The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-01-08
The King Of Counterfeiters.

4A4A16 l.
The Erie (Pa.) Dispatch gives an a 3
count of a visit TO the home of Tom
Ballard. reported to be the greatest
counterfeiter in the world. The dilap-
idated barn in the rear of the house was
the repository of powerful electric bat
teries, none the less potent because
they were not constructed according to
regulations. To have purchased glass
jars of sufficient size might have excited
suspicion, and so rongly-hooped half
barrel ale casks were substituted, and
big open-mouthed stone jars, such as q
housekeeper might purchase to fill with
pickles, were used, and only chemist
could guess at the contents.
The house was his workshop and his
study. The windows were curtained
with white material, and besides the
curtains there were white screens that
might be placed before them. Upon
the table near the center of the room
was all the apparatus necessary for the
engraver, and here, when interrupted,
plate that was to have bank
rupted all Canada" We saw the
partly finished plate-of the finest
steel-under magnifying- glass, and a
comparison of it with other plates from
which counterfeits have been success
fully printed leads us to believe that
Toms expression was no idle boast, as
in appearance the others were no more
to be compared to it in frmness of exc
cution than an ordinary wood cut is to
a fine steel engraving. In this room,
besides the counterfeit plates, were the
inks and dyes and nameless prepara-
tions in little glass bottles, the uses of
which could only be guessed at. Pieces
Of oh 10 &pn fa1 snI, -,
the feel could not be distinguished from
the national bank currency, were lying
about, and here and there a rough
proof where tests had been made of
colors or in stamping. One bit bore
several impressions of the carmine
Sc treasury stamp" which, upon the
scientifically prepared paper. was so
exact that we could not distinguish the
difference between them and the genu-
inc. In the hurried search through the
premises some few small vials were up
set, and where they fell the floor was
stained with hues as indelible as though
human blood had been spilled and dried
there.
But if his workshop would have been
a curiosity to the skilled mechanic, the
would have been none the less to the
ripe scholar in chemistry. Files of the
Scientific american, and other scientific
periodicals, were there, nicely arranged.
The table was covered with books,
treatises on practical chemistry, and
metallurgy, electricity, paper-making,
and photography predominating. Cata-
logues of books on chemistry were there !;
fusion of metals and books of recipes,
some of monern days and some in the
inspection of which an antiquarian
would have reveled. It was easy to see
that Ballard had applied himself par
ticnlarly to those branches of chemistry
which related to coloring, electro-plat-
ing and paper-making. There was
little or nothing in the room that would
distinguish it from the sitting-room of
a wel-to-do mechanic, except in the ex-
clusively scientific character of the
books and papers.
There was no stairway to the attic
simply a scuttle-hole which could be
reached by q short ladder-and here the
floor that was laid over the ioists came
against the rafters of the roof on either
side, leaving space like an inverted A
in which the operators might work.
Here was the printing press, and here
were the different colored inks, prepared
and tested in the laboratory below.
Among the odds and ends picked up
was piece of something that looked
like q mixture of putty and wax,
80" By careless handling it became
bent, but it was nevertheless handed TO
Ballard (whi1e his hearing before the
United States Commissioners was in
progress) for explanation as to its
uses. His first glance noted the
defect, and he said !: "Why, you've
spoiled it. When you found that twas
ready to have had just as nice q $40
medallion (the figures and border in the
left hand corner of the note) electro
typed from it as anybody ever saw"
That Ballard possesses q secret which
would be invaluable to the government
seems not only possible but probable.
The government paid Frenchman
$50, 600 for the secret of manufacturing
fiber paper for their greenbacks, sup
posing that would stop their being
co1nterfeited, but Tom Ballard-wheth-
er by the same method or not is not
known-makes just as good fiber paper
as the government does, and he is the
only man who has counterfeited it suc-
cessfully, and it is rather difficult to
determine the exact limit to which his
knowledge of chemistry in connection
with bank nete making extends, but il
is well known that he Is of himself q
drst-class engFaver, printer and chemist,
the proof of whose skill is shown by
his handiwork.
GooD Santa Claus lis said to be har.
Messing MP his reindeer. The famous
sleigh has been slowed full already.
The gifts in it for good boys and girls
are supposed to be beyond all precedent
in magnificence and variety. What theJ
are is still profound secret. Inter
viewers are not tolerated in the domain
of the sPrinse of Christmas, and th.
most intimate friends of the potentatt
are not indulged with " private views.
We must all be truly good, and ther
tive shall see what we shall see." On,
thing youmust all do, dear little folks
and you big ones, too, for that matter, =
il You want to please Santa Claus, and
that is to see that none of the families
he visits are suffering with cold o.
hunger. Old Santa is good old Ohris
tian, or else he has been loudly liet
about in everybody's prsyers-and il b.
is q Christian, could he conscientiousl,
fill your house with gifts on Ohristmai
day, IL he had just seen, 10 the cours,
of his trip, that you were letting you,
near neighbor go hungry and be II
| want?
Rape and Lynch Law.