The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-11-25

with having in their possession counter
felt money of one description or another,
or for other ofTenses against the currency
laws of the country. You hear much talk
about counterfeits, and the monthly papers
which are devoted to the education of peo-
pie in the detection Of counterfeits give
long list of alleged dangerous notes in cir
culation; but as a matter of fact as have
said, there is but one really dangerous
note now out. In the lists which you viii
find in the counterfeit detectors are many
notes which would be dangerous were they
in circulation, but as none of them come
in, the suppOsition is that none are in the
hands of the people
'Most of them are notes which first made
their appearance years ago, the makers
and owners of the plates being then cap
tured and put away out of the business by
ours.rVice think it is the history of a
majority of the dangerous plates which
counterfeiters have made in the past that
they printed from them and put into cir
culatiUL just about enough notes to sup
port themselves. and before a great many
notes were put cut the men were captured
or their plates seized and destroyed. Not
one man in fifty in this country ever saw a
counterfeit note, and probably the men
who have seen the smallest number of
them are the so called green goods dealers
in New York city. These men do not come
within our province, for the reason that
they are not counterfeiters or dealers in
counterfeit money, but mere swindlers and
confidence men, to be dealt with by the
local authorities. OF course there are
few exceptions To this rule that the own
ers of plates print and circulate only few
notes. For instance, it Is said of the 500
compound interest note connterfeits that
upward of $500, 900 of them were printed
and passed. IL was very dangerous cOup-
terfeit. A skillful engraver made plate
for the face of the note and the back was
printed from an electrotype plate cast from
the genuine plate in use in the bureau of
engraving and printing, the only instance
on record, 1 believe, of the fraudulent use
of a genuine plate. Nearly all of the gen
uine notes of this issue have been retired.
while the counterfeit detector publica-
tions, which have done good work in the
past in educating people in the detection
of bogus money, find it 10 their interest to
make people believe that the country is
full of counterfeit notes, the fact is, as
have said, that the only really dangerous
note now out, so far as this office has been
advised, is the two dollar silver certificate.
ASK Mr. Brooks TO tell you about it."
Assistant Chief Brooks, who is known
in Washington as the American Nidocq,
sat on the other side of the room. For
nearly twenty years this gray haired,
sharp eyed old man mas been a terror to
counterfeiters and showers of the queer
His favorite expression concerning the
bsa la inc rgT me n
bringing to justice is Il put them away"
and all over the country are men in stripes
who know that this alert. keen, relentless
old man, who has several times been chief
of the secret service, and who recently de
clined another appointment thereto by
President Harrison. is the one VINO caused
them 70 be placed there.
"Fhis two dollar silver certificate said
Mr.. Brooks" Is perhaps the most danger
Gus note that has ever come to this office
The engraver who made II should be able
TO earn a fine income in the legitimste par
suit Of bis trsde-a better income, no
doubt, than he is getting from this plate.
Perfect rs it Is, and so well calculated TO
deceive. doubt if be has put out more
than two or three hundred OF them since
he first began TO market his wares, little
more than year ago. His revenue from
the enterprise. therefore, has Seen bat five
or six hundred dollars, unless he has put
out large number OF notes that we know
nothing about. and do not think he has,
for the reason taat bankers and Others
who handle large sums of money are be-
coming very expert in the detection Of
counterfeits, aud this note has been very
we'll advertised. This only goes 10 show
YOU what we of the secret service have long
kuown-that the making of counterfeit
money i a much easier thing than the put
ting of it in circulation, in which respect
l suppose it is a good deal like printing
books. The average counterfeiter Is per
feet coward when it comes TO marketing
the product of his years OF toll, and thus ii
happens that the very best counterfeit
plates ever made have done little harm in
the way of p0iluting the currency. When
this two dollar silver certificate first came
out, the paper lacked the parallel silk
threads used in genuine notes, but the
maker Of the notes, who appears TO be
genius Of the first water, has within the
lsst few weeks corrected this defect in his
work OF art. and note OF his manufac-
tures which We received a few days sgo, &C
tually con ans the Two parable SllA
threads, the same as in the genuine note
As some Of these notes are still IN clrcu-
lation. and no doubt more viii Oe put ont