Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-02
RUSHING INTO DEBT.
A Gentle Reminder to the BraddOck
Authorities to Go Slow.
NEARLY 100000 PILED UP.
Interesting Facts Connected With the Man.
ufacture of Queer Money.
LOSS AND RECOVERY OF A GOLD DOLLAR

IlonaDly level-headed and we'll ripe In
business methods, or they would not occupy
the positions they do; but are they not rush.
ing into debt rather fast, and with too little
regard to the fact that payday is inevitable?
There have already been placed water bonds
amounting to $S5, 500, bearing per cent
interest; street bonds, $4,000, 6 per cent,
and school bonds, $4,000, per cent. In
addition, sewer bonds for $50, 900 are now on
the market, making total of Sl90,000 pretty
heavy load for small place to carry.
Commenting upon this state of affairs, a
prominent citizen of Braddock said yesterday:
Il think the authorities should call halt in
the matter of issuing bonds. Taxes are almost
as high as they are in Pittsburg. They amount
| TO about $25 600 year, not counting the school
tax. This is large amount of money, and
should pay for great many improvements.
But what is there to show for itf l believe we
have but one paved street. Too much attention
| is paid to mud holes. am not kicking particu-
| larly, but I don't want to see the borough
saddled with unnecessary Indebtedness, and
consequent ruinous taxation. That would
repel capital and population-the very things
that we need to build up the town. I think q
| little more conservatism in the management of
our fiscal affairs would be profitable for all con-
| cerned."
!
| Tie indications are that the month which
began its career yesterday will witness the
| greatest expansion of business during the year.
| The dividends and interest disbursed by the
banks and other corporations will set free a
large amount of capital-probably 100000 in
Pittsburg-which will be invested in various
ways, giving employment to labor and swelling
| the already large volume of transactions.
| Manager Chaplin, of the Clearing House, is
| hopeful of large increase in the exchanges.
| He said yesterday that he would not be sur
prised if they reached a daily average of
S3,000,0OO by the end of the month. He is con.
fident that the close of the year will find Pitts
| burg ahead of Baltimore. A notable feature
of business this year is its easy and gradual
growth. Unheralded and almost unnoticed 1t
has emerged from summer duIlness to autumn
activity. Cashiers, clerks and others who a
few weeks ago were counting their fingers are
now counting money. The revival has a sub
stantial backing There is good demand for
almost every product of the mills, factories
and shops, and plenty of money to pay for it.
Concerning the money market, Pittsburg
authority said yesterday that the tightness
ported in New York was not unusual at this
season of the year. The large amounts sent
South and West to move the heavy crops of
cotton, wheat and corn would soon find their
danger of a permanent squeeze. Capital had
been scattered instead of concentrated at few
points. That was all. 1t would soon be con-
centrated again. The East might suffer a lit
tie, but the West would not feel it.
There have been good many ways Of max
ing queer money. Like all other experts.
the showers of the queer have made great i'm
provement in their art within the last ten
years. First came the Photographic bank
notes. They were made IN two ways, known to
experts as the iold" and the new" methods.
By the ''old'' Photographic process the letters,
numbers. and sometimes the whole back of
note were copied in black. Then they were
tinted with pen and brush by hand in order
to exactly reproduce the colors on the original.
This method of "queering'' money has about
disappeared. By the new" method. the seal,
numbers and color work a bank note are
first removed. A negative is taken from the
black which remains, and from this photo
graphs are printed on sensitized paper. In or
Ger to get the colors an engraved plate is used
for all the tinted parts of bank note. Thus,
the numbers are printed as in the genuine, in
colors from an engraved plate.
Another process of "queering' money is
known as ''pIecing." This consists in cutting
counterfeit into eight or ten pieces. One of
these pieces is pasted into a genuine note by
ing, for example, nine good bills in this way.
nine other pieces are obtained which, with one
piece of the queer" will make tenth note.
There is again the process known as ''rais-
ing" This is done by scraping good note
until it is very thin, and then pasting in figures
or letters of higher denomination. In this
way ive-dollar bill is speedily raised to a fifty.
Perhaps the most expert raiser" of money
ever in the United States is Pete Mccartney
I'll Naxu nr1oo Fo-
raising one-dollar bills to $50. He has been en-
gagged in counterfeiting for 40 years and is now
a man over go. Out West he is called the "King
of the Koniackers," and the account of his ad-
ventures as given in the secret service records
reads like romance.
Still another way of fixing" money is to |
change the figures of note by the use of acid;
a higher number of figure is printed in the |
place from plate. 1t is very difficult for the |
counterfeIter to keep the acid from staining or
bleaching the paper. If the chemicals spread
then the surrounding letters present more or |
less of damaged appearance.
An interesting story is told of long search |
for and final recovery of a gold dollar A
young lady in Lambertyille, n. j., had gold |
dollar with a monogram inscribed upon it, |
which had been the subject of great deal of |
attention. 1t was attached to bracelet by a |
ride, she missed it, and the broken chain |
showed plainly how it had disappeared. Search |
was at once made. but without avail. Finally |
an advertisement met the eye of an habtual |
loafer about town. He went to the house and |
said that he had found the dollar below the /
steps of the sleigh the morning after the ride |
and had spent it for whisky at saloon.
The friends of the young lady
determined to find the keepsake for her if pos
sible. The bartender remembered receiving
the coin, but had paid it over to a butcher
The latter recollected paying it to a drover in
Trenton The address of the drover was
secured and a letter written him. requesting a
reply at once. 1t soon came and contained the
that he had purchased ticket to
Philadelphia with the money on the very day
the butcher had given it to him, and that the
ticket agent had then remarked about the mon
ogram The search was continued. The agent
the dollar, and said that he laid it
aside for few hours, but that it was for
warded to Philadelphia with the daily ac-
counts.
The receiver of the New Jersey receipts at
was next correspended with.
The beautiful monogram had been noticed
but the money had been deposited in the bank
The cashier was communicated with. His at
tention had been called to the initials on the
back of the dollar by one of the clerks, and he
had instructed him to place it aside for few
weeks Unfortunately, in the absence of the
clerk, gentleman desiring several hundred
dollars in gold, preparatory to California trip.
had been furnished with the amount, and the
little piece had in some way been mixed with