Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-04-01

~a.u ne CoUldn sell n less than
% oent- on the dollar lie said hp
paid ~ for IT,. He wanted to make some.
thing on il. He said that occasionally a
man come in a little drunk, and tie could
pass OIL some on him. He then tool, me
down 20 a dark cellar. He lit candle,
and then he sold me $3.50 worth OF fifty
cent pieces, for which paid him S2l.90.
Witness Il shown the money. and ident-
ties 1t a. that bought from Harper. He
said he had been in the business some
time. He said he once passed $40 bill
on livery stable man, and that he came
back afterwards and told him he had
pass ed Dad bill on him, but As he
had passed il of again, it didn't make any
difference. He said he had passed Consd-
cradle in that way. He offered to get me
as much "a five or ten thousand dollars,
and could get me some $50 counterfeit bills
ia ten or twelve days. He had to send oil
for it..
On Cross.eXamination. witness said :
Harper was arrested in October afterwards.
| came TO Knoxville from Florida. My
home is in New York. and headquarters in
Atlanta. | came here stranger. Dyer
came here after | did. and is my assistant
l employed him. | heard about him.
thought he was smart man, and sent for
Harper's after dark. No one else
was behind the bar with Harper.
The conversation with him took
place down in the cellar. We talked
some up stairs. Dyer introduced me as
"Capt Ritter, the man | talked to you
about" Our conversation was in low
tone, or whisper, and could not be heard.
His money was in his pocket and he pulled
it out when he got down stairs. Never
saw Dyer with counterfeit money but what
he bought for me in his business.
OTHER CORRoBoRATING EVIDENCE.
Mr.. r. M. MCClung being sworn, ex-
amined the counterfeit money, and pro-
nounced it all, including a SD and 81
bill, counterfeit. The large bill is calcu-
lated to deceive persons not accustomed to
handling money.
MARSHAL S. p. EVANS TESTIFIED
that when he arrested Hal per in October,
1873, he had six or seven hundred dollars
on his person. Witness inteutitied some
counterfeit bills he found on Harper.
On cross examination, the Marshal
said: Harper told me where he got the
! two counterfeit bills-two accounts about
the $50 bill. | arrested defendant at his
house.
The jury convicted but, gu evidence
the Judge considered some mitigation OF
the otfense. Harper was sentenced to
one years Imprisonment. In the sentence
the Judge said, that if the defendant had
not attempted to deceive him in his evil
| dence and statements explaining his con-
| nection with the infamous traffic, he
| would have been disposed to put on d
| milder sentence. The business the de
PENDANT was engaged in had misled him
| He was gratified to say that the pris
oner had expressed his sorrow that he had
1 ever engaged in rumselliDg. III the
| opinion of the court the law ought to bt
inversed so as to make rum-selling fel
ony and counterfeiting a misdemeanor
| for in his opinion the man who sold wits
key was worse thau a counterfeiter. l
the law punished offenses looking to thu
evil results following them, it wonld GER
tainly punish dram-selling more thar
passing counterfeit money, for the former
| did moro TO create misery and encourage
crime than the latter.
Geo. Weaver, indicted for counterfeit
ing, plead guilty and was sentenced to on,
year in the penitentiary at hard labor
Weaver seemed to feel keenly the disgrace
and showed deeper penitence than any o
the accused,