Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-04
A DETECTIVES DODGE.
HOW Clever Counterfeiters were Caught
by Man who Looked Like a Tramp.

The secret-service division of the Treasury
department recently made haul of counter
letters in clever manner, after as neat piece
OF work as is usually encountered even in the
modern novel. In that mysterious manner
known only to trained agents of the service il
became known that two men, named Frederick
brodbeck and Chester Collins, were the owners
OF an apparatus for making bogus coin. and
were turning out quantity of crooked money,
their headquarters being on canal boat rum
ming MP into the state from New York city.
ihey carried on an ostensibly honest trade as
freighters. The service agents in New York
watched them pretty closely. and when the
sim, which was the suggestive name of the
craft. went up the canal to Rondout. they laid a
plan to capture the outfit. Ore agent-called.
for the purposes of the case. jones, since the
service Is shy about letting the of their
men become known-the reupon betooE himself
10 hondout, and arraying himself In a corabina-
tlon OF rags that would disgrace a JoSxey
tramp,
LoAFED AROUND THE sINN
Catching the eye of Brodbeck. who posed as
captain of the boat, he asked him when he was
going back to New York. The reply was in
two or three weeks. Jones then exhibited him.
self in all of his wretchedness and asked for a
ride down, as he had, pointing TO a pair of
shoes artistically worn out walked all the way
from Troy. Brodbeck, not caring for intru-
ders. refused to let him work his passage. as
he desired, but finally gave him the Job of
pumping out the boat. promising him 10 cents
with which the poor fellow could get something
to eat. Jones pumped for two hours and was
given IL cents, including nickel that was
counterfeit. He came back the next day and
hired out again. managing to keep around the
boat for several DAYS i'll this way. and receiving
quite large number of bad pieces. The boat
men usually made inquiries to what he had
done with the money, presumably to test its
efficacy in passing. Jones nosed about q good
deal, but was handicapped by the extreme
watchfulness of Brodbeck, Collins remaining
in the cabin most of the time; so that all he
obtained III the way of evidence was
THE BAD MONEY
he had been paid in return for his hard pump
ing, and occasional shifts of the odor of melted
lead issuing from the cabin, which he was not
allowed to enter. He was at work at the pump
one day when a couple of the secret service
men came up and told Brodbeck that Jones was
a crook from Troy, and that they wanted him
and proposed to search the boat for stuff they
thought he had hidden there. Brodbeck de-
clared that there was nothing in the boat, but
they searched it nevertheless, and hauled from
the cabin quite an outfit of counterfeiting APP
paratus. The partners claimed that Jones had
smuggled them on board. They were taken
down to New York, and upon examination made
clean denials of all guilt alleging that the name
OF their craft was the only sinful thing about
them or their lives. Then Jones told his story,
In simple, unaffected manner, and when he
had finished he said that he had gone there as a
secret service official, and had been given bad
money, and had smelt it cooking. This unex-
pected revelation entirely broke up the inno-
cence of the pair. who remarked that the jig
was up and made a complete confession