in Private Safes may become 
 Illegible. 
 
 There is great hazard that if you lock up 3'our papers 
 in a private Safe for any length of time, you wilh 
 
24 
 
 find dampness has rendered the handwriting nearly 
 illegible. This is especially the case with Fire Proof 
 Safes. 
 
 Besides the provision for warming, ventilating and 
 keeping dry our Vaults in all weather, each of the small 
 Safes of this Company is separatel}^ ventilated with a 
 view to obviate this risk, so that a Renter with us 
 might be absent in Europe for years, and on his return 
 find his papers in good condition. 
 
 The Great Risk of Keeping Securities at one's 
 Residence. 
 
 Those who keep their Securities at their Residences 
 incite to Burglary, to Murder, and then to Arson to 
 coverall. In the Country the risk is evidently greatly 
 enhanced in every way. 
 
 Those whose residence is in the City, and who, dur- 
 ing their absence in the Summer, leave their Plate, and 
 especially, their Bonds in their Safes in their residences, 
 besides the usual risks of Fire and Burglary, run the 
 risk of collusion with Burglars by the Domestic they 
 may leave in charge ; or of the Domestic being over- 
 come by force, threat, or strategy. Does this Domestic 
 never leave the premises ? Does she never make 
 acquaintances outside, or receive company at home ? 
 If the Residence is closed, and no Domestic left in 
 charge, and the City night watchman requested to 
 have an eye to it, faithful as most of them are, what 
 does the owner usually know of this one ? Some have 
 been known to be in collusion with criminals. 
 
25 
 
 Latterly a favorite entrance to Houses in the City 
 has been from the roof, through some other house in 
 the block ; once safely inside a house shut up for the 
 Summer, there is surely plenty of time to work at 
 leisure, more especially with an accomplice to keep 
 watch. 
 
 A Lady at Saratoga last Summer had her pocket 
 picked of the key to the Safe at her residence in 
 the upper part of this City. Subsequently the Safe 
 was robbed of about $8,000 in Bonds and Cash, and 
 the papers state there was no doubt some connection 
 between the robbery and the picking of the pocket. 
 
 If one in the Country has Securities of value it is 
 almost impossible that it should not be known in the 
 neighborhood ; and if so, readily learned by any in- 
 quiring Burglar ; and then, through Domestics or 
 laborers, either with or without their collusion, all in 
 regard to the localities of the house or the habits of 
 the family may be ascertained. 
 
 Robbery is more systematized to-day than ever 
 before in this country. The immense issue of Bonds 
 of all descriptions tends to the increase of this crime ; 
 and so do the circumstances of the times ; among which 
 is the return to the community of so many idle and 
 dissolute persons accustomed to plunder, violence, and 
 blood, as camp-followers, or a certain class of Bounty 
 Soldiers, — too many of whom in the latter days of the 
 Rebellion were the scum of the community. A part of 
 the Pictorial Press has also largely contributed to it, 
 in inflaming the minds of their readers, mostly of the 
 lower classes, with fascinating representations in type 
 and pictures of deeds of violence and crime. 
 
26 
 
 In City or Coun.try there is ample opportunity for a 
 Robber to secrete himself in any dwelling or store 
 during the day and let in accomplices at night ; or to 
 corrupt some Domestic or Employe to leave a door or 
 window unfastened, or to unfasten one after you 3^our- 
 self have fastened up. How many families lock up and 
 leave their houses alone, to attend Church, or to make 
 visits. 
 
 A Farmer in Xew Jersey was induced to deposit his 
 own Securities with this Compan}^, and also to bring a 
 neighbor with him to do the same, by having the key 
 to his Safe on the lower floor of his residence taken 
 by Burglars at night from his pocket at his bedside, 
 without disturbing him or his wife, till the moving 
 about of the thieves below awakened her. Her 
 husband was upon them barely in time to save his 
 property. They were unlocking the Safe containing 
 his Securities. What could have saved his Bonds 
 even then, had they chosen to draw revolvers. 
 
 Another Farmer in I^ew Jersey, after being expos- 
 tulated with by his neighbors on the risk of keeping 
 his Securities on his premises hid about in nooks and 
 corners, gratified them all at last by informing them 
 he had bought a Safe and put all his Securities in that. 
 Soon after, having occasion to visit a neighbor, he 
 locked up his house and drove off with all his house- 
 hold. But on his return at the end of the evening he 
 was dismayed to find his now Safe gone and no clue 
 has been since had to its whereabouts, except the 
 track of cart wheels backed up to his door ; nor need 
 the case have been much altered had he been at home; 
 a pistol would have enforced acquiescence. 
 
27 
 
 The papers recently state a case on Long Island, 
 where, on returning with his family from an evening 
 visit, a farmer found his dwelling in flames, and on his 
 attempting to get to the room where he had secreted 
 his Bonds, he found all access cut ofl:' by the fire and 
 smoke. Examination of the lower part of the house 
 showed that it had been broken into and robbed and 
 then set on fire to cover the robbery. 
 
 The best of Dogs is no protection ; in Westchester 
 County, a valuable dog, the reliance of the family for 
 safety, was silenced with a piece of meat and a few. 
 cents' worth of strychnine. The house was then 
 entered, the Safe quickly opened, and Ten Thousand 
 Dollars' worth of Bonds taken from it. I^o one in 
 the house knew of the entrance or the exit of the 
 E-obbers, though some of the family slept upon the 
 floor upon which the Safe stood. 
 
 The newspapers teem with instances of loss of Bonds 
 from this house-keeping of them. In one case a man 
 hid them in summer in the parlor stove ; on the ap- 
 proach of cold weather, his good wife thought a little 
 fire in the parlor would tend to his comfort, and in 
 a moment the savings of years had vanished. 
 
 In another case, a man thinking to elude the search 
 of a robber, should one come, wrapped his Bonds in a 
 newspaper and threw them into an empty cigar box 
 on the closet shelf. His little son, desiring to make 
 a blaze, pounced upon this false pretence and his 
 father's long savings vanished in smoke. 
 
 The newspapers not long smce mentioned the Bob- 
 bery of some Securities from a lady who had secreted 
 
28 
 
 them in the seat of her sofa. A young man who was 
 addressing her daughter, was said to have heen insti- 
 gated to it by an outside acquaintance to whom he had 
 stated the fact of their being there. Also another, 
 w^here Securities were secreted in the wall of the dwell- 
 ing and overhauled by workmen in making repairs. 
 
 A house in the upper part of the city was recently 
 entered in broad day-light by a ladder to a second 
 story back window, and over $8,000 in Bonds and 
 Jewelry stolen. 
 
 In another case, a permit to view the house, proba- 
 bly forged, purporting to be from the Broker having 
 the renting of it, was presented, and a considerable 
 amount of Bonds and Jewelry was stolen. 
 
 In anothei recent case, while the family were at 
 dinner, roboers climbed up the piazza pillars of a 
 house in this city, and, locking the doors of the cham- 
 ber inside against intrusion from the family, took from 
 a drawer a large amount of Bonds and Jewelry. 
 
 We all remember the horrible atrocity of the mur- 
 der of a w^iole family in Pennsylvania by the monster 
 Probst, their farm hand, for the paltry sum of $300. 
 Why may not this be re-enacted for a larger sum in 
 Bonds? The equally horrid murder in IS'ew Jersey of 
 the wife of a Physician in the absence of her husband, 
 by a domestic, though apparently not for money, shows 
 what may be done even by a female of the household, 
 kindly treated, when sufficient inducement is offered. 
 Of that inducement we have no ij:au2re. 
 
 In this country where Domestics are changed so 
 often, we have but little opportunity to know much 
 of them. 
 
29 
 
 The Theft of a Tin Box containing between One and 
 Two Hundred Thousand Dollars from the chamber of a 
 residence in Madison Avenue, while the family were 
 at tea, is a warning. 
 
 A family placed their Bonds in a drawer in their 
 "spare chamber" and missed them soon after a friendly 
 visit from one they had put in there for the night. The 
 occurrence has, with much mutual ill feeling, broken 
 ofl' all intercourse between them. Has any one a right 
 to place another in this position ? 
 
 The newspapers recently recited a case, and there 
 are many more of a precisely similar character, w^iere 
 a set of desperadoes entered a house in the country, 
 tied and gagged a Farmer, his wife, daughter 9.nd hired 
 man, and compelled, under threat of a pistol, the 
 Farmer to hand over his Bonds, and all to keep quiet 
 till they got fairly off. 
 
 Except that it is less portable, the same might 
 happen with Family plate, and certainly with Jewelry. 
 
 How much safer and more agreeable in such 
 emergencies to be able coolly to say, "We have no 
 Securities here ; they are all in the Safe Deposit Co. 
 of ITew York, and here is the evidence of that fact," 
 showing its Certificate of Deposit, and if the fellow 
 demands that, gracefully to comply ; it can do you no 
 harm, for it is not transferable ; and the Company 
 would not pay it to any one else than the persons 
 named in its Certificate. Then too, the owner of 
 Securities so deposited, who knew his neighbors to 
 be aware of his being a Bond-holder, would take care 
 to let them know that they were so deposited, and 
 thus obtain immunity from even a visit from burglars. 
 
30 
 
 The recent Robbery of $300,000 from a Farmer in 
 the oil regions of Pennsylvania should, it would seem, 
 be an effective warning to others. 
 
 In pursuance of our invitation to the public to call 
 and view our premises, an honest German retail grocer 
 was introduced, and after looking about, expressed 
 his regret that he had not known of the Institution a 
 month before, as he had $6,000 in Bonds stolen from 
 a trunk under his bed in the second story, while 
 he was shutting up his shop in front. "But," he added . 
 with animation, " I shall know now where to bring 
 any more I may get." 
 
 The risk run by having Securities about the premises 
 in the event of sudden death by an accident or other- 
 wise, or even in case of severe sickness, is worth 
 consideration. How easy at such a time of family 
 distress for some domestic or nurse, or it may be even 
 some connection or intimate to steal them. How easy 
 on accidentally coming across Securities while under 
 any extraordinary excitement, to take them up oneself 
 inadvertently and mislaying, expose and thus lose them. 
 
 If you have Securities or Surplus Silver Plate upon 
 your premises, it is next to impossible to conceal the 
 fact from your Domestics. It may in most cases be 
 not so much their want of integrity you have to fear, 
 as their want of discretion. It is the current opinion 
 that many of the Robberies of Dwellings are due to 
 the lack of one or the other of these virtues in a Do- 
 mestic, Waiter or Coachman. 
 
 One of our Renters, who has served for many ^^ears 
 upon the Grand Jury, says, "one not familiar with the 
 
31 
 
 subject would be surprised to learn the number of 
 Robberies implicating Domestics." He named, among 
 others, a case where the girl, with streaming eyes, 
 informed her employer that all the Silver Plate had 
 been stolen. She had lived long in the family and had 
 their implicit confidence. The Detective however, 
 fixed on the girl as an accomplice, and against the 
 lady's feelings and judgment, and the girl's most 
 earnest and indignant protestations, took her to the 
 Station House, but could get nothing from her all day 
 but asseverations of ignorance and innocence. On 
 approach of night she was assured that she must be 
 locked up if she would give no information, but she 
 still stoutly persisted, with tears, that she knew nothing 
 of the matter. She was then taken to the Lock-up 
 where it was rather dark, and espied there some 
 suspicious-looking packages stowed about, which, in 
 answer to her inquiries, she was informed were cofiins. 
 They had been put there temporarily in the course of 
 the business of the office. Frightened at the idea of 
 passing the night there, she confessed that the Silver 
 could all be found with a young man of her acquaint- 
 ance, wdiere was also found quite an accumulation of 
 other stolen Plate. 
 
 The Art of Grabbing. 
 
 The perfection to which some of the thieves have 
 cultivated themselves in this almost exceeds belief. 
 The process is for a well-dressed fellow to hang about 
 the office as though on business, closely watching his 
 opportunity, until with a skill worthy a better cause, 
 
32 
 
 he makes a successful grab and disappears. In tliis 
 wa}^ $100,000 disappeared from the office in Wall street 
 of one of our stock millionaires. So also, as herein- 
 before adverted to, a very large sum disappeared from 
 the desk of an office of one of our leading Banks, and 
 more recently a case of an equally large sum from the 
 teller's desk in another leading City Bank. These 
 cases have been of frequent occurrence. 
 
 The Great Eisk of Keeping Securities in a Safe at 
 one's place of Business. 
 
 It is common for accomplices to enter the Office of 
 the intended victim, selecting a time when he is alone 
 in his Office, and while one engages him in conversa- 
 tion upon fictitious business, the others rifle his Safe as 
 it stands open. In this way two millions in value, were 
 abstracted from an Office in this City. 
 
 A part of this belonged to a friend who had asked 
 the favor of leaving his Tin Box in the Safe. 
 
 Another recent case was the robbery of a very large 
 amount from the Safe in the inner private Office of 
 a prominent Insurance Company. How often while 
 the Safe is open, is a Counting room or Office left with 
 only one person, easily mastered by a pistol, or if a lad, 
 perhaps by strategy. 
 
 ITot long since a successful Robbery of a merchant's 
 Box or Safe was made by the thief pretending to be an 
 intimate friend of the employer of the lad, the only 
 one in charge of the premises, and sending him with 
 a note to some fictitious name "just a step across the 
 street, while I wait an answer." 
 
33 
 
 Another instance was recently published, where two 
 accomplices entered a Counting room in charge of only 
 one clerk, and while one diverted his attention with 
 pretended business, the other robbed the Safe. 
 
 By the Official Police Report nearly six thousand 
 Stores and Buildings in New York and Brooklyn were 
 left open at night, within only the last year, and the 
 Report says the number is rapidly increasing. What 
 an opportunity to Burglars for access and undisturbed 
 operation is offered in this one item ! 
 
 If you have a Combination Lock upon your Safe, 
 what is to prevent an Employe from changing the 
 Combination in your absence? Ignorant of the change 
 you lock it as usual, but on his Combination^ and he then 
 has full access to it, and, having accomplished his 
 purpose, may relock it and thus conceal his crime. Or 
 what prevents his learning your Combination surrepti- 
 tiously, letter by letter, by observations continued 
 perhaps for months ? 
 
 As a practice, in business places the Safe usually is 
 and perhaps must be, during business hours, open ; 
 neither can one always be on his guard to make sure 
 the place in it for his Securities is locked, nor can so 
 close a watch upon the key of that place be always 
 kept as to ensure protection from an impression of it 
 being taken by some one in or about the Office. 
 
 Putting aside safety, is it right unnecessarily to 
 throw temptation in the way of any one? 
 
 The newspapers state that one of the Chief Officers 
 of a wealthy Corporation in this City bethought him- 
 self after his arrival last Summer at a Watering place, 
 
34 
 
 that he had possibly omitted to lock the small ^'so 
 called" Burglar Proof compartment in his Safe con- 
 taining the Securities of the Company in Government 
 Bonds, &c. This gentleman would doubtless gladly 
 pay the rental of many Safes in the vaults of our Safe 
 Deposit Company, rather than risk again enduring 
 what he probably suffered in the interval between his 
 first thought of the matter and the reception of advice 
 that all was right. 
 
 But these are only a few instances by way of illus- 
 tration. The newspapers are full of such. It is 
 impossible that a business man crowded with engage- 
 ments can be at all times and at every moment guarded 
 against all contingencies; and still more impossible for 
 those who do not possess the culture to carefulness 
 which a business life enforces. 
 
 A Renter in active business remarked he had made 
 many times its rent by having a Safe with us in which 
 he could put Collateral Securities for money Loaned 
 on Call, which money he would have often left idle in 
 Bank had he not had so safe a place to keep his 
 collaterals. 
 
 Asking a Friend to allow Securities to be put in 
 HIS Safe for Safe Keeping. 
 
 When a better and so inexpensive a mode of Safe 
 Keeping Securities has now been provided by this 
 Company, is it quite right thus to put a friend in a 
 position which may in not improbable contingencies 
 place him in embarrassing circumstances, perhaps 
 involving his character? All the risks hereinbefore 
 
35 
 
 adverted to, as pertaining to whatever mode he may 
 adopt in keeping your Securities for you, are super- 
 added to the other risks and objections peculiar to 
 leaving them with a friend. 
 
 Then may you not thus put in his way a temptation 
 which may be too strong for him ? Oue of our Deposit- 
 ors in leaving his Bonds with this Company remarked: 
 " These are what are left of a considerable part of my 
 little savings. N'ot knowing of your Institution, I got 
 a friend to allow me to put them in his Safe for safety. 
 He got ' hard up ' one day, and doubtless not intend- 
 ing me harm, but in full conlidence that he could re- 
 turn them, he took the liberty of a ' forced loan ' with- 
 out consulting me. His business turned out worse 
 than he expected, and I have little hope of his ever 
 having the ability to make them good." The Depos- 
 itor w^as a literary man, and his savings were hard 
 earned. This is but one of very many cases almost 
 daih^ occurring. A large sum in Coupon Bonds w^as 
 deposited with a private Banking House by a gentle- 
 man going abroad. The House failed, and in their 
 difficulties preceding failure made a forced loan of 
 their correspondent's Bonds, and he had to borrow 
 money abroad to pay his expenses home. 
 
 To a man short of money to meet his obligations of 
 the day, the clock inexorably verging closer and closer 
 to the fatal Three, every other resource that his 
 circumstances or the lateness of the hour will admit, 
 exhausted, and the horrors of a protest, shaken credit, 
 perhaps Bankruptcy, staring him in the face, and only 
 his own more or less cultivated sense of right and duty 
 
36 
 
 Tbetween his confiding friend's Bonds and — relief, ''till 
 he can tnrn round ;" — to a man in such a position or 
 within the possibility of it, your Bonds are a tempta- 
 tion which you have no right unnecessarily to put in 
 his way. Or suppose them to disappear from his Safe 
 in some way totally unknown to him, is it not an awk- 
 ward position for him to be put in ? Suppose your 
 friend delivers your securities upon a forged order, 
 although you would not ask him to bear the loss he 
 would ever after feel uncomfortable about it. Then 
 your friend may die. How do you know into whose 
 hand in that event your Securities may fall ? You 
 have no receipt for them ; perhaps no evidence that 
 they. were ever in his keeping. 
 
 The Great Risk of Carrying Securities about the 
 
 Person. 
 
 This is too obvious to need much enlargement upon. 
 Besides the risk to the property it is an incentive 
 to highway robbery, personal violence and murder. 
 Those who thus carry their Securities, when they 
 insure life or limb at an Accident Company, should 
 also insure a further sum for the loss of any Securities 
 they may have about them. 
 
 In case of sudden or accidental death in any public 
 place, popular ignorance leaves the body till the 
 Coroner comes, fair game for any one who may claim 
 to look after it as a relative. We all know that 
 Railroad accidents are often planned for the plunder 
 of the baggage, and persons of the victims. The 
 newspapers are full of such accounts. 
 
37 
 
 Not long since, one of 200 passengers attempting 
 to cross the Mississippi on the ice, got a thorough im- 
 mersion, and while drying his clothes at some public 
 place, lost Six Thousand Dollars from his coat pocket. 
 
 A gentleman in Wall street recently had a consid- 
 erable amount of Bonds stolen from the pocket of his 
 surtout hanging in liis office. This might more readily 
 be done at a Restaurant in the Winter by an exchange 
 of overcoats. 
 
 There are very many circumstances, some of which 
 will at once occur to the reader, in which a man who 
 carries Securities about him, may by his own act per- 
 haps very trivial in itself seriously jeopard them. 
 
 The number of Professional Pickpockets both male 
 and female in this City alone is very large, they are 
 regularly trained to the business, and are said to have 
 a regular organization, and usually hunt in couples or a 
 larger number. Their chief fields of operation are the 
 Horse-cars and Omnibuses, the Ferries and the Kail- 
 road Depots, the Places of Amusement and other 
 Public Meetings, and wherever they can find a crowd ; 
 but they are not confined to those, they operate in the 
 greatest thoroughfares and in broad daylight, render- 
 ing it risky even to carry Securities from one part of 
 the City to another. The writer has in mind the case 
 of a lady who in Broadway during business hours, was 
 robbed of $500 in Bills. The snatching of the Satchel 
 or Port Monnaie from ladies in the street is a favorite 
 mode of Eobbery. 
 
 How easily may any man be drugged when he eats 
 or drinks ; nor is every one who may have Securities 
 
38 
 
 about his person wholly beyond the contingency of 
 occasional or accidental elation, even if enough only 
 to speak of having them and so hazarding being dog- 
 ged and robbed. 
 
 Chloroform seems latterly to have become as popular 
 with the criminal classes as with the practitioners of the 
 healino; art. 
 
 The many occasions on which this is available for 
 Robbery will occur to all with a little thought ; — as in 
 public conveyances and under very many circumstances 
 where Securities are carried about the person ; — where 
 an Office or Residence is left in chars^e of but one in- 
 dividual ; — where a Robber can get at you while asleep, 
 in public conveyances, your chamber and elsewhere, 
 or overcome you awake, so as to administer it to you, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 Advantages of the Location of this Co. 
 
 It is one of the great advantages that this Company 
 offers, that its admirable location in Broadway in the 
 heart of the financial centre of the City, within a 
 couple of blocks of Wall street, enables its Dealers to 
 avoid the risk of carrying the Securities or Coupons 
 any distance for negotiation or conversion. The loca- 
 tion combines also many points rendering it peculiarly 
 safe. 
 
 How TO Avoid Lending your Securities, 
 
 A person, especially in the country, know^n to hold 
 so readily available property as Coupon Bonds, is often 
 importuned for a temporary loan of them as a handy 
 
39 
 
 collateral at the Bank. If they are deposited with this 
 Company, this is all avoided without alienating friends, 
 as the Certificates of Deposit of the Company are not 
 transferable. 
 
 The unappreciated Risks of Iveepin({ and Handling 
 one's own Securities. 
 
 A vast amount of Government Bonds, often in sums 
 so small as $50 or $100, have come into the hands of 
 persons all over this city and the country not accus- 
 tomed to the care of paper Securities negotiable by 
 delivery like Coupon Bonds, and who do not appre- 
 ciate the various risks of their present hazardous mode 
 of keeping them, and even of handling them, and who 
 have not the habits or the surroundings adapted to 
 their Safe Keeping. To such it would be not only 
 an act ot neighborly kindness but of humanity, to make 
 this Institution known. We receive Deposits in any 
 sums, or at any valuation however small. 
 
 Besides the risk of Eobbery and of Fire, who does 
 not know how easy it is, even for the most business- 
 like, to mislay a valuable paper ; — how much more so 
 then to those who have not had that training, l^or 
 are such confined to the Working classes. Ladies, 
 Professional men and others may be classed with them 
 in this respect. 
 
 Illustrative of this risk even to business men, a case 
 occurred to a millionaire who is one of our Renters. 
 He missed $10,000 in Coupon Bonds. He felt quite 
 sure that he had put them in his Safe in this Compa- 
 ny's Vaults : — he even felt convinced at the time he 
 
40 
 
 missed them that he remembered cutting off Coupons 
 from them from his Box in his Safe. He finally con- 
 cluded he must have taken them out of the Box and 
 in some unaccountable way lost them. After adver- 
 tising by handbills and newspapers, and a correspond- 
 ence with Washington, he gave them up for lost, 
 ^^"early a year afterwards he discovered them in a Safe 
 which he had sent away for storage before he rented 
 a Safe in the Vaults of this Company, and into which 
 old Private Safe he had occasion to look for some 
 paid bills relating to his Real Estate. 
 
 A gentleman missed a bond or document of value, 
 and after a search in all the pockets of his clothes and 
 about the house, it could nowhere be found. After 
 some time one of his family reminded him he had be- 
 fore he missed his bond purchased a new hat, and asked 
 what had been done with the old one. It was brought 
 from the garret, and the lost treasure was found under 
 its leather lining. The fact of putting it there had 
 utterly passed from his memory. 
 
 A member of the bar, looking over some Coupon 
 Bonds in his office up stairs, was espied by a thief, who 
 told him a gentlemen was waiting to see him below ; 
 the lawyer hastily left his Bonds and went down to 
 meet his supposed visitor, when the thief seized the 
 Bonds and made off with them. 
 
 It is the duty of the employes of this Company, to 
 look after its Renters while they are handling their 
 Securities upon the desks provided for them, to see 
 that they leave nothing of value upon those desks or 
 upon the floor. 
 
41 
 
 Advantages of an Absolutely Safe and Convenient 
 Place in which to overhaul one's Securities 
 without removing them from the premises where 
 
 THEl ARE KEPT. 
 
 Coupon Bonds of any sort are somewhat of a novelty 
 to the great body of even the investing community 
 and they require a novel mode for their safe keeping, 
 — which need this Company meets in its fullest require- 
 ments. 
 
 It surely is a great point to have a place where 
 one's Securities can be overhauled, absolutely protected 
 from all grabbing, chloroform, pick-pocket, slung shot, 
 pistol, and other violence; against all intrusion under 
 any pretence ; and where 3^ou are carefully provided 
 against loss even from your own inadvertency. 
 
 How much more of a point is this 
 
 To Ladies. 
 
 For them this Company provides a Special Room 
 WITH Separate Convenient Desks. 
 
 We especially invite visits from Ladies to vicAv our 
 premises, ^vhether they have occasion for any dealings 
 with the Company or not. In all such visits, and we 
 have many, they have manifested great interest in our 
 Vaults and Safes and our general arrangements for 
 business. 
 
 Among our Depositors and Renters of Safes the 
 proportion of Ladies to Gentlemen is large, including 
 not only Widows and Single Ladies, but many Married 
 Ladies. 
 
42 
 
 The Deposit of Wills during the Life of the 
 
 Maker. 
 
 There are many risks in keeping a Will on one's 
 own premises. A wealthy widower of this city left 
 his property in trust to his tw^o only children, daugh- 
 ters. He kept his Will in his bureau drawer. At 
 the instigation of two young men whom they subse- 
 quently married, the daughters destroyed the Will, 
 thus placing the property in their own right and con- 
 trol. This property is now pretty much all squan- 
 dered. 
 
 Even left with your counsel, the chances of the Will 
 being mislaid among his many papers is worthy of 
 consideration. Your counsel's office may burn, or he 
 may die, and into whose hands may his papers thea 
 fall? 
 
 To a person determined to get possession of a Will 
 and knowing in whose hands it had been left, many 
 ways of reaching it in a Lawyer's office would suggest 
 themselves ; perhaps by a forged order, or by other 
 strategy, or through some regular or occasional Em- 
 ploye of the office, during or after business hours. 
 Take a turn through any of the Office Buildings in 
 ^ew York while the women who necessarily have 
 keys to them all are clearing up, and see with what 
 simple trust you can upon a plausible story gain admit- 
 tance to any of them, — especially if the request is 
 backed by a fee. 
 
 We have in preceding pages seen the risks if the 
 Will is in a Private Safe ; — they are many more if out 
 of It. 
 
43 
 
 With our Company, the Will is left by the maker in 
 an Envelope sealed by him ; contents known only to 
 liimself and deliverable only as he designates; acces- 
 sible to himself at all times ; absolutely safe ; for the 
 trifling sum of five dollars in one payment for the 
 maker's entire life ; or one dollar for one year. 
 
 This Company is the first place to which the Surro- 
 gate, Judge of Probate, or Prothonotary would send 
 the heirs to search for a Will : indeed the Company's 
 Certificate of Deposit designating to whom it is de- 
 liverable would be found among the maker's papers. 
 
 Is it wise if one has made a Will, not to provide for 
 it the best Safe Keeping that can be had ? 
 
 This Company provides against both Fire and 
 
 Death. 
 
 Though every ofiicer and employe were swept away 
 by pestilence in a night, the business is so transacted, 
 that a new set could take their places in the morning, 
 and all the Deposits would be there in security. The 
 Record and the terms of your Deposit stand upon the 
 Books, and will stand there for generations. This is 
 a consideration in the event of your own death, sud- 
 den or otherwise, without a Will or mention of your 
 Securities. 
 
 The peculiar and absolute Security of the contents 
 of a Safe, including a Will if one be therein, in the 
 event of the 
 
 Death of the Eenter 
 is a point of especial interest, the importance of 
 which will grow upon the mind, loith refiection. If the 
 
44 
 
 Renter of a Safe from this Company had appointed a 
 Deputy to have access to his Safe, the Deputy's author- 
 ity of course ceases with the Death of his Principal, 
 and no one is allowed access to the Safe except upon 
 the Surrogate's Certificate of authority, and the satis- 
 factory identification of the bearer of it. 
 
 If the Will is supposed to be in the Safe, search is 
 made for it only under such precaution ar}^ formalities 
 and before such and so many witnesses, as to Secure 
 Absolute Security. 
 
 So that a Renter may on his Death-Bed feel entire 
 assurance and satisfaction that whenever, wherever or 
 however he may die, what he leaves in his Safe in the 
 Vault of this Company is protected by it as most 
 inviolably sacred, as a Trust for his Heirs, till the Law 
 shall have appointed one to take charge of the 
 property. 
 
 Those who have had occasion to go through our 
 formalities on such an occasion, and we have had 
 many large Estates as instances, have expressed great 
 satisfaction at the effectual safeguards thrown around 
 property in a Safe of the Dead. 
 
 The Security for the property of one who has made a 
 Deposit under the guarantee of the Company is, in the 
 event of the death of the Depositor, equally absolute. 
 
 In short, this Company is now the first place where after 
 your death your friends icoidd seek for information of your 
 property. 
 
 Family Plate or Jewelry. 
 
 To those having Family Plate or Jewelry not in use, 
 especially if Family Relics, Wedding or other Pres- 
 
45 
 
 eots, — and still more if held for minor children ; — or 
 
 to those LEAVING THE CiTY FOR THE SUMMER, OR FOR 
 
 Europe, or to those breaking up housekeeping, this 
 Company is especially of importance. 
 
 A gentleman, a widower, remarked to the writer 
 while the Company was being started, " I wish your 
 Company had been existing a few years ago, it would 
 have enabled me to save all my wife's Jewelry and 
 Silver which after her death I left with her sister 
 to keep for my children now just grown. Her dwell- 
 ing took tire, and the family having only time to save 
 themselves, every relic of that sort belonging to my 
 wife was burned : a loss to me and my children that 
 no money can replace." 
 
 We seldom realize how much regret such losses 
 cause, till we meet them. 
 
 A PLACE OF security for such articles being now pro- 
 vided, is it just or kind to others interested in them, 
 either as minors directly, or as our future heirs to 
 these mementoes of ourselves and perhaps of those 
 who have gone before us, to neglect its use ? 
 
 All the remarks hereinbefore made in regard to the 
 Safe Keeping of Bonds, apply with even greater force 
 to Jewelry, Watches, etc. 
 
 Imi>ortance of the Safe Keeping of Policies of Life 
 OR Fire Insurance, or Bills of Taxes and Assess- 
 ments UPON Real Estate. 
 
 A payment was recently made to one of the leading 
 and most correct Life Insurance Companies of the 
 city upon a Policy not at hand at the moment of 
 
46 
 
 payment. Some time after, the Policy was sent for 
 endorsement of the payment, but no record of the pay- 
 ment could be found on the Books of the Company. 
 In the press of business it had been omitted. On the 
 Books of the Company that Policy stood forfeited for 
 non-payment of the premium. Suppose the owner of 
 the Policy had died in the interim, and there had been 
 no evidence on his side of the payment of that premi- 
 um, and such a thing might easily happen with all 
 good faith on the part of the Insurance Company, that 
 Policy must have been considered as expired, and the 
 heirs could have had no benefit therefrom. It Avould 
 have resulted the same had the payment been endorsed 
 on the Policy and the Policy been lost before the death 
 of the insured. The like would also happen to a re- 
 newal of a Fire or Marine Insurance, were the Policy 
 lost. 
 
 To be able to produce your receipted Bills of 
 Taxes or of Assessments upon your Real Estate, may 
 in certain contingencies involve its ownership, even to 
 the very dwelling you occupy. Suppose an omission 
 whether through fraud or oversight, in the Tax Office 
 of your locality, to enter the money paid by you, your 
 property in a large city might be sold for such claims 
 and after the usual time your right of redemption 
 cease ; — all without your knowledge till the buyer 
 calls to take possession. How important to have your 
 receipted Bills safe beyond all contingencies, where 
 you can lay your hand at once upon them to save your 
 Home. 
 
47 
 
 To Depositors in Savings Banks 
 this Company offers a Safe Place at a very small 
 expense for the Safe Keeping beyond the reach of any 
 one but the rightful owners of their 
 
 Savings Bank Books, 
 
 very desirable during life, and in the event of the De- 
 jDOsitor's death, very important to liis or her heirs, — as 
 most of such Depositors have no really Safe Place to 
 keep them in. Your mention of this Company to 
 such would be a kindness to them. 
 
 Importance of Safe Keeping Original Deeds or 
 Mortgages of Country Property. 
 
 Have those who hold such recorded in insecure 
 County Record Offices ever reflected upon the risks 
 the}^ run? Would it not be well to secure the Origin- 
 als of these Deeds and Mortgages bej^ond doubt ? It 
 is but a few^ years since the Record Office of even Bal- 
 timore County, Maryland, was burned, and many of its 
 Records destroyed, involving a vast amount of prop- 
 erty ; so with the Record Office of Richmond, Va. 
 
 How TO Avoid giving Indemnity Bonds for Lost 
 Certificates of Stock. 
 
 It seldom occurs to one's mind till it happens to him, 
 the uncomfortableness of asking a friend to join him 
 in an Indemnity Bond, as, should he lose any of his 
 Certificates of Stock, he would have to do, and that 
 for double their amount, before he could get new ones. 
 
48 
 
 One does not like to refuse a friend such a request, yet 
 everybody would rather not be asked, feeling it to be 
 an indefinite something hanging forever over him and 
 his heirs. Then it gives him a claim on you, and in 
 return you may have to assume for him some real risk. 
 At all events you are less independent for it. How 
 much better to put such Securities out of the risk of 
 being misplaced, lost, stolen or burnt. 
 
 This Company offers the Requisite Security. 
 
 One of our Renters recently remarked " I would not 
 be without the security and convenience I enjoy as a 
 Renter with your Company for a Thousand Dollars. 
 
 The Building is absolutely Fire Proof There is 
 no wood in its construction. The floors are of marble, 
 on Iron beams and brick arches up to and including 
 the uppermost story. The Laths are Iron, as are 
 the window and door frames, wash-boards, etc. The 
 Roof is Iron. 
 
 The Post Ofllce, the Western Union Telegraph, the 
 office of the Associated Press and the Police Station 
 are within a few hundred feet. The corner on which 
 it stands is the point of intersection of two Precincts ; 
 several Policemen meet there in their rounds through 
 the night, and travel is constant day and night. 
 
 It has been said, Well, I think you are perfectly 
 safe ; how about a Mob ? " Has New York ever 
 known a Mob to attack a Savings Bank? This is 
 in the nature of one. Very many of our Depositors 
 are of the same class as those in Savings Banks. 
 Reviewing the causes of any riots that have ever 
 
49 
 
 occurred in this city or country, none can be imagined 
 that could be directed against these Vaults, involving 
 as they do the interests of every class and party. But 
 suppose a Riot ; being except the Government Trea- 
 sury the most important point to be protected in the 
 City, and indeed on the Continent, it would be the 
 first to be defended by State or City ; and the interest 
 in it being so diffused through every class of citizens 
 the number of volunteer muskets in its defence would 
 far outnumber any that could be raised for its attack. 
 The ^Tavy Yard is near, and the United States Gov- 
 ernment is interested to protect so large a number of 
 holders of its Bonds, and next to the Custom House 
 and Sub Treasury would protect this. Its position 
 gives four points from which musketry or cannon 
 could mow down any mob. Then the Company can 
 for any length of time pour upon any attacking party 
 a steady and continuous stream of boiling water. I^o 
 mob could attack it with the doors of the Vaults open. 
 Every door is so arranged it can be closed and 
 locked simultaneously, and mobs do not rise from the 
 earth in a moment; — further, should a mob ever get 
 to the closed Vault doors they could do no material 
 harm ; they might deface them, nothing more. 
 
 The Company's premises are brightly lighted up 
 through the night, and the window shutters unclosed. 
 There are armed watchmen all night inside of the 
 premises, outside of and in front of the Vaults, and a 
 detector clock there which must be punctually marked 
 by the watchmen every half hour, or the dial shows 
 the omission in the morning. The watchmen are also 
 
50 
 
 on duty inside on Sundays and Holidays so that the 
 premises are never left alone. 
 
 It has been remarked by visitors, " you have to use 
 great care in the selection of your employes." We 
 have. Every appointment has been made solely with 
 a view to the adaptability of the person, and in no 
 case to oblige any influential stockholder or as a con- 
 dition of subscription to its stock ; and that will con- 
 tinue the policy of the Company. But such are the 
 checks of our system, no employe could defraud the 
 Company to any damaging amount should he be so 
 disposed. The liules of the Company carried out 
 with military precision leave no loophole for loss from 
 an employe. 
 
 Loaded arms are provided for every man of the office 
 during the hours of business. No one in the office 
 but the President and the Secretary can lock or unlock 
 any of the Vaults. 
 
 By the arrangements of this Company there can be 
 no forgetting to lock the Vaults, which as has been 
 shown above is one of the risks, and an important 
 one too, w^ith private Safes ; nor could any grabber, 
 thief, concerted raid from the street, or disturbance 
 purposely gotten up in the office by pretended visitors, 
 have the least chance of success. 
 
 In drawing up the Hules and Regulations and By- 
 Laws of the Company before submitting them to 
 counsel for legal criticism, the writer having no prece- 
 dents to go by, as this was the First Safe Deposit 
 Company established in the world, devoted much 
 thought and study to provide against every contin- 
 
51 
 
 gency of Accident, Fraud or Violence ; and the opinion 
 of every one of the large number of the Company's 
 dealers, so far as lias come to the writer's knowledge, 
 IS that the object has been successfully accomplished. 
 
 The Board of Directors fully appreciate the great 
 moral responsibility of the position they occupy as 
 such before the community, and their well-known 
 record is a sufficient guarantee that they will do their 
 duty in looking after the management of the Institu- 
 tion ; it also has the unremitting personal superinten- 
 dence of the President. 
 
 The Moral Responsibility of neglecting to procure 
 THE Safest Safe Keeping to be had. 
 
 If as has been proved above, the present general 
 mode of Safe Keeping Securities is unsafe, and if this 
 Company does offer a Place of Safe Deposit, it is 
 surely worth the while of any one having Securities 
 of his own, or in Trust for others carefully to look to 
 his duty in regard to them. 
 
 There can be no excuse in the expense ; that is next to 
 nothing, being but one-tenth of one per cent., i. e., one 
 dollar on a Thousand Dollars of Coupon Bonds for a year. 
 
 If a dwelling or store is burned, the owner who 
 neglected to insure is considered to have defrauded 
 his creditors or his family, if the pay of the one or the 
 comfort of the other depends on the value of the 
 property. So if a man dies, he is looked upon as an 
 improvident and undutiful father if, having the means 
 and the provision being necessary to his family's com- 
 fort, he did not provide for them by Life Insurance. 
 
52 
 
 As to Trust Funds, the law compels the Trustee to 
 replace with Interest such funds when lost by his not 
 availing himself of the best security for them loithin his 
 reach. 
 
 Recent as well as old Law decisions have settled it, 
 that it is by no means enough that we take as good 
 care of such sacred property as we do with our own ; 
 we must take the best we are able, or be responsible 
 for the results. 
 
 In all the large amount of securities handled since 
 its commencement, this Company has never met with 
 A Loss. 
 
 Persons at a distance or out of the City 
 
 Can make Deposits through the responsible Express 
 Companies. Securities when Avith this Company are 
 then in the best market for their instant sale or con- 
 version, as well as for the collection of the Coupons 
 or interest thereon ; either or both of which can be 
 collected and remitted to Depositors when desired, — 
 through the mail by check payable to the order of the 
 Depositor and therefore of no use to any one else if 
 lost, or by Post Office Government Draft, — or in Bank 
 Bills by Express, either of w^hich renders its receipt by 
 the Depositor absolutely sure. 
 
 The mere interest on the amounts we so often see 
 ofiered as Rewards for tlie recovery of Stolen Securities 
 would -pay the rent in perpetuity of several of our 
 smaller-sized safes. 
 
53 
 
 Non-liability of Hotel Keepers. 
 
 The liability of a hotel keeper for money or securities 
 in his safe under liis charge from a guest, is limited to 
 such an amount as his guest may be fairly supposed to 
 require for traveling expenses, unless by special agree- 
 ment otherwise, and that, whether a loss from the Hotel 
 Safe occur through any professional thief, or Clerk or 
 other Employe of the Hotel, or some of the Guests who 
 often take the liberty of sitting or sauntering around be- 
 hind the counter, — or by a forged order, — or by a false 
 personation of the owner of the property put in the Safe, 
 easily made in the hurry of business, when many Guests 
 are leaving for some Boat or Train, as happened in a 
 leading up-town Hotel, where a large amount of property 
 was thus stolen. 
 
 All travelers understand that Securities, Jewelry, or 
 other similar valuables in the room of the Guest are always 
 at the owner's risk, and what that risk is, the frequent 
 newspaper accounts of Hotel Thieves abundantly show. 
 
 Country Merchants and other Strangers in the City 
 May deposit with this Company, during their tempo- 
 rary stay, at special rates. 
 
 Fire Risk. 
 
 Fire Insurance Companies do not insure against loss 
 by fire of Money, Books of Account, or Securities. 
 
 Business of this Company. 
 The Keception of Deposits for Safe-keeping 
 Of any articles of value, at a rate for Government 
 Bonds and such securities, less than one-third the charge 
 
54: 
 
 of Insurance Companies against Fire alone, — in anj 
 amount small or large, and for any time, — or at tlie con- 
 venience of the Depositor without specifying anytime — 
 thus offering a special facility to those keeping no Bank 
 account. 
 
 The Certificate of Deposit given contains a full descrip- 
 tion of the items of the Deposit which is delivered 
 wholly or in part, whether valuable articles, honds or 
 coupons, whenever and as often as called for, precisely 
 as deposited. 
 
 Deposits Under Seal — Contents Unknown. 
 
 Deposits of Family Plate, S])ecie, Securities or Papers 
 in boxes or envelopes may be made under seal, content& 
 unknown to this Company, accessible at all times to the 
 depositor for withdrawal of any part or the whole. 
 
 The Company Rents Small Safes 
 
 Inside of its locked Burglar-proof Vaults, the Eenter 
 exclusively keeping the key, which will fit no other Safe 
 therein, only the renter having the right of access to it 
 and locking and unlocking it, always identifying liimself 
 before entering the vault^ and then being accompanied 
 by the Safe-keeper. The lock is changed witli every 
 change of renter. For mutual protection a responsible 
 introduction is invariably required of every Renter. 
 
 Each renter of a Safe and each depositor may appoint 
 a Depidy to act in his place with tlie Company. 
 
 How Deposits can be made. 
 A Deposit ]nay be made by the owner in person or by 
 any one else for him, the Certificate given by the Com- 
 
55 
 
 pany stating for wliose account the deposit is made and 
 on wliat terms and conditions botli as to whom deliver- 
 able and the rate. It may he made deliverable to any 
 one person, or to any number of persons, and on any 
 conditions and terms the Depositor may dictate, even to 
 requiring the presence of certain persons or a certain 
 number of them ; — and the conditions may 1)0 limited to 
 a stated time or to the life of the depositor or of that of 
 the person in interest, and provision may be made how 
 it is to be deliverable in case of death. 
 
 A MARRIED WOMAN may make a deposit in her own 
 name, deliverable to herself only or as she may direct; or 
 a Husband may make a Deposit for account of his Wife, 
 designating how it shall be deliverable. 
 
 The officers and employes of this Company are pledged 
 to impart no information of its transactions with its 
 dealers. 
 
 To Whom this Company may be Useful. 
 
 Among the many classes whose wants the Company 
 meets, may be named : all small or large holders, in 
 this city or elsewdiere, of Government Coupon Bonds, 
 wdiich being transferable by delivery require the safest 
 SAFE-KEEPING ; Hctircd Capitalists, desks being provided 
 where Cash Boxes may be opened ; Merchants ; Stock, 
 Exchange, Bill and Money Brokers ; Manufacturers, 
 Mechanics, Tradesmen, Clergymen, Physicians, and other 
 business and professional men ; Families, Widows, and 
 Single Women, for Family Plate, Jewelry, Family Belies 
 or Souvenirs. Securities, or Papers of Yalue ; the large 
 class of thrifty j^ersons whose surroundings are unfavorable 
 to the safe-keeping of Valuables; Lawyers and their 
 
56 
 
 Clients, whose papers in a suit, if lost by fire might not 
 be replaceable ; Officers of the Army or Navy, Masters 
 of Vessels, or others much from home ; Consignees of 
 Specie or Bullion, and dealers therein or in Diamonds ; 
 Insurance, "Railroad, Petroleum, Manufacturing, Mining, 
 and other Corporations or Companies ; Colleges, Acade- 
 mies, Lodges, and other Literary, Benevolent, Social or 
 Religious Institutions with Securities or papers of value; 
 Railroad Companies holding their own Bonds executed 
 and waiting a market here ; Banks and Bankers out of 
 the City, for Gold or Securities, or whose officers may 
 visit here, or for the lodgment of their Securities here for 
 negotiation, either in a rented Safe or specially deposited; 
 persons having no Bank account, for Bank Bills or Specie 
 temporarily ; or for funds held for a short time for others ; 
 persons going abroad or to California, or temporarily from 
 home ; persons at board ; Foreigners transiently in the 
 city with Money, Jewelry, Securities, or valuable Papers ; 
 Country Merchants visiting the city ; persons within a 
 few railroad hours from the city, and having business 
 therein but no office ; Americans residing abroad, who 
 may leave their Securities here, the interest to be collected 
 and remitted ; Executors, Guardians or Trustees of In- 
 solvent or other Estates ; holders of valuable Papers or 
 articles for Minor Children, or as a third party delivery 
 contingent; niembers of firms, for their private business; 
 claimants against Government, holders of Records, Ac- 
 count Books, valuable Papers, &c., not in current use, as 
 Railroads, Petroleum Companies, Manufacturing, Mining 
 and other Corporations, Firms existent or dissolved, ; 
 Churches, for Communion Plate, duplicate Marriage 
 Records, &c. : holders of Notes of Hand, of Vouchers of 
 
57 
 
 Public or Private Trusts, or of Public or Private Testi- 
 monials, Deeds of Property or Trusts, Mortgages, Con- 
 tracts, Powers of Attorney, Articles of Copartnership, 
 Dissolution, or Assignment ; Releases of Indebtedness, 
 Legal Awards, Patent Papers, Surveyors' or Architec- 
 tural Drawings, and Abstracts of Title, especially of 
 country property w^here the Record Office may not be 
 fire-proof, or of Policies of Life, Fire or Marine Insur- 
 ance, Savings Bank Books, Evidences of Marriage, Birth 
 or Death, valuable Letters, Manuscripts, or Papers to be 
 opened after the death of the writer, collections of Coins, 
 Copper Plates, Family Portraits, Paintings out of frame, 
 Bronzes, Engravings, costly Laces, Shawls, &c., &c. 
 
 Our great difficulty is to' reach tlie people with the 
 information of the existence of such a Company and its 
 uses; and then to impress eacli individual needing it with 
 its necessity to him or herself, so as to induce prompt 
 action. 
 
 But perhaps this business, like Life Insurance in its 
 early history, must find its way gradually to public 
 appreciation and custom, and if the business comes 
 slowly, our Stockholders must console themselves w4th 
 the hox^e that it will nevertheless ultimately come surely. 
 
 Procrastination, 
 
 in very many who know of the existence of this Com- 
 pany and appreciate its advantages, is one of the chief 
 obstacles we have to contend with. They wait for a 
 convenient season to secure their securities. 
 
58 
 
 As the business of an Institution of this nature, al- 
 though of acknowledged usefulness, must depend much 
 upon personal mention and recommendation, we feel 
 authorized to ask of all satisfied of its usefulness to call 
 attention on every suitable opportunity to its objects, 
 convenience, management and absolute security, until 
 none who need it will neglect to use its advantages. 
 
 We have yet a number of Safes unrented and in our 
 new Vaults ample room to meet any demand, while our 
 capacity for Special Deposits is unlimited. 
 
 We shall be glad to furnish our Circulars and other 
 advertising appliances to all disposed to respond to our 
 above recpicst. 
 
 There is hardly a reader of this to wdiom this Institu- 
 tion may not in some form he of use, — or who has not 
 some friend to whom a mention of it would be of 
 advantage. 
 
 The List on a preceding page of " To whom it may 
 be useful" will doubtless bring to mind some person that 
 you can serve by its mention. 
 
 AVe must in this as in all other good works, look 
 to W'lVES, SISTERS and mothers to see that those who 
 have Securities, surplus Plate or Jewelry, a Will, or 
 important Papers, are effectually urged promptly to avail 
 themselves of the Safety this Company offers. 
 
 FKANCIS H. JENKS, 
 
 President 
 
59 
 
 GUARANTEE EATES. 
 
 FOR ONE YEAR. 
 
 Government and all other Coupon Securities, or ^ 
 
 those transferable by delivery, including Bank I $1 00 per 91,000 
 Bills, one-tenth of one per cent., or . . . j 
 
 Government and all other Securities negotiable "j 
 
 only by endorsement, one-twentieth of one per I 50 " 1,000 
 cent., or . . . . . . . j 
 
 Gold Coin or Bullion, one-eighth of one per } c,- 
 cent., or . . . . . . ^ 
 
 Jewelry, Diamonds, Watches, one-quarter of one 
 per cent., or ..... . 
 
 9 
 
 1,000 
 
 Silver Coin or Bullion, one-fifth of one per "I <^ 1000 
 cent., or ....... j ' 
 
 50 " 1,000 
 
 Silver Plate under Seal, one per cent., on the ] 
 owner's estimate of full value, subject to ad- I 1 00 " 100 
 justment according to bulk . . . J 
 
 Deeds, Mortgages, Valuable Papers generally, when of no fixed value, 
 $1.00 a year each, or according to bulk. 
 
 Wills, $5.00, which premium covers the remainder of the life of the 
 maker, or $1 for one year. 
 
 Cash Boxes, or small Tin Trunks for papers of Bankers, Capitalists, 
 Merchants, Lawyers, Tradesmen, Families, &c., will be received at 
 $25.00 each box or trunk per year, contents unknown to the Company. 
 
 RENTAL OF SAFES. 
 
 The Company offers for rent, Renter exclusively holding the key. 
 Safes inside its Burglar-proof Vaults, at 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 
 60, CO, 75 dollars each, per annum, according to size and location. 
 
 Coupons and Interest will be collected when desired, and remitted 
 to the owner. 
 
 FOR LADIES 
 
 A private room with separate convenient desks is provided. 
 
DIRECTORS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SAFE DEPOSIT CO. OF NEW YORK. 
 
 CHARTERED APRIL, 1861. 
 
 HENRY A. SWIFT, 
 
 of Swift & Spedding, 85 Franklin Street. 
 COURTLANDT PALMER, 
 
 1 Barclay Street. 
 Hon. JAS. R. WHITING, 
 
 299 Mulberry Street. 
 
 ALEX HOLLAND, 
 
 Treasurer American Express Company. 
 DAVID OGDEN, 
 
 63 Wall Street. 
 CHAS. L. TIFFANY, 
 
 Tiffany & Co., 550 Broadway. 
 
 JACOB RUSSELL, 
 
 Cashier N. Y. Gold Exchange Bank. 
 A. D. HOPE, 
 
 Pres't First National Bank of Somerville, N. J., 
 
 103 Liberty Street, N. Y. 
 I. C. BABCOCK, 
 
 Cashier Adams Express Co. 
 
 W. C. SHELDON, 
 
 Buckley, Sheldon & Co., 75 Leonard Street. 
 JOSEPH J. BICKNELL, 
 
 191 Broadway. 
 
 S. D. MILLS, 
 
 7 Jauncey Court, N. Y. 
 
 FRANCIS H. JENKS. 
 
 FRANCIS H. JENKS, 
 
 I*resident. 
 
 FREDERICK FOSTER, 
 
 Secretary 
 
 The Charter confines the business of the Company to the Safe-keep- 
 ing of Valuables, and imposes a personal liability upon the Stock- 
 holders, to an amount equal and additional to the Stock held. 
 
 Office Hours — From 9 o'clock A M. to 4 o'clock P. M. 
 
 The premises will be shown to Visitors should curiosity or interest 
 induce a desire to see them. 
 
 Circulars will be forwarded on request.