COUNTERFEITERS OPERATE
IN A NATIONAL BANK
*Bjr an Ejc-Operative of the Secret Service
Here Is a True Story of the Uncovering of the Country’s Worst Gang
of “Shovers of the Queer.”
\PT. DICKSON and l
were again foregather
ing in front of the
theory log fire at his
home. He launched
into a capital story of i
counterfeiting iu high
places.
“I was once stationed
in the city of a great
international expos
ition, to watch for cul
prits that were ex
pected to put out the
customary counterfeit.
For the first month or
so cf the fair there was nothing to do
hut lounge about the office and. like
Hr. ftlicuwber, wait for something to
turn u;:. The four of us who were
assign?d to this monotonous duty soon
grew weary of the inactivity and were
on the point of asking for a transfer,
when an excellent imitation of the ten
dollar gold-piece made its appearance
in large numbers. After that, none cf
the four of us had any cause for com
plaint on the score of stagnation.
“Saunders and McGrath, two of my
companions, by means of a miserably
scrawled, anonymous note to the chief
of police, secured information of mys
terious boxes coming by night to a
bank, and it required but a small
flight of the imagination to evolve a
plot in which the great financial mag
nate, the president of the bank, was
the central figure, regardless of his
high social standing, his reputed fabu
lous wealth, and his irreproachable
character.
“I selected the cashier at the fac
tory as my man. and Murphy look the
teller of the bank, the man who made
tip the pay-roll each week. Tor ten
days we shadowed them with dogged
persistency. They were both men of
the town and both were members of
the better class cf clubs and moved
In the most exclusive circles of so
ciety. These matters rather strength
ened than weakened our suspicions,
for neither of the men wa3 wealthy,
and playing society is an expensive
game at best.
“But in all our pursuit and in all the
lavish expenditures of these young
spendthrifts not once did cither cf
them pass or attempt to pass one of
the counterfeit coins, so far as we
could gather. I don'c think they could
have done so without its l>?ing dis
covered, so thoroughly did we track
them in every turn and move they
made during the period we had them
tinder observation. They lived to
gether In a handsomely furnished
flat, with a smal! army of servants,
and they entertained lavishly. Their
table was of the best and their wines
cf the rarest vintages.
“We decided that ijothing was to be
gained by shadowing them further, so
we left them to their frivolous social
duties. About this time Saunders and
McGrath came tagging home, convoy
ing the hank president, tuckered out
and disgusted with their fruitless jour-!
‘ The night of the ireturn Murphy
and l held a conference with them,
at which it was practically agreed that
the bank president was innocent, and
that there was nothing clue to do but
take him into cur confidence and
make the bank icself our point of oper
ation.
“! watched the tefler very carefully
*hat week, and especially on the day
when he made up the payroll for the
factory, which was called for by
Saunders. The sack, contained both
gold and silver, but there was not a
single coin in the lot which had not
been given birth legitimately at some
one of the government's mints. Saun
ders made sure of this before the sack
reached the factory.
“The cashier, a man named Powell,
and the teller both kept close watch
upon me while I worked in the big
vault, as was their duty, and this
gave me scant opportunity to investi
gate the sacks of gold piled away in
a pretentious row on a low shelf. In
moving them, 1 thought that some
seemed lighter in weight than others,
and as thi3 would be valuable informa
tion if true, I hit upon what I thought
was a rather ingenious way of deter
mining if my surmise was correct.
“Concealing my pen-knife in the hol
low of my hand, with the blade open,
I selected one <;f tiig sacks of ten-dol
lar coins which seemed to be lighter
than some of its mates, and, as I
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moved it from the shelf, I cut the cord
which fastened the mouth of it while
the attention of the inquisitive cashier
and teller was directed elsewhere.
“Having shaken the mouth of the
sack open and frayed the ends of the
cord so that my ruse would not be
detected. I purposely stumbled and
fell as I crossed the vault. The coins
poured out upon the steel floor of the
big vault in a bright yellow stream,
rolling hither and yon, while I sat de
jectedly in the midst of the golden
flood and rubbed my knee and cursed.
“The two bank officials showed live
ly concern at my stupid accident, and
both set about gathering up the coins.
I assisted them as much as possible,
but my pulse was beating too fast for
my help to amount to much. My ruse
had fully served my purpose. The
ring of the coins upon the steel floor
of the v#ult. had not been true. They
had rung dull and heavy, and I knew
them at once for their real false char
acter. The verification of this fact
came when I fingered them deftly, as
I restored them to the sack whence
they had come. There was no mistak
ing the feeling of them. They were
greasy and slick; that slimy touch
which mscioscs me spurious coin in
the dark as well as in the light. Every
one 1 touched had that slippery, soap
stone surface which counterfeiters
cannot overcome except by the use
of metal of the same fineness as that
ot the genuine coin.
“As 1 replaced the sacks, after clean
ing the shelf. 1 was careful to weigh
each of them in my hand. There were
15 sacks, each containing a thousand
dollars in half eagles, whicli were light
in weight.
“I now felt sure of my ground, b it
it was still necessary that we secure
proof against the teller. I had not
suspected the cashier, until his evi
dent trepidation when T spilled the
sack of gold.
“The mystery was now more com
plex and interesting than ever. While
1 had discovered the big reserve of
the counterfeiters I had no evidence
against any one, and was still afraid
to make arrests. 1 wanted the makers
of the coin and their machinery, ai;d
wanted them badly, for this was the
biggest case that I had thus far in
p->v career been engaged upon.
“That night I did some tall think
ing. and also made a secret trip to the
banker’s residence, which I carefully
examined from the outside, going
over the extensive grounds about the
house and the outbuildings at the ira
minent peril of being shot for a bur
glar. Here I discovered only one thing
of importance. In the stable I stum- '
bled on an empty champagne case,
which was of the same brand as one
I had noticed in the vault of the ;
bank. It might mean something or
nothing, but I had long ago learned
to take particular notice of small
things, and many is the valuable clew
that this habit has given me.
“Since the return of Saunders and
McGrath, they had been working on
the clew of the anonymous letter, and
the information it contained about the
mysterious boxes which had been seen
to arrive at the bank at night. They
had located the author, a discharged I
messenger, who bore a grudge against
the teller to whose instance he attrib
uted his discharge. From the mes
senger they learned that the boxes had
been delivered at the hack entrance
of the bank late at night. They had
been brought to it in a one horse
express wagon, hut the wagon had not
displayed a license number and the
driver, although muffled in a great
coat, had evidently not been a regu
lar expressman, so the messenger in
formed them. He gave a fairly accu
rate description of the wagon, which
had been of peculiar construction.
“I had seen just such a vehicle at
the banker's residence, a sort of de
livery wagon which serried to be em
ployed in hauling feed for the exten
sive stable of the banker, as it had
been filled with sacks of oats and
bales of hay when I saw it.
"The next morning I reported sick
at the bank, but my service with the i
banker was not at an end. I had shifted
my position from janitor at the bank
to assistant gardener and general fac
totum at the president's residence.
Armed with a note from the banker to
the gardener, I put in my appearanc^
at his residence. The gardener didn’t
seem to like my appearance. He re
garded me with cold suspicion, while
he read the note from his employer,
and, it seemed to me, he rather reluc
tantly accepted me as his assistant. 1
verily believe he would have driven
me away on some pretext, if it had
not been for the explicit terms of the
note the banker had written at my dic
tation.
"The gardener was a tough looking
customer. There was an atmosphere
of suspicion about him which put me
on my guard and caused me to watch
him with caution. He was a smooth
individual, however, and I had served
in my new . capacity for three days
without discovering anything worth
mentioning, when he set me at the
task, of wheeling out the ashes from
I the big bin in the cellar. The bin was
situated at the rear of the furnace,
near the entrance of the basement,
and in passing to and fro at my task.
I noticed several wine-cases piled in
a dark corner of the basement. I took
advantage of the first opportunity to
examine them and. while the lids
were securely nailed down. I found,
by lifting them, that they were as
heavy as chunks of lead.
"That night I burglarized the bank
er's basement, while two of my com
panions kept watch outside to see that
1 was not disturbed. In the cham
pagne-cases I found the molds and
other accessories of the counterfeiters,
and a large quantity of metal and
newly manufactured coins.
“Before we left the banker's resi
dence, rne gardener was a prisoner,
and before the night was over we
had nabbed Mason and Tariey and
Cashier Powell. The gardener turned
state's evidence and gave the whole
thing away. The three society men
held out firmly to the last. They were
convicted only after considerable dif
ficulty. Except for the assistance of
the gardener in securing evidence, we
should never have been able to have
made out, against them, anything
more than a strong circumstantial
case. We recovered about $10,000
from the culprits, and in the bank's
vault was more than $18,000 of the
counterfeit money. The night watch
man at the bank was also implicated
and convicted.
‘'The gardener, who had many
aliases, was an old offender. He had
worked at one time in the ’Frisco
mint, and was regarded as a skillful
workman. After leaving the mint, he
had put out a gold coin of the
twenty-dollar denomination, but had
been caught and had served a prison
term for it. He had drifted east, after
serving his term, and had figured out
the plan which he had there put in op
eration. He had manufactured the
coins, using the big furnace at the
banker’s residence for that purpose,
and had secured the three society
men, all of whom were heavily in debt
and therefore ready victims, to palm
off the money. Their method was to
take good money from the bank vault
and replace it with the bad, which
they worked off at the factory in the
weekly pay roil. The cashier at the
bank had secured the place for the
counterfeiter at the banker’s resi
dence, but this had not been with any
particular design further than it was
a place that was especially suited to
the necessities of the counterfeiter.”
(Copyright. IOCS, by W. G. Chapman.)
(Copyright in Great Britain.)
BREAKFAST, SOCIAL FUNCTION
At One Time Particularly English
Form of Entertainment.
The customary breakfast given at
the opening of the legal term by the
lord chancellor in the house of lords
to about three hundred guests is an
institution which goes back to tho
days of the versati’-.t Brougham. For
the last 40 years it has been held in
the house of lords, bat at an earlier
date It whs given in the' lord chan
cellor’s residence. It is a relic of the
times when breakfast was a great so
cial function.
Many othet great men had what
may be termed the • breakfast habit.
Thus Mr. Gladstone was a regular
giver of breakfasts and a constant at
tendant at them when given by others.
Of recent years, however, the break
fast has fallen into desuetude as a so
cial function, except at the universi
ties, where young men are still found
who are capable of consuming three or
four courses and the while maintain
ing a genial flow of elegant conversa
tion.
Recently an attempt has been made
to revive the breakfast. Thus the king
in 1907, at Newmarket, issued several
invitations to breakfast parties. To
our ancestors the rfteal was a solid
one, of many dishes of meat, qualified
by sack possets or small beer, the an
cient equivalent of soda water. Tea
was not known, and coffee was ''tly
to be found in the medieval analogue
the modern museum.—Tit-Bits.
Armenia is a country of strong con
trasts, of opposite extremes, of heat
and cold, light and shade, drought and
moisture, and contains many myster
ies awaiting solution. The ethnologist
is still In doubt as to what branch of
the great European family the Ar
menian people belong to; the philolo
gist has not yet classified their lan
guage, the antiquarian knows next to
nothing of their early history,
/
I
i
HE SITS UP WHILE UNDERTAKER
IS PREPARING HIM FOR
BURIAL.
UTTER SEES THE BODY HEAVE
\ Speaks When Hand Is Plunged Into
Jug of Cold Water—Able to
Converse with Family in a
Short Time.
London.—A Rochdale; undertaker
met with a startling experience the
other day. During the last few days
a traveler named Janies Fegan. 2C
years of age, whose parents reside in
Christian street, .Preston, has been se
riously ill with pneumonia at his lodg
ings in Rochdale. During the whole
of Thursday night he was extremely
ill, and apparently died at seven o'clock
Friday morning.
A brother and sister of Fegan. who
had been summoned from Preston, and
the inmates of the house assured
themselves that the man was dead,
and straightway began to make ar
rangements for the funeral. The blinds
were drawn and the doctor was in
formed that death had taken place.
He prepared the customary certificate
and arrangements were made about
some insurance money.
The undertaker was informed, and
three hours after death was supposed
to have occurred he proceeded to the
lodgings of Fegan. When he reached
the room he found the man's head
propped up with pillows rather high,
and one of the pillows was removed
in order to secure a more correct
measurement. The undertaker, Albert
Heywood, had already taken one meas
urement, and was proceeding with a
second in order to verify the first,
when he was startled to see the body
slightly heave. At first he thought he
must have been mistaken, but after
waiting a second or two the body
I heaved again, and there was a slight
twitching of the eyelids, whicli had
been closed by the person who had
"laid out” the body.
Mr. Heywood informed the brother,
who commenced to shout wildly:
Oh, I’m Cold,” Muttefed the Sup
posed Dead Man.
Jim! Jim!” and shook Fegan vigor
ously. In response Fegan slightly
moaned. A doctor was sent for, and
the sister, who was in an adjoining
room, was summoned. As soon as she
learned that her brother lived she
fainted.
Mr. Hey wood then plunged the
man's hands into a jug of cold water,
and the shock caused him to speak.
He muttered: “Oh, I'm cold.” He had
lain in a cold room three hours, with
only a sheet covering his body. By
means of brandy Fegan revived so
much that in half an hour he was,
with assistance, able to sit up in bed.
Medical attention was given, and later
in the day he had recovered sufficient
ly to converse freely with his relatives
and friends.
Bees Object to Moving.
Woodbury, X. J.—William Rambo,
bus driver of this city, had an expe
rience that he long will remember. He
was engaged to take a hive of bees
front North to South Woodbury, and,
thinking they would rather occupy one
of his buses than an express wagon,
he placed the hive on the front seat.
When German street was reached
a few of the bee3 came ont to inves
tigate. They didn't like midwinter
moving, and called to others to come
out. A council of war was held, and
then the bees opened for business.
Several tackled the horses, others the
driver.
In the melee the hive was upset and
Rambo came out victor, but he doesn’t
care to haul any more bees.
Amputates Wife’s Foot with Razor.
Vassar, Mich.—Because his wife said
she would rather have him perform
the operation than a surgeon. Herman
Stricter, who lives near her. ampu
tated his wife's foot with a razor. Mrs.
Stricter had been suffering from a pe
culiar disease which had settled in one
of her feet. Two physicians advised
amputation. Mrs. Stricter gradually
grew worse and her husband, at her
request, without the assistance of a
surgeon, performed the operation witli
a razor. Gangrene soon set in and the
woman was taken to a Saginaw hos
pital.
EAGLE THRASHES A GAT.
THEN AWAKENS POLICE
BIRD ROUTS TABBY, AND WHEN
TAKEN TO STATION INVADES
DORMITORY.
New York.—Nature fakers and
others who may think a cat can whip
a gray eagle are respectfully referred
to Joseph Solomon, who runs a butch
er shop on Madison avenue, and
Abraham Tfeffer, who helps him. They
got their information at first hand the
other afternoon, when they saw a
half-grown eagle easily whip a large
cat.
It is Solomon's practice to have re
freshments in his apartment in the
rear of the store just before the lata
afternoon rush sets in, and the other
day while he. Tfeffer and Mrs. Solo
mon were discussing the rerv.at a
Tom Was Getting the Beat ng of His
Nine Lives.
fearful squawking arose in the back
yard, where Solomon daily throws
scraps for the benefit of the cats of
the neighborhood.
Rushing out they found Tom Grady,
the largest and handsomest tiger cat
in the district, in battle with a bird,
with other cats fleeing in all directions
from what looked to be a feathered
Johnson in action. Tern was getting
the beating of his nine lives when
Tfeffer got a large bag and threw it
ever the bird.
Then, followed by a large crowd, he
ran to the station.. He arrived there
so excited that he could not say any
thing to Lieut. Connors but 'bird cat.”
Connors was still wondering what was
wrong when the bird answered the
question by breaking out of the bag
and flying straight for his head. Con
nors sidestepped, and the bird flew
into the inspector's room, where po
licemen were playing checkers. They
dropped the checkers to chase the
bird, which made a line for the third
floor, where more tired policemen
were dreaming.
Thence the chase led to the inspec
tion room once more, policemen in all
states of dress and undress aiding in
the- pursuit, which, seemingly, was to
be endless, until Hugh Montgomery,
the doorman, cajne to the rescue.
Hugh goes fishing a great deal in the
summer, and had a small net used to
catch minnows handy. Deftly he
threw it over the bird, and in a short
time it was in an improvised cage, and
the station settled down to its norma!
condition.
On examination the eagle was found
to have escaped all but minor injuries
ut the hands of Tom Gradv, and now
awaits a claimant.
FAIR INDIAN MAID STOLEN.
Tahlequah Cherokee Girl Has the
Time of Her Life.
Muskogee.. Okla.—Because she pos
sessed a lease which half a dozen oil
companies sought, Susie Turner, a
Tahlequah Cherokee Indian girl, who
lacked one month of being 18 years
old, has spent that month in fairyland.
Kidnaped at night on a street of
Tahlequah and driven 45 miles in a
race to catch a train, the young Indian
girl was hustled into a Pullman state
room on the Katy Flyer, hurried out of
Oklahoma, married to her sweetheart
on the train, wined, dined and enter
tained at the expense of one of the
rival oil companies, and has just been
returned to Oklahoma, IS years old,
Mrs. Moses Harris, and legally able
to sign over a lease to the spendthrift
oil men.
When a girl Mrs. Harris inherited
valuable oil lands and as the day of
her maturity drew near several con
cerns, among them the Holdenville Oil
Company, appeared in the field as
rivals for the rich leases. It was when
the bargaining was just reaching a
climax that the Holdenville crowd kid
naped the girl and kept her in the
fairyland of the east until she was
old enough to give them the rauch
sought-for lease.
Oddly Cured by Tramp.
Worcester, Mass.—Unable to leave
his bed for three years, James A. Sut
ton, at his home near Rochdale, enter
tained a tramp the other evening. The
tramp told Sutton to get up and walk,
saying: ‘I think if you tried you
could get up and walk.”
Mr. Sutton got onto his feet and
found he could stand. When he did
this the tramp looked surprised, J.nd
started to the door. Mr. Suttor spoke,
saying: “Come back, come back, and
stay ihe night with us." But the
tramp had disappeared in the dark
ness.
Worthily Won Record.
I Brig. Gen. George H. Torney, the
| new surgeon general of the army, is
| a Baltimorean by birth, the Sun of
! that city says of him: ‘ He achieved
! his principal distinction, perhaps, in
• the work of sanitation following the
I San Francisco earthquake and fire ca
I lamity in April, 1S06. He was then
| in command of the hospital at the
! Presidio, and all the details of the
! army's medical relief work fell to him.
1 The sanitary conditions of San Fran
i cisco were made safe within one week
after the disaster. This work won
for the new surgeon general enthusi
astic public praise from the mayor of
San Francisco, the governor of the
state, the oflicials of the citizens’ re
lief committee, the Red Cross author
iities, Surgeon Gen. O’Reilly and even
Secretary of War Taft. Mr. Taft has
borne this record in his memory ever
since."
The man who hasn’t the vigor to
be vicious usually prides himself on
his virtues.
ARCTIC TEMPLE OF ICE.
Crystal Palace Found by Ill-Fated
Erichsen Expedition.
New York.—Amid the bleak, icy
deserts of Greenland the survivors of
the recent ill-fated Erichsen expedi
tion discovered a sight of majesty that
solaced them for months of darkness,
tedium and suffering. They found a
crystal palace of superhuman archi
tecture, vaster than a dozen cathedrals
and Egyptian temples, resplendent
with jewels and endless decorations of
ice. Created by nature in a forbidding
wilderness, it frightened the eyes of
/
1
Entrance to Huge Ice Cave.
the explorers and awed them with un
imagined magnificence. The dreams
of poets and the fancies of epic bards
were surpassed by this vision of co
lossal loveliness, which the painter.
Achton Friis, a member of the expedi
tion, endeavored to carry away for th<
benefit of dwellers in civilization.
More than a mile in length, the lofty
nave of this arctic temple of ice was
pierced at intervals with windows
through which the glancing sun rays
sparkled on columns and cubes and
Immense clusters of stalactites like
pendent jewels. An iridescent glow, as
if from opals and diamonds, suffused
the lighter spaces and shaded into the
bluish twilight which reigned in sol
emn transepts. The painter despaired
of comprehending even the elusive col
ors that emanated from every surface
and were infinitely toned by combina
tion and reflection.
Through the center of the ice palace
flowed a stream of water, whose oc
casional ripple and plashing fall broke
the majestic silence. The human voic
reverberated weirdly against the mas
sive walls and the arched roof. A tone
of mystery or of giant power was re
peated by the invisible spirits of the
north. There were echoes like chimes
of bells, matching the fairy decor;
tions of the nave. A huge dissonance
caused by the cracking of a distant
floe rumbled through the cavern as If
it were the beginning of a prelude on
an organ appropriate for an Arctic
temple. What strains of might and of
brooding softness would he required in
such music!
In habited latitudes the architecture
of frozen water is regarded as a pleas
ing fantasy, something which lasts a
few short months and disappears. Far
north it is possible that ice palace-,
and temples should endure withoir
change longer than human structure
of stone. The carcasses of prehistoric
monsters have remained inviolate in
arctic tombs for thousands of years,
while granite pyramids have worn
away and Babylonian civilizations
have been buried deep in the earth.
Some day the world may decide to
store its most valuable records for
posterity at the poles.
TWO COUNTRIES, ONE LEGATION.
Denmark and Sweden in Same Build
ing in Washington.
Washington.—Sweden and Denmark
occupy the same legation building in
}
V
i
New Swedish-Danish Legation in
Washington.
this city. It is a coincidence that
both countries go into the new Wash
ington home with new' representatives.
Sweden with M. Herman de Lager
crantz and Denmark with Count
Moltke, both men of experience in di
plomacy and of considerable w'ealth.
Countess. Moltke, the wife of the
new Danish minister, is as wealthy as
her husband, young and interested in
Washington society, so that consider
able entertaining will be done in the
right-hand side of the legation build
ing, occupied by the Danish repre
sentative.
M. Lagercrantz, besides his wife,
brings with him two daughters, Misses
Eva and Mary. Both are good musi
cians and linguists.
A Temperance Movement.
“George," spoke his better half, “yon
are interested in the temperance
movements, are you not?"
“V\ hy certainly I am,” he answered.
“Well, suppose yen go out and make
a few- of them with the pump handle.
I am in need of a pail of water."
Not interested.
“You really ought to take up the
study of reincarnation,” said the young
woman of great mentality.
“Not I,” answered Mr. Dustin Stax.
“These investigations are giving me
all the trouble concerning my past
that I can handle at present.”—'Wash
ington Star.
