The Press., 1892-02-18
THE PUNCHED KOPECK.

ssThe annals of the Russian police. if they could beread, would excel the niost extrasagant imaginings of your Belots and Gaboriaus,r ' said q handsome, heav- fly w'hiskered man who was one of Ia little party of five gentlemen in small room in St. Petersburg private palace. "We have excellent writHrs of fiction here in Russia two of his auditors were Erenchmen), ssand they sometimes 10 to ehe real for material. but am sure that the shrewdest of them have nevsx heard of the punched kopeck which belongs to the annals of the police just mentioned.
 The man with the whiskers emptied his wineglaas and pushed 1t away as he continued: -
 2 !" About fifteen years ago Count Yssil- witch was one of the best known nobles of the empire. His St. Petersburg estab- fshment was conducted; on a style of royal magniicence, and he had the iIn- perial ear oftener than any other man Of his rank, We'll, one morning the count was found dead In his mansion and un- der circumstances which went to prove that somebody had helped him out of the world. As matter of course the Russian police took the affair in hand and that was the last we heard oft.
 ssAt that time there was said to- be at tached to the Third section man named Paritz. Rumor invested him with, all the attributes of the ideal sleuth. No body could be found who had ever seen him, but all the same the great discov- cries in crime continued to be placed to his credit. He worked ont great results from impossible beginnings, and some said that it was Paritz who was adding most to the criminal population Of Si- beria. Of course every one expected to see Count Yasilvitch's enemy dragged to light through the agency of this secret man hound, but as weeks and months passed without anything of the Hind transpiring, Paritz became the laughing stock of St. Petersburg.
 Count Yasilyitch was known fSf and wide as numismatist. His collection of coins was the most complete of any in the country, and had drawn from the mint large offers of purchase. In tho collection were two kopecks which had been curiously punched through the center. Count Yasilvitch valued these coins above any in his possession, and 1t was understood that they had a history which he would not reveal
 ssWhen the police came to examine the counts coins after his death they discov- cred that number of pieces were miss ing, and among them was one of the A <4: z not care to publish their discovery from motives which you can easily understand, and the world at large knew nothing about.it The coin which was not taken by the assassin. admitting this for our stofy's sake, gentlemen. was given to the misty Paritz, with orders tofind its mate and the counts enemy as well.
 .sParitz took the case with his usual bow, and there the chief of police left it, The counts coins were put mp for sale, and the numismatists who were drawn to St. Petersburg by the event wondered what had become of the punched kopeck, Half dozen bidders stood ready to pur- chase it at any price. Time rolled on and everybody forgot Paritz aud his trail. We did not hesr 80 much about his prowess now, and there were fewer great discoveries in crime, although the number of exiles was not lessened,
 ssI recollect that I took consid derable interest in the trail of tho kopeck Ut the time. |. was rather intimate with | member of the police, and he told me much about the counts death and the hunt But question him assadroitly as I would, conld learn nothing of the identity of the renowned Paxitx, I0s deed, was moro than ever inclinad fo consider him \ myth ana to bsI1sri that the name had become ; generrl term for the Third sectien. went abroad Q few months after tho Kssil- yitch mystery was sprnng on sodiety and travelled almost incessantly for ten years. I visited nearly every part Of the globe, finding wherever Lwent secret representatives of our police, wi who1n, being native Russian myself became as intimate as possible. Ttr1ed by these means to keep track Of tho n1ythical Paaiz and his trail Tie secret agents had heard aboat the nissing kppeck but they did not know how far Paritz had progressed, nor where Ise Was then. z
 s'There was something ludicrARs in the story of Paritx and the puacfed ko- peck. The coin had continually bafi1ed the czarss spy. and he had heard noth. ing Of 1t from the time it left Count Yasilvitch's possession. Your French detectives might have dDne better, but poor Paritz, he could find nothingi $
 About 8 year ago interest in the counts death was suddenly revived by the arrest of man who had 8 lot of rare coins on his person. ThsFs was said to be some of these missing from the mpr- dered mans collection, and they Wdf6 subjected to the closest scrutiny. Tie fellow arrested was an honest and Hit crate mudjik, who averred that he had found the coins in the weed grown gar den attached to the late counts resi, dence. He was not released till the gar den had been spaded over for more coin by the authorities, whose labors. were re- warded by the finding of several rare roubles known to have been describediin the Yasilvitch catalogue.
 Nov more than ever Paritz and tho punched kopeck became objects of dari- sion. Several of the Russian newspav pers received pasquinades on the sub. ject, but as matter of course they were not published. A Russian editor issup1 posed to know just how far to go to eat his bread this side of the frontier, For fifteen years the punched kopeck has been missing to the Russian police. The Yasilyitch case is as great Inystery now aaiE was then, and for once Paritz has been thoroughly baffied.
 If he is not g police fiction. he knowy no more: today of the whereabouts of the mutilated kopeck than does the gentle. man who inhabits ths moon. Cur police stand bafaed by one of the most insig< nificant coins of the world, for, nutil Paritz can place the kopeck in his pos session alongside the one he has not :, 0f course the mystery of Count Yasilvitch's death cannot be solved. X
 Now, let me show how completely this Paritz has been beaten, ]" and asmils