, 1884-03-12
CoUNTERFEITERs.
Chat with 2 Government Secret sorv-
ice Detective
Expert R~ngravers of Crooked"
work---How CeunterfeitInx Runs
In Families wonderrul skin
and Patience


hnlRn N Observation-Disclosures hAAAA a u Va Nhc
most capable and efficient officials in the sery-
ice. He took me into a small room, around
which were hung the trophies captured from
counterfeiters In one corner was an I'M
menss sectional jimmy" used by burglars,
and near by a small press used In the print
ing OF bank and national notes. Said he:
1.-THE operations Of the secret service do
~tectives extend all over the country. There
is not a city or hamlet in tho United States
which is not liable TO receive q visit from one
or more of the forty men who are constantly
on the watch to suppress tho counterfeiting
of tho coin and paper money. The move
ments of our officers are, of course, from the
very nature and danger OF the work in which
they are engaged, kept In the s~trictest Sc
crecy. They wear no badge, nor do they
even carry II document showing that they
are in any way connected with the service.
Oftentimes months and months are taken In
the detection OF a single case. and when a
man has once been convicted of counterfeit
ing, or of passing counterfeit money. be Is
never out of the reach Of our eyeS
sUPPREssED.
"To show how successful we have been In
suppressing counterfeits 1 can tell you that ws
have not seen a new issue of bad money for
over two years and a half. In that safe
which you see there, there are 81. 900, 900 In
counterfeit paper money, and about 500. OO0
in bad coin. This sample book. In which you
see pasted bank and national notes, with the
word bad punched out In each, contains s25,-
600, and we have here tho histories and pho
tographs of $500 criminals, perhaps 10 por
cent of whom are women. William T..
B~rockway Is tho most notable person Ia the
entire collection. He Is called the King OF
Counterfeiters,' and occupies the first place
In the album " @
-Next to him arc his two pals, Doyle. the
man who passed the money, and Charles Z.
Smith, the most expert engraver OF crooked
work in the country. In all of their opera
tions Brock way furnished the money, laid
out the plans, and was the brains OF the gang.
Doyle passed. the stuff, and Smith was the
engraver. Doyleis now serving q twelve
years sentence in tho Illinois state prison.
B~rockway was captured some time ago on
the charge of counterfeiting some railroad
bonds, samples of which we ave here in this
office.
Smith engraved tho famous plate from
from which the $1,000 sevon- thirty bond OF
the issue of IS was printed. and $S3, 900
worth of 1t was actually redeemed at the
treasury department before it was discovered
to be n counterfeit. The impression was 30
good that the exports wore unable to de-
termine whether the bonds were genuine or
counterfeit, and the matter was only decided
when the government issue bearing the dupli-
cate NUMBER cams back for redemption.
Smith also engraved what Is known as the $50
greenback. and the 500 note on different
hanks, which are the finest Known OF these
series.
A SHREwD DODGE.
Several yenrs ago a very shrewd dodge was
played by one Of Smiths confsderates on r.
A. White q Co, OF Boston. A woman an
tsred their store and looked at some very ex-
pensive shawls. Finally, she made up her
mind to take one, and tendered a thousand
dollar bill In payment The clerk took the
money to the cashier, who went to the bank
to find out whether It was good or not. The
answer came that the bill was good beyond n
shadow OF n doubt. Then the clerk said that
the shawl would DO sent to the woman's ad-
dress. but she proceeded TO get very angry,
and said that II they could not take her
money without question that she would go
elsewhere, and she hounced out of the store
in great rage.
"About an hour afterward she returned and
told the clerk that shs had visited other
places, hut that she had been unable to find a
shawl which suited her as well as the one she
left In their establishment She said she
would take 1t with her, and rendered u 81, 0O0
bill In payment. The shawl was valued at
900, and the woman took it away with her,
together with $500 in change The bill first
rendered was genuine, the second was a
counterfeit, and the arm was just 81, 900 out
Of pocket. Smith engraved the plate from
which this counterfsit note was printed. and
it was so nearly perfect that only n minuts
examination would have caused detection.
OTHER EXPERTS.
Smith also engraved the plate from which
the 81 90 0 per cent. bonds were printed, but
we captured the entire issue on Doyle In
Chicago. amounting to 1904. 900. A curious
thing about his arrest by our detectives was
the fact that they took him suspecting TINT
he had the old 500 bills in his possession,
when imagine their surprise they found a
new bond. 1t will be several years bsfore we
shall nave to look after Mr.. Doyle again.
Next to Smith, the best eneraver OF counter
felt money is Charles Ulrich, who served a
term Of nine years in one of our northern
prisons. He is now In Germany George
White is another expert OF note. He stands
accredited with tho best counterfeit IS bank
note ever issued, and but few people are able
to detect them. The counterfeit Is on the
Merchants' National bank, OF New Bedford.
Mass.
Here Is n picture of George Albert Mason,
a noted counterfeiter. who came from Eng
land to this county and engaged In this bust
ness, He was arrested. tried, convicted and
served mine years in prison but he is now at
liberty. and has sued the government for
$4,000 for false imprisonment His papers
are In the hands OF British Minister West,
but | wouldn't care to gamble that he will
recover anything.
RUNS IN FAMILIES.
Snow, I wish TO call your attention TO two
curious facts. Countsrfsitiug runs in
families, and without exception the mo u en-
gagged in 1t are all poor For instance, take
tho Ballard family. Thomas, Benjamin,
George and John, four brothers, arc all ia
our clutches, together with an aunt There
is one brother out Of Jail, but we are sat-
isfied that he is an honest man. Thomas
Ballard is a wonderful fellow. He Is the
only person, 30 far as we know. who has sue
ceeded in initiating the fiber paper upon
which the genuine notes and bonds arc
printed. At present he is serving = thirty
years sentence as a reward for his discovery.
He is a chemist OF no ordinary attachments.
and he invented a process by which he was
able to take a genuine two or one-hslf dollar
bill and completely remove all the traces OF
ink from its surface d
Then with a counterfeit plate Of . higher
denomination he would print upon the
genuine paper, and thus raise the note.
Speaking about raising notes, b~rs 10 . check