The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-04-14

u moment, and fairly raved when I es.
tablished my identity with him.
The attpmOt tO zur,op envtbinp o. from

Il moment, and fairly raved when l es-
tablished my identity with him.
The attempt to wiring anything from
him in regard to the others was a fail
ure. He declared that he would submit
to torture before he would betray those
who had furnished him the money.
coaxed, threatened and discussed, but
he was firm; and after an hour vainly
spent gave up the attempt. 1 would
send him to Washington, and then hope
that accident might assist me to find
Rogers den. I was determined to find
it if had to call out every man in Park
ersburg.
Going out of the room to arrange for
sending Burton off stumbled against a
small dog at the door, and I remembered
that the dog had come in with the coun-
terfeiter. It was not his dog. and the
thought struck me that it might belong
to some Of the gang, and had followed
him from the den. l at once tied the
animal up, determined to make him USE
full. After sending Burton off by the ten
o'clock train, | secured the services of
eight men, including four constables,
and, all well armed, we set out after the
dog. We had given him fogging be-
| lOrc SGdTGluS, w udhC ulA]u loLuSSlSh,
as one of the constables asserted, and he
was held from going too fast by string
around his neck.
We had equipped ourselves with Ian
terms, expecting jaunt OF several miles,
and were therefore much put out when
the dog, after going two or three blocks,
led us down a back street, and stopped
before the door of oIe-story building
which had the sign "shoe shop" over
the door. The door was locked and
there was no evidence of life about the
place. We dragged the dog away, but
no sooner gave him the slack of the
string than he led US back.
The constables stated that a stranger
occupied the shop. and after one more
trial with the dog consented that they
should force open the door. Closing it
behind US, we lighted one ofthe candles,
and passed through partition door into
q rear room. The room was empty, and
one of the constables caught sight of and
lifted up trap door.
The moment the door came up heard
the clatter Of printing press. knew
the sound in an instant. and realized
that we were about to make discovery.
| Looking to our weapons, and leaving
the lanterns above, we descended q
rough ladder, and were soon in pas
sage which one of the men declared to
be an old ravine which had been walled
up and covered over several years before.
Cropping forward few yards, the clatter
of the press growing nearer all the time,
we at length bumped against u door.
Feeling around, I found the handle,
gave pull, and blaze of light was let
into the passage.
We saw a printing press, three or four
men, tables, papers, troughs and 80
| forth, and we rushed into the cellar on
run. There was shout, the counter
feiters all ran, and in moment all but
two had escaped out through door in
the far end of the room. The two were
Rogers and companion, known to the
craft as "Shinplaster jim"
We followed through the door after
two or three minutes, taking one of the
lights, reached and mounted pair of
stains, and found ourselves on the first
floor of an empty store across the street
from the shoe shop. The counterfeiters
had rented both buildings, and were
using the cellar of the store as their
printing office. We found ''piles" Of
counterfeit notes, secured all the plates,
dies, tools, presses and paper. and the
haul broke up one of the worst gangs in
the country. Rogers and Burton went
to prison for twenty years each, and
Jim" got off with sentence of ten.
But for the little dog the rascals were
so we'll hidden that they might have
worked away for months without de-
lection.