St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-08
How a Cute Gang Of Coiners
Was Neatly Rounded
UP.
Iron Workers Who Displayed
More Money Than Was
Right.
Scotland Yard Men Quietly
Joined the Force Of the
Toilers,
And Ended by Capturing the
Outfit in the Haunted
Castle.

Zone of the. most thrilling pieces of
work that [ ever bad hand in,' said
w. p. Wardlaw, now of st. Paul, who
was for twenty years member of the
British secret police service, in CONVEX
sation with GLOBE reporter the other
evening, twas when we, myself and
about a dozen more fellows from Scot
land yard, ran down nest of coiners,
down in the South of England. j came
near going over the line that trip, and
Pm not likely to forget it. Want to
hear the story? Well, I'll trE,and give
you the facts as briefly as possible; it
won't take very long. About nine years
ago, it. was, there stood on
the Devonshire coast an old
stone house. The winds and
storms of over century had combined
to dim the Wilderness of its walls, while
moss and Iichens filed the interstices,
and occasionally hid the roughened
surface. A hundred yards or so from
the storm beaten face of this ancient
T0okery, precipice dived with sheer
fall of 800 feet to the sea, which beat in
angry butfetings upon the rocks below.
For many years the house was empty,
save for the
SPOOhS AND SOBIlNS
which popular superstition accorded
residence in its halls and corridors. 1t
was formerly the property of an cratic
SympathiZer with the House of Lam
caster during the bloody wars of the
red and white roses. Legend says that
the cellars of the quaint old place, with
its subterranean passages to the coast,
were at that time used as hiding place
for refugees, and, according to declara-
tons by the villagers. there emanated
sounds of revelry. from the flag
foored cellars, in which - says
tradition-the merry roysterers of old
were wont to aSSail the wassail bowl,
drink confusion to the enemy, and
honor to the cross of st: George. One
day there arrived in the neighboring
town a number of laborers from another
part of the country. They sought and
obtained work, drank freely, spent their
earnings laviShly, and were voted jolly
good fellows by their new found friends.
In one of the factories of the town, a
steel forging center. these men were
employed, and they soon had about
them a clique of associates, in whose
company they were frequently to be
found when not at work. The heavy
expenditure of members of the factory
gang had more than once excited COM
ment, and as the salaries paid were but
moderately large, the 49,
CURIOSITY OF THE EMPLOYERS
to arrive at solution of the mystery
was aroused, and proved of great value
| to the authorities in bringing about the
events which followed. These profit
gates were boon companions of the new
arrivals, and for a brief space all was
merriment and oviality. One, dark and
bluStery night: however, there was
more than the usual stir at the local
police depot. The whole village force,
consisting of some twenty-five men,
supplemented by number of roughly
dressed and muscular fellows, were
gathered thereat. Some gaZed intently
at the distant shore as though expecting
something to tranSpire in that quarter.At
last the signal for which they had
waited came. Three distinct flashes of a
disc lantern from the beach told that
all was ready there, and from that
moment began one of the most exciting
| pieces of work ever executed by we'll
| planned coup. Stealthily up the steep
hillside to the old house the way was
| led, and into the damp depths of those
musty-smelling cellars; Doiselessly, as
though in stockinged feet, stepped the
men; then came pause, during which
the dim CLEANS of
THE POLICE LANTERNS
| shot athWart the faces of the Intently
listening posse, and lent a strange un-
canny WeirdnesS to the scene. At
last the sound for which they had waited
was plainly to be heard, a muffled
metallic clang. from out the depths be-
meath. They're there came IN a
CHASTITY whisper from our leader.
"a rusty ring yielded to the leverage
of a crow bar in the hand of a muScu-
lar detective, and brought with it a huge
mass of stone, which had perfectly
fitted the orifice it was designed to con-
| ceal. The cat-like tactics were now
abandoned, and the Scotland yard
'peelers.' followed by their local allies,
SWarmed down the rough-hewn stair
case and into a huge cavern, carved
from the solid rock. Never was sur
| prise more complete, and never were
! gang of queer makers caught
so DEAD TO RIGHTS.
Furnaces were glowing. dies were
cooling and pile of beautifully exc
| cuted base coin lay new and bright
upon a cloth in the center of the floor.
There were the men among whom the
| quasi laborers in the attacking force
recognized most of their recent aSSoci-
ates of the steel factory, their arms and
| breasts barred for labor. Complete as
was the surprise, the struggle that en-
sued was sanguinary one. Hammers,
castings and revolvers were used with
effect on both sides, but the odds
were in favor of the police, and ere long
fifteen of the gang were scowling at as
many pair of ''darbies" which graced
their wrists. and uttering dire threats
of vengeance against their eaptors.
Several of the men escaped through the
UNDERGROUND PASSAGES,
only to fall into the hands of detail at
the coast exit. The next train for Lon
don carried carload of very savage
criminals, and a dozen of so highly
elated members of the secret police
service. Most of that outfit got twenty
years. penal servitude, and some of them
are even now chipping stone in the
Portland quarries. That's how we
broke up one of the most notorious
nests of counterfeiters ever organized,
and thus were laid the spooks of Han
mere Hail."