Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-01-30
A COUNrERFEITER.
He Undertakes to ssshOve the
Queer and Ffzzles.

ne Undertake TO "8hOve tine
Queer and Ffzzles.
A man giving his name as J. @. Douglass
is in Jail for attempting to pass counterfeit
coins in Eureka yesterday afternoon. The
culprit is q young man, hardly rs years Of
age. he is dressed roughly and has the
general appearance Of Q w~orkingman except
that his hands are smooth and his long
slender fingers which are apparently total
strangers to manual toll. He says he has
been living for the last Eve years mostly In
Montana and Utah. but that his native
State is Michigan. He states that he came
here from Park City, Utah. and that for
the last month or 30 he has had head
quarters at Benefits ranch, some seven
miles out of Eureka, above the italian
ranches on the way towards Newark VAL
ley. He has been working some on the
ranch he says, and has been out occasion
ally prospecting in the hills. He and .
half-breed from the ranch rode In yesterday
horseback. He, Douglass, went into
Berg's store and asked for four-bits'
worth Of chewing tobacco, for which he
offered o bogus dollar In payment. Mr..
Berg says he noticed that in putting 1t
down on the counter he deposited ii very
softly. On taking it up, Mr.. Berg noticed
that 1t had q greasy feeling, and 1t once.
also, perceived that 1t was q very light
coin. Said be: II don't think that's very
good money. Havn't you got any other 2"
Douglass pulled out another dollar from
a long, narrow buckskin purse and offered
it. On Mr.. Berg's repeating the remark
he had made about the first piece, Doug
lass said: "I'ye got more OF them, hut
they are all like these" At this point Mr..
Berg sent his boy out. to summon Consta-
BILE McGovern, who arrested Douglass and
took him to jail. In searching him he
found that the man had six Of the counter
felt dollars in his pockets. They are very
clumsily manufactured, being detected in q
moment by their greasy look and feel,
their lightness and the thud they give out
instead Of the metallic ring on being
dropped upon . counter or any other hard
body. A SENTINEL reporter, in company
with Sheriff Sweeney, interviewed Doug
lass in the Jail, but could get nothing out
Of him. He fatty refuses to tell whom he
got the money from, but says it was
neither the half breed nor BENEFITS, and
he maintains that neither Of these per-
sons knows where he got the counterfeit
coins. He tells o very crooked story. say
ing that he has had the six bogus dollars
in his possession, no more, no less, for q
week, and that during this time he has
been in town twice without spending or
attempting to spend q cent for anything
to eat or drink until when he was caught
in trying to pass his bogus dollars
yesterday. It looks as though the follow
himself Is new in the business or else
Thought the huainaaa man NJ Euraka ara
very easily gulled. It Is quite likely that
he has c~onfederates in the swindle who are
not very far from Eureka, for these
scamps very rarely act alone. The reason
he assigns for not telling whom he got his
counterfeits from is that he will rather
bear the whole brunt of the crime
than to give information which
might lead to the conviction Of an
innocent person. He, OF course.
claims that he got and tried to pass the
counterfeits in total ignorance Of their
bogus character. In cases Of actually
passing or attempting to pass counterfeit
coins, the State and United States courts
have concurrent jurisdiction, but an effort
has been made by District Attorney
CARRIER to give way in the premises to
Uncle Sam, in order to save the county
the expenses that would be involved in the
prosecution. Under the State law the
penalty for such o crime ia confinement
in the State Prison from one to fourteen
years, and under the United States stat
utes simply not to exceed ten years. Mr..
CARRIER telegraphed the facts to United
States District Attorney Trenmor Coffin at
Carson yesterday afternoon, and will give
him the facts Of the case in q letter to-day.
~