We were shown all through the mint and saw all the wonders of coin
making. Every thing seemed perfect here. Beautiful machinery was in
operation making all sizes of gold coins, from a twenty dollar piece
down. Strips of gold bands about six feet long and of the proper
thickness for twenty dollar pieces are run through a machine which cuts
out the pieces, and when these are cut they can stamp out the pieces as
fast as one can count.
This was the most ingenious work I ever saw, and very wonderful and
astonishing to a backwoodsman like myself, for I supposed that money was
run in moulds like bullets.
As we could not wait we went to a bank and sold our dust, getting only
sixteen dollars per ounce, the same price they paid in California. We
now took the cars and rode out to Lake Ponchartrain--most of the way
over a trestle work. We found a wharf and warehouse at the lake, and a
steamer lay there all ready to go across to the other side. The country
all about looked low, with no hills in sight.
When we returned to the city we looked all about, and in the course of
our travels came to a slave market. Here there were all sorts of black
folks for sale; big and little, old and young and all sorts. They all
seemed good-natured, and were clean, and seemed to think they were worth
a good deal of money. Looking at them a few minutes sent my mind back to
St. Joseph, Missouri, where I saw a black sold at auction. From my
standpoint of education I did not approve of this way of trading in
colored people.
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