The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-03-31
The Counterfeiting Business.

lin rel6tI0n 10 Tue couuleiie'e'hS Va e'''S
and money in New York aud Ohio. from
" hich it would seem that 10 some Sec
tions Of the coustry it is becoming reg
ular branch of business, as eagarly pur-
sued, and, within certain limits, almost as
openly as any other branch of speculation
in the North, or as the foreign slave trade
in the South or 10 Cuba. Books are
published giving full descriptions ofcheap
methods of initiating the precious metals.
| All the tricks of counterleiters for sweat
ing. boring. splitting, and filling coin are
here detailed with great exactness, and
on payment of Eve dollars any one has
been admitted into one of their csfcleS. -
In some sections quite large bodies Of
men have gone ipto this business as the
easiest and most literal way OF ma0kang
money. Only the other day Cleveland
paper tells US that in that city Metho-
dist minister of biz sh standing was preach
| ing funeral sermon to a crowded con-
gregation, when the officers of justice ar
rested him as a counterfeiter. All the
i'm plemcnts for carrying on very cxten-
sive business of this kind were found in
his house. Finally he made clean
: breast of it before the whole multitude,
and told them that having been brought
up an eugraver, be had during the last
two years become connected With a gang
of this sort, and had been hard at work
manufacturing false bank bills on large
scale.
The question naturally presents ITSELF
what is going to become of honest men =
What can those do who live by buying
and selIingl The losses of the retail
storekeepers are becoming every year lar
ger and larger, Notwithstanding counter.
felt detectors aud every other precaution
La the East Indies the Kings and Princes
have cheated SO in the coinage that il
Burmah every man who sells carries hi:
scale and weights, aud aceighs aHh1s SlI
ger as be receives it; and they have be-
come excellent judges of the quality Of sill
yer, aud can tell how much it is adulter-
ated. But we seem about to have no se
curity that our coins are what they seem
Ages before the birth of Chemistry the
alchemists were occupied in seeking som,
means by which all metals Mi kht b,
transmitted into gold. 1t never seemed
to enter into their minds that the ultimate
{ feet of all this would, il successful, be
10 hausnsute golI dorm in point of value
aud importance to the average OF otheT
metals. 1t is so in all these modern at
tcmpts Of baser kind to counterfeit, In
ste ad of Transmitting. 1t is ten times a.
luxurious to the community as so much
money distracted or stolen, or SO muct
lead openly mixed with all our coins
The uncertainty, the time, the risk o'
buying aud seIiOg. makes men avoid ex-
changes. except at much larger profits, tc
pay for all this Unless it can be broker
up, our whole currency will become de-
preciated incidentally.
But there is a worse depreciation thar
all this indicated in the extension of coun
terfeiting operaton-; it is the dePrectattoh
Of Deofal character among zen OF sufficient
mechanical ingenuity aud intellectual en-
tertaiuments to render them u ost danger
Gus to the community. The social posi-
ton of many of these operators makes
them doubly dangerous aud doubly dele
terious. Sometimes we build great hope.
for the future of our country from the in.
creased education of the masses. But lei
US not be blind to the fact that mere an
tellect'tal progress, without proper train
ing in the habits of moral AMI social sir-
tue and conformity to law, will only tend
more rapidly to demoraiize and destroy,
rendering those who possess these adVan
tages more ingenious and therefore a
more dangerous race Of pickpockets, and
oounterfeiters. Who would wish to SET
razor in the hands Of every mad man
Yet such is knowledge and skill to tht
unprincipled
There are times when virtue and reli
gon seem to carry their triumphs into
the highest quarters Of public as we'll a.
private life, so openly and powerfully
that all begin to hope a new era had
dawDed upon mankind. Bot on the 9th
er hand, such glimpses of life. public and
private, as are sometimes seen are no
aatterng to our progress in virtue. The
revival of the slave trade in the South,
and the progress of frauds and counter.
fetiug at the North and West, oil in de
fance of the laws equally of God and
man, shows that lar as LaW has not Ma
popcer on tie public conscience it ought tc
possess. and must be brought to possess
to insure the perpetuity of free Govern
ment. Unless children are instructed. il
the school. house and at home, that taat
and right are to be respected, that not in
genious merely. but honest and true
ways of making money are alone to be
songht-uuless specific instructions OF
these points enter into pulpit teachings
the lesson will have to be enforced ii
other and steraer methods. The neglect
of education is not the remedy to be tho
of, but the additional instructions of wbicl
We ppeak are loudly called PtIa
delphta Ledger.
A Smart SPELL
A gentleman in North Chester, Yer
mont, two or three weeks since, offere,