Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-04-29

THE Detroit Post contains the fol-,
lowing account of the testimony of an
expert as to the process of counterfeit
ing. He is now serving out p sentence
in the Indiana pe~nitentiary. The Post
says:
1t often happens in trials in Courts that
the services of persons specially skilled
in q profession or branch of business are
required to throw light upon the matter
to be considered by the court and jury.
A few weeks since we gave some curious
results OF the examination of handwriting
by experts, showing that kind of testi-
monY in that particular instance at least
70 be contradictory and altogether unre-
liable. The value of an experts testimO-
ny, of course, depends altogether upon
his special skill and proficiency in the
matter about which he is called upon to
testify. The most remarkable case of a
particularly competent expert that has
fallen under our observation in this city
was developed in the counterteiting case
now on trial in the United States District
Court.
One join B. Trout, who is now serving
a sentence in the Indiana State Prison, at
Michigan City, was brought here to show
that the Johnson family had been in the
~ AOANAnk DuslutSS III luOldQd from
1868 until 1867, at which latter date Trout
was sent to prison. But it came out in
the course of the examination that he was
thoroughly posted in the manufacture of
counterfeit money, having been engaged
nth q business for fifteen years as an en-
graver of plates and printer of bank
notes. For the benefit of the court, coun-
sci, Jury and spectators, he entered into
a minute description of the process of en-
craving plates and printing notes, de-
scribing the various articles which had
been seized in the Johnson house, and
their uses in cOunterfeiting.
But the most wonderful exhibition of
his skill was in telling the name of the
engraver of a plate by examination of a
bill printed from it. He was thoroughly
familiar with the work of all the en-
gravers. He detected a counterfeit from
a genuine bill at a glance. He readily
designated as counterfeit an issue which
even the Treasury Department took as
genuine Tor some time before detecting as
false, the Department being then Obliged
to cancel the genuine issue because the
false was so nearly perfect. The United
States Marshal has a boob containing
samples Of all the counterfeits yet issued.
Trout looked at these bills, and told the
engraver correctly each time with very
little examination.
Among these bills were those from
plates engraved by Boyd, and Ulrich, and
other celebrated eounterfeiters and which
are so perfectlydone as to deceive ninety
nine out of every hundred persons aecus-
toned to the examination OF money.
Trout could not describe the process by
which he distinguished these various
bills, but characterized it as an indie
%scribable instinct. He said he had worked
Of hundreds of thousands of dollars in
counterfeit money while he was engaged
in the business. He is apparently about
thirty-hve years of age and seems to be
on the brink of a cOnsumptive's grave.
His term of sentence does not expire for
two years yet. But he says he does not
expect a pardon, though so near death.
BE prefers TO end his days in prison,
and has made his coffin with his own
hands. He is a modest, q~uiet-looking
man, and says hat his appearanGs always
won him the confidence of those with
whom he came in contact, and had much
to do with his success in dispOsing of
counterfeit money. 1t seems surprising
that a man of his talent should choose to
use it in a course of crime, and end his
life in a State prison. His skill, exer-
cised in a Legitimate direction, would
doubtless have gained him a competency.
But hSis now a sad example how genius
may be perverted when it lacks the bal
ance of good principles or good sense