The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1885-08-20
WASHINGTON c. THURSDAY AUGUST 30 1885,


greenbacks are more easily passed than the
ent in the engraving. Tpis 800 raise came
into the Treasury il, a package of money only
short time ago. In :.
"cR4ZY. QUILT"
Here is curioda$50 bill. 1t is not conn
terfeit. Every bit of thepaper and every let
ter and line of the printing are genuine. If you
will examine it very cauefully you will see
that it is wholly made upef pieces neatly pasted
together. man takes, say, 20 genuine bills
and cuts out different portion from each, the
20 pieces when put together making complete
bill. The defaced bills are restored by filling
up the holes with c0unterfeit pieces. The bill
made by putting the fragments together is all
genuine. As the nsulb. of this industrious
scheme the man hasf21 bills instead of go, all
of which are likely,to pass without detection.
This way of making money involves good
deal Of labor, and there but few such bills in
circulation"
He turns over the leaves of large book filed
with specimens of counterfeits of every sort,
good, bad and Indifferent. Some are marvels
of skill, while others would hardly deceive a
wayfaring man though fool" There,
says he, pointing to q IS National Bank note,
" is the best and most dangerous counterfeit
we have ever found. The plates from which
that was printed are so nearly like the genu-
inc that they may be said to be perfect. One
could almost believe that they were stolen from
the Government, but they were not. We cap
tured the plates and the man who made them.
He's in the penitentiary now. We got $4,000
OF the money. It's up there in that case. A
large amount Of this stuff got out. 1t was a
long time before the counterfeit was discovered,
and after it was known it bothered the banks
considerably. Quite number of them got
stuck on it when they sent the bills here for
aflns,, mi 1Dknn nSN1 k@-~
microscopic examination, and the points were
Immediately given to all the banks of the coun-
try to put them on their guard. The trouble
was the same plates were used for six or eight
different banks. We think most of the issue
has been gathered in. We come across one of
the bills every little while, however, and there
may be considerable of it yet afoat.
A MAN WHO GOT 80 YEARS.
Here is something that gave US great deal
Of trouble. 1t is, as you see, an excellent im-
tation of the bank note paper with the silk
threads running through the fibes, now used
i'll the manufacture of all our paper currency.
You can understand how necessary it is for the
counterfeiters to keep up with all the changing
styles of money and of the paper used. When
the Government adopted this threaded paper it
bothered the boys good deal. The making
of it was secret, and is yet. The counter
feiters tried by every possible means to initiate
this paper, but Tom Ballard, who made this
piece, was the first to succeed He had some
good plates and when he began to strike off his
money on this kind of paper he was sure he
had good thing 1t did look that way, for
everybody, even to the Treasury officials, be-
lieved there was none of this paper in the
country except that made for the use of the
Government and, further than that, they
didn't suppose anybody else knew how to make
it. So you can easily understand that such
tIr
When the first counterfeit printed on this
paper was discovered, there was lively time
in the Treasury Department. 1t was thought
at first that there was treachery somewhere in
the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or at
the place where the paper was made, by which
the secret of manufacture or some of the real
paper had been allowed to get out. This proved.
on investigation, not to be true and then all the
brains of the Secret Service were set to work to
ferret out the matter. fortunately, the efforts
were successful. Ballard vas arrested in Buffalo
with his plates, his apparatus for man nufaeturing
the paper, and large quantity of the paper
ready for use. This is piece of it. Ballard was
convicted on two indictments for counterfeit
ing. The making of the paper was of itself no
crime, but the fact that he knew how to make
it was dangerous feature Of the case, and
made it important that The should be kept in
seclusion rs long as possible. So the Judge con-
10 years-on each indictment, 80 years in all.
He's in the Albany Penitentiary. He was
good looking, smart fellow when he went there,
about Is years old. bThere's his picture, upper
right hand corner ofthat frame on the wall.
COUNTERFEIT u S. BOND
"This is what We consider the most impor-
tant job we ever did" said the functionary, as
he opened his book to a Couple of United States
bonds on opposite pages. ''You will have to
examine these very closely to detect any diff
ference between them. One of them is genu-
inc and the other isn't The genuine bond,
you will notice, has been redeemed and can
celed We keep it in this book for comparison
with the counterfeit. 1t is a per cent. 81 900
coupon bond. The counterfeit is a most excel
lent one, and would deceive anybody. The
detectives captured the gang and the entire
issue, so far as we could learn. It is not be-
lieved that any of these spurious bonds are out.
We have 204 of them amounting to 1904 900.
Charles III. Smith, James B. Doyle and William
Il. Brockway were the chaps who got up that
scheme. Smith was the engraver, and q good
one. / don't believe there is better one in
the country. He said he worked three years
on the plates for that bond, and l have no
doubt he told the truth. He lived in Brook
lyn N. Y, and did his work there. Brock
way furnished the brains to manage the affair,
and Doyle was the shower though he didn't
tured on railway train near Chicago, where
he was going to begin his part of the business
He also had in his possession
$4,000 OF COUNTERFEIT MONEY,
which fell into the hands of the officers. If
the parties had not been arrested / don't sup
pose they would have found much difficulty in
working Off the bonds, as almost any bank
would have taken them. They did negotiate
three of them with an interior Illinois bank
They used them as collateral on which they
secured a loan Of $4,000. but they redeemed
them, for some reason, few days afterward.
After Doyle's capture we got Smith and Brock
way and nearly all the tools and implements
they used in the business, including 25 differ
ent sets of plates of various kinds. This was
one of the most skillful aud dangerous gangs
that ever operated in this country. Doyle got
IL years in the penitentiary; Brockway was
for 30 years, but sentence was sus-
pended in consideration of his surrenderng all
his plates, which he had so carefully concealed
that We could not find them. To get the plates,
in such case, is, If possible, more important
than to get the men. Not long ago Brockway
forged lot of railroad bonds, and is now serv-
ing a sentence in the penitentiary. Smith
turned States evidence in the bond case and
his Indictment WAS not pushed. He was put
under heavy bonds to quit the business. He
had wealthy friends, who became his bonds
men, and think he has turned his talents into
honest channels. There has never been but
one other counterfeit Of Government bonds
That was several years ago on the old 7-30
issue. This job was so well done that the
Treasury redeemed $54 900 of the countcrfeits
before their character was discovered. The
!. I'll