Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1891-04-30
From our regular Correspondent
Washington Letter.

WASHINGTON, ID. c., April 20. 1891.
Senator Sherman is In town, and many
are the ruses that have been tried for the
purpose Of getting an authoritative state
ment from HIM as to his future political
intention, but no one has yet succeeded in
drawing him out. gentleman close to
him personally and politically, and who
probably knows, IL anybody does, said to
me: "Mr. Sherman isn't ready to talk yet
and those acquainted with him know how
useless it is for anybodyito try to persuade
him to do so until he Is. But you may be
certain that when the proper time comes
the people Of Ohio will b. told whether he
wishes to be reelected to the Senate; John
Sherman never travels under false pre-.
tences, and never hestates to ask in a
manly and open manner for the political
support OF his constituents when he de-
sires it," 1t is the opinion of all the
prominent republicans with whom have
talked, among them several Ohio men,
that Mr.. Sherman will be a candidate for
the reelection to the Senate, and that also
is my own impression.
The success of our special envoy, ex-
Minister Foster in negotiating with Spain
reciprocity treaty between Cuba and the
United States, along the lines Of the Nc
kinley tariff act, gives great satisfaction
In official circles, and most efIectually dis
poses of all the democratic fairy tales
about there being hitch on account Of
the demand of Spain that we should place
Cuban tobacco on the free list The
Spanish Government was very anxious that
we should admit Cubas tobacco free OF
duty, but it was far too sensible to demand
il, and when informed that it was impos-
>ible there was no more said about it,
The subject of counterieiting United
States currency Is assuming grave pro-
portions and the officials Of the Treasury
Department are just st present giving con
siderable time to studying il, in III. hope
of discovering q remedy or preventive
The chief engraver of the Bureau Of Eu-
craving and Printing, who is away up as
| an expert spent an hour in examining two
- silver certificates, one genuine aud the
other counterfeit with powerful nlagni-
Tying glass and his verdict was that there
was not the slightest difference between
the two notes. New inventions, in photo
mechanical processes have made 1t easy
and cheap for the couuterfeters to re-
produce on metal plate every line Of a
note and after little etching il is an
exact duplicate Of the steel plate from
which the note was originally printed and
which it had taken months to engrave
The color in the red seal and the green
backs was once protection, but late dis
coveries in photochromy make it easy to
reproduce the precise shades The chief
Of the Secret Service in his last annual re-
port says on this subject The gcnu ne
government notes now -a-dayS e~prclally
the series Of 1890, are msrvcls Of the tn
craving art aided by the wonderful
gcnmetric lathe. One would think ID i'm
possible to successfully counterfeit such
Of Lines and patterns; and yet at this
moment counterteiters are reproducing ii
80 perfectly that the elaborate beauty Of
this paper money may be said to offer no
protection to the public or defense against
fraud"
The only way the expert has Of detect
Ing this sklfuliy executed counterfeit Is
by the paper and that has been 80 well
Initiated that no one but All expert can tell
1t from the genuine. So that really about
the only protection the public has against
counterfcitng j. the vigilance Of the
Treasury Secret Service.
Representative Springer, Of Illinois, il
now jpcularly referred to a. the talking
candidate" for Speaker of the House, be-
cause Of the number Of his recent news
paper interviews. In his last, after paint
Ing his own prospects a deep roseate hue,
which, BY the way, i not visible to any
one else, he sails into New York politics,
nominates for Governor and elects Repre-
sentative Roswell +. Flower, whose "bar-
rel" has so often been on tap to the boys
Of the democratic machine and makes him
the democratic Presidential nominee just
as If those other two gentlemeu-Cleyeia
and tiill-were not in existence.
Really this Speakership business Is get
ting decidedly interesting, and each Of the
wouldbe democratic Presidential candi-
dates will soon have candidate for
Speaker. Mr.. Mills is the Cleveland can
ddatr. Mr. Crisp the Hill candidate, and
it looks as if Mr.. Springer was the Flower
candidate, with a number OF others yet 70
be heard from.
The Italian business has again simmered
down, and everybody here thinks that
RudiLi will find it extremely difficult to
answer Mr.. Blaine's last dispatch, which
meets with commentator on all sides and
from everybody.