The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1873-01-14
CATCHING A COUNTERFEITER.
A Detectives Adventure.

CohSiuel my oSCuPdtiVh" BA'u0 VI o"O
above it.
l have a partner in business whose real
name have no right to make public. He
is coarse-featured person and is capable
of converting himself by means of dress
into one OF the most rough-looking and re-
pulsive of men. While in one of the
meanest of his DISCUSSES, some one gave
him the name of "Slouch," and this rath-
in spirit of pleasantly, is now about the
only name by which address him. He is
good-hearted fellow muscular and coura-
geous, and he has, in more than one in
stance, rescued me from great peril, if not
actually saved my life.
Slouch has remarkable faculty of read
ing crime on the face. His conclusions are
generally correct-yet how he arrives at
them has always been a mystery to me.
My own suspicious are mostly the result of
some theory, and l will freely confess that
my imagination has often led me astray.
1t is different with SLOUGH. A single look
him. He has often upset nicely woven
tissue of apparently corroborative incidents
for me by glance at the party suspected,
shake of the head and grulf and pro-
voking dissent Only one instance occur
red where was right and he was absolute
ly wrong; but as its recital would be a
depression, / shall reserve it for another
time.
We are sometimes together, and at other
times widely separated. There is not a
railroad, canal or steamboat line in the
United States that one or the other of us
has not travelled over in the pursuit of our
calling. Recently we have been sojourn-
ing in San Francisco.
Some time since the officers of the F.
bank, in the city of New York, gave infor-
nation to the police. that their notes had
been extensively counterfeited, in man
ner so alarmingly perfect that many of the
spurious bills had passed through their
own hands without detection; in fact, the
first intimation of the crime was the per-
ceptible initiation of paper in circulation.
Every line and shade of the original bill
was reproduced in the counterfeit in such
manner that without the aid of a micro
scope, detection was utterly impossible.
Once discovered it was plain that no other
counterfeiting process could so completely
initiate the genuine but the art of photo
graphy, and in that science the manipula-
tors must have been skilled.
SLOUGH and / went to work at once, led
by the incentive of large conditional re-
ward. We labored for many weeks with
out success. There was not single pho
tographic establishment in that large city
that escaped our visits in disguise, and in
my zeal to succeed in the undertaking,
studied the art from beginning to end. Near
ly three months had been fruitlessly spent in
this way, when one evening messenger
was sent to us in haste from the cashier of
the bank requesting us to hurry to his
room. He informed us that two passenger
tickets had been purchased that day at the
California steamship Office, every dollar for
lie had made some inquiries himself in the
matter, and informed us that the ticket
agent had no recollection of the persons
from whom he had received the money.
and that the steamer would sail at nine
o'clock on the following morning. SLOUGH
and took the matter into consideration,
and urged by the advice and counsel Of the
bank officers, we determined to take pas
sage in the same boat. A trunk apiece was
hastily packed with our motley wardrobe,
and after agreeing upon our DISCUSSES, we
sailed out the next morning, taking diff
ferent routes, and proceeded without any
show Of haste to the vessel.
hesitate to say that was much dis
guised on this trip, because my appear
ance, as near as / could make it up, was
that of well-dressed gentleman of for
tune travelling for pleasure and, of course,
the first cabin was chosen for my quarters.
SLOUGH had selected a very repulsive dis
guise, and might have been seen, as the
steamer left the pier, awkwardly striding
about among the passengers, the most per-
feet semblance of sneak thief / ever saw.
AS precaution, he bore letter of intro
duction TO the master of the vessel, endors-
ed by the Chief of the New York police.
SLOUGH and l were. Of course, apparent
strangers, and were as widely as possible
separated on board the ship.
Only few days of our voyage had pass
ed before | had succeeded in winning the
good opinions Of my companions in the