The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-04-18
A WRONGFUL iMpRlso INTENT.



President Arthur recently pardoned ont oil
tie Penitentiary at Buffalo, New York, a
man named John Pendergrass who was
serving out sentence of one year for Mt.
tempting to pass counterfeit money it hay.
ing been demonstrated that the prisoner was
innocent of the charge The circumstances
dthe case are rather interesting and seem
to show that even bank CASH rs IRE not in
fallible- in~determining whether a coin is
genuine or not. The story of the affair is
substantially this Several weeks ago PEN
dergrass, who is a canal boatnian working in
the vicinity of Buffalo, accompanied by a
friend, went into a saloon for drinks, in
payment of which he rendered a silver dol
lar The barkeeper suspected the coin and
refused to take it, whereupor Pendergrass
was warned by his friend not to attempt to
pass hat dollar again or he might get into
Touble. He then counseled him to give the
piece OF money to the blrkeeper for pock-
et-piece. This was done, but subsequently
Pendergrass demanded his change from tho
saloon-keeper, who not only declined to
give it to him, but sent for Deputy Muir
;hal and charged Pendergrass with trying
10 pass bogus money. The latter and his
companion We're arrested and taken before
United States Commissioner Murray for a
hearing. A bank cashier of Buffalo was
summoned to inspect the dollar and pro-
nounced it counterfeit, stating that he
was an expert in handling money. It was
mainly upon his evidence that Pendergrass
and his friend were committed to jail, where
they remained for two weeks. The friend
was induced, by promise of pardon, to turn
States evidence against Pendergrass, his
testimony being that he had cautioned his
companion not to try and pass the money
When Pendergrass was brought to trial he
was advised by the prosecuting officer to
plead guilty and that he would be sentenced
to prison for only one year This he did
and was committed accordingly
The case would probably never have be-
come public but for the cupidty of the
Deputy Marshal who made the arrest I'm
der the statutes officers of the secret service
of the Treasury Department are entitled to
-N"','s i'a N'N'J CuuNlClbu.
The Deputy Marshal learned of this, but,
being ineligible to receive the compensation,
he concocted scheme by which member
Of the local police force was stated to be the
party who made the arrest aud was entitled
TO the reward. The necessary papers We're
prepared and, with the supposed counter.
felt, forwarded to this city to Chief Brooks
of the secret service As ioon MS the latter
examined the money he declared it to be
genuine and was sustained by the experts in
the Treasury Department, who cut the piece
in half and weighed it, The attention of
the Secretary of the Treasury was called to
the case and he laid ii before the President
for action The United States Commissioner
before whom fendergrass was tried was
Notified that the coin was genuine, but he
refused to believe il until one.half of the dol
lar upon which he Ind cut his intials was
returned to him. As result of the inyesti-
CATION the PTesiaent Mt tfce issued n pardon
to the prisoner, who had been convicted of
crime of which he was innocent, and he was
promptly turned out of Jail