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The Safe Deposit Company of New-York.

The Safe Deposit Company of New-York.
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May 1, 1865, Page 2Buy Reprints
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In a city like New-York a great many wants are sensibly felt and deplored, and there is a general feeling of surprise that no one thinks of meeting them. From month to month, and from rear to year some such want remains uncared for, and the suffering public is left to shift as best it may, in the lack of some adequate means of relief.

Such a want has been the responsible and safe method of keeping in absolute safety all valuables, important papers, and monied securities or bonds for those who have no safes of their own. In the utter absence of any legally authorized corporation, with means and conveniences at its command, to hold in perfect safety such valuable and important articles, the people of New-York have been at their wit's end and have resorted to the most irregular devices to meet their trouble.

In a large number of instances parties have been obliged to pay heavy rates to irresponsible persons for the probable safe-keeping of much valuable and important property and papers. They have been in the habit of carrying securities to a large amount upon their persons, and also have been put to a degree of personal inconvenience in taking care of small but valuable goods.

Families leaving the city for a short season in the Summer, have been much troubled to discover the most feasible and, at the same time, reliable method of securing the safe keeping of plate and jewelry. It is a well-known fact that the police stations have during the Summer months been the repositories of large quantities of plate and other valuable household goods, for safe keeping, and their vaults have frequently been filled to their utmost capacity with the immense collection of such articles that have thus been brought in.

But now we are to have a change. The "Safe Deposit Company" of New-York has entered upon this field, and the public will receive the company with positive satisfaction and approbation. This company is preparing to open a special deposit office for the reception of valuable property of every known description, for which a moderate fraction a percentage on the value per annum will be charged, and will guarantee the safe keeping and immunity from, destruction by fire of all such goods.

By a reference to the prospectus of the Safe Deposit Company of New-York, we find that the present proposed capital will be $500,000, in 20,000 shares of $25 each, and that they propose to receive for safe keeping in burglar-proof safes or otherwise, in an absolutely fire-proof building, any articles of value that may be deposited, such as small trunks of retired capitalists, containing bonds, &c., affording a convenient place for reference to them and for the transaction of other business, cash boxes of merchants, stock, exchange, bill and money brokers, manufacturers, mechanics, and other business and professional men generally. Also, books and papers of trust, deceased, guardian, or insolvent estates; valuable papers, or articles held for minor children; or, as a third party, delivery, contingent; records, account books, valuable papers, &c., not in current use, of agencies of railroad, manufacturing, mining, and other business corporations, as well as of churches, as marriage records, &c., in this and neighboring States, and of religious, literary, benevolent and other associations; the private business of members of firms; claimants against Government; persons holding or having held public office, and possibly some departments of the public service; public testimonials to individuals; important contracts; powers of attorney; articles of copartnership, or dissolution, or of assignment; releases of indebtedness. Surveyors' drawings of property; deeds of property, and abstracts of title; policies of tire and life insurance; evidences of marriage, birth, or death, &c., &c. Also, small trunks from families, widows, and single women, of jewelry and family relics, and papers of value, and bullion and specie from importers from California and elsewhere, brokers, border State banks, and citizens generally.

They also intend to afford a place of safe deposit for lawyers and their clients, officers of the army and navy, seafaring men, and others much from home; holders of Government securities, here and elsewhere throughout the country, especially of the coupon bonds; an officer of the company (unofficially) collecting and remitting the amount of coupons; also, persons and families going abroad, also to California, or temporarily from home. Money, jewelry, certificates of stock and bonds, and valuable papers from foreigners and others transiently in the city, including country merchants, &c., jewelry and family relics, and papers in the city and elsewhere; and as a depository of wills during the life of the maker.

The facilities of the company will afford many thrifty men among the masses of some property, whose surroundings are unfavorable to the safekeeping of valuables, a means of keeping such articles in perfect safety at a slight or nominal annual cost.

The reader will perceive at a glance the vast importance of this company, and the immense field they will occupy at no distant day. It is easily seen that beside the ample business that will press at once upon the company, the supply will create a new and continually increasing demand for such a security, as the public becomes educated to its appreciation, as in the growth of the express business. In proof of this, it is only necessary to use the statistics given by the prospectus, from which we learn that there are 155,000 families in New York, and 55,000 in Brooklyn, and over 75 towns and villages within thirty miles of the city, among whose inhabitants there will be found a very large number who will at once patronize and enjoy the benefits of this company.

In conducting their business all deposits of boxes or trunks, contents unknown to the company, will be received under depositor's "combination" lock and seal, and at a valuation; the risk of the company confined to the return of the package, seal unbroken. When desired by depositor, the company will schedule the contents, and assume the risk of each item, each at a separate valuation, charging a percentage compensation. They will also assume charge of any family plate that may be deposited for safe keeping during the absence of the owner from the city in summer, or abroad, or while temporarily at board; or any surplus silver that may not be required for immediate use. It is in this latter item along that the company will be found of great use, for in the opinion of the Police department, over 10,000 families leave this city for the country every summer, and many of them have no adequate facilities for securing the the absolute safety of such articles.

On paying a visit to the premises of the proposed company, we found them to be situated in the marble fire-proof building, corner of Broadway and Liberty-street, on the basement floor. The offices are capacious and convenient, both for the transaction of business and for the general public, and are furnished with a gigantic safe twenty-eight feet square and eight feet high, composed of five alternate slabs of quarter-inch iron and hardened steel, clamped together by strong screws on to girders of T iron, and which is further divided into four separate compartments, each having a distinct entrance and burglarproof door, with two combination locks; and these latter compartments or sales will be filed up with five hundred boxes of iron, each having its own combination lock. Rentors of these boxes will therefore have a complete control of their individual box, and the contents can thus be kept inviolate.

For the safe depositing of valuable papers or bonds nothing could be finer than this admirable arrangement of "safe boxes." while they will also afford a place of safety for many small articles of great value that otherwise could not be disposed of so advantageously. The most perfect arrangements have been made to secure a thorough ventilation of the [???]e and all its minor compartments, which will obviate many difficulties in that respect.

The building in which the company's offices are situated is of the most perfect fire-proff machine. So much so that there is no wood employed in its construction, excepting the doors and frames. The lathes upon which the plaster is laid are of iron, the floors are marble, laid in cement and supported by staunch iron girders. The counters are of marble, and the office furniture will be the only wood in their office. Armed and faithful watchmen will be kept constantly on the premises, and a system of business inaugurated that will be found precise and accurate in all its details.

Owing to the immense amount of labor necessary for the fitting up of the premises, the company have as yet been unable to enter upon the active prosecution of their business; but they fully anticipate commencing operations during the coming month. Even how large numbers of citizens are calling to learn the probable date of the opening, and none fall to express their satisfaction and pleasure at having at fast a place of safe deposit for such valuable property as they cannot otherwise provide for.

Mr. FRANCIS H. JENKS, the President of the company, is busily engaged in getting the offices fitted up, and personally affords all desirable information regarding the aims and intentions of the company. The Secretary of the company has been taken from the Teller's desk of one of our most prominent banks, and the Board of Directors will include among its members many of our leading merchants and bankers.

The capital has all been subscribed for, paid in, and is invested in government funds. From the prospectus we find that it is expected an annual dividend of four per cent. will be declared, and as the invested capital will insure a rate of interest of six per cent., the actual dividend will reach at least ten per cent. upon the subscribed stock, for the first year. The rate of charges will be quite moderate, and at a very reasonable fractional figure.

As a mode of affording to the public the means of securing, at a low charge, the safety of all property of value, at all times, and at all seasons, nothing better could be desired, and the company will undoubtedly be successful in obtaining the patronage their efforts deserve.

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