Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-10-09
A STRANGE STORY.
The Tale of the hank Note Forge
ries-UnfOldingO of q Romance Ia
Swiss Court OF Law.

From the London Daily News. Sept lS.J .s5,
The famous affair of the diamond neck
lace has at length found rival. For
dramatic situation, for the variety of
characters revealed in it, and for GER
tain nebulous mystery which even yet
enfolds the principal actors and their
deeds, we should almost prefer the story
of the bank note forgeries, as that has
been partially opened up to us in Swiss
court of law The surprising transform
atoms through which the characters pass
in this strange history recall the most
mysterious scenes in Wilhelm Meister or
the scarcely more ineligible coup de
theatre in the Comtesse de Rudolsadt.
AT first the play opens in quite idylllc
fashion. We have two lovers living TO-
gether in Yverdon, on the chores OF the
beautiful lake of Neuchatel. They live
the most exemplary lives; they are quiet
and orderly, pay their rent punctually,
do not drink, make noises, or otherwise
misconduct themselves. The elder Of
these two is q Polish priest named Szu-
mowski, tall man, brown and bearded,
whose gray eyes look from under the
eyebrows that are at once powerful and
mobile. The lady, who ia of English or
igin and called Maria Artist, and who
certainly should not have been on so in
innate terms with a priest, is o young
and fragile creature, pale and suffering,
who has an abundance Of fair hair, and
shelters herself behind q veil. A domi-
ciliary visit ordered by the authorities
discovers certain suspicious things in
the house tenanted by this amiable con-
pie. Plates of copper, lithographiS
stones, printing machines, bank notes
that look singnlarly new-all these are
in consonance with certain little win
dow which is CONSTRUCTED so that a view
Of the whole street is commanded by it.
The pleaof the priest and his companion,
that they are simply engravers, who are
following their occupation on account OF
an uncle, does not avail. Finally they
confess-they are forgers of bank notes.
They have already been arrested for the
same crime at Sainte Andresse, in
France, but were liberated for want of
evidence. They came into Switzerland,
where they have been prosecuting their
nefarious trade under the orders Of
person passing for their uacle, called
DowmOnd Matuzewicz.
The appearance Of Matuzewicz on the
stage caused the plot to thicken. de is
as great an enigma as the Count Albert,
who puzzled aud fascinated Consuolo.
He is visionary, a political idealist,
who has been at deadly war with despot-
isms and aristocracies. The Russian
Government pursued him wherever he
went. He was being continually ar
rested. No sooner was he liberated at
Olmutz, where be had been seeking to
purchase Austrian arms with which to
combat Russian designs, than he Rea to
Saxony, where he was arrested again,
and sent out of the kingdom. Then he
went TO Zurich but even here his reiu-
sal TO subscribe to the doctrine OF Scla-
vonic unity brought upon him fresh
troubles Then he vas invelgled
into going to Berlin and Prague, where,
oddly enough, his enemies succeeded IN
compromising him by making him pass
forged bsnk-notes, in entire ignorance OF
their worthlessness. He was acquitted,
however Dken he returned 70 SWitzer-
land; but he was again thrown into the
company Of forgers, for some Of those
wicked people had robbed him Of large
sum in Prague, and he wanted to see H
he could getit back. So far, the 'nncle,'
aumowiski, on the other hand, also rep
resented himself as q political Propa-
gandist. and said he had taken to for
eery as a means OF revenge upon his
political enemies. False bank-noies,