The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-21
SPLIT BANK NOTES.
ONE $50 BILL IS TURNED INTO
TWO.


| From, the Ne,o York Morning Journal
| Chief Brooks, of the United States
secret service. has on hand the biggest and
most important job of his life, which is say
ing good deal in the face of his previous
glorious record as a thief taker.
Orders came to him from the United
States treasury department last Thursday
to hunt down gang of New York crooks
who are successfully practioing a device
that puts all previous manipulations Of bank
notes completely ia the shade.
The fraud consists of splitting green
backs Of different denominations and affix-
ing the back Of one on the face of another.
The trick was first introduced here by a
Frenchman, Henri Jarnae, some years since,
but his work was SO imperfect that he was
soon caught and landed 10 Sing Sing, where
he is serving ten years sentence.
In December last these split notes began
making their appearance all over the coun-
| try, and the bank notes were split and
| joined TO others so artistically that none but
| an expert can detect the fraud.
| Al first the heads of the treasury Depart
ment believed that the nots~splitters did
their work in Chicago or some other west
ern or southern city. and sent the doctored
currency TO pals in other places to work
them off on guileless business men.
The secret service men were on a false
| scent because their Supporters have just re-
! ceived definite information proving that the
note-sphtters have their headquarters In
this city. Complaints innumerable have re-
! Gently poured into the treasury department
| from victims of the note-splitters.
| Strange to say, one of the deluded ones is
! the hacker of a gambling house In Murray
street. Half the professional gamblers in
laT1 Tvrf
street sport was tricked, although 1t Is ques-
! tionabls whether the same game could not
have been worked in any gaming house in
the metropolis.
| He was one of the men that complained
| TO the United States treasury officials. A
| few nights since a stranger entered the
| gambling house. He was well, but not dis
tinctively. clad, and as he had a roll of
money a. thick as ones wrist and covered
! with $50 wrappers he was warmly well
| coined.
He bought $50 worth Of checks, which
quickly went into the tigers nav. Five
! times he touched his bank roll, and after
! each strip he was $50 bill shy.
The stranger took drink and went bis
way, the gamblers voting him dead game
| sport The next day when the Grand Mo-
! gul Of the faro bank made deposit in the
| Broadway Bank he was told that five of the
| $50 bank notes he handed the receiving tel.
| Ter were splits.
Mr.. Gambler knew Of only one kind of
split, and as it applied to sure thing action
| in faro, he fancied the bankers were chaff-
| ing him. He laughed and ordered them to
| hurry up, as he wanted his handbook at
| once. When they explained that the splits
| they meant referred to changes In bank
| notes, wbicn rendered them worthless, one
could have knocked Mr.. Gambler down
| with a feather.
Secret service men, on learning of the
Murray street incident, decided that the
scamp who had skinned the gamblers was
| one of the men who have for months scat
tered the splits north, south, east and west.
1t is a delicate operation to split bank
note edgewise, but these fellows do it as
easily as they could slice cheese. Every
time new victim turns up half the secret
service men attached TO the New York Office
are sent to scour the nelghborhood in which
the trickster MIXED his victim.
This action, however, has borne no fruit
| Chief Brooks said that note splitting had
been practiced in France and South Ameri-
| can States several years, and added that
the men who do this work in the United
| Stetes are half again as skillful as the for
| eigners from whom they first learned the
trick.
To prove this, Chief Brooks said that off,
| GERS Of the Bank of England had always
held that no one was skillful enough to split
| one Oh tDelT DAuk uOl6S.
Mr.. Brooks says that the American cur
rency splitters can divide a British bank
note as easily and as equally as they can lay
| open one of this oountrys issue.
! These clever rascals commonly use IS and
| $50 bills, which are split edgewise. Then
they manipulate them in this way: The
| front of the So bill is deftly fastened to the
back Of the $50, and the back Of the note Of
smaller denomination to the face of the
| larger one. When that Is accomplished the
| maker has two $50 bills that will pass cur
rent almost any where.
In working off these split notes the shower
forces the $50 face Of each trick note on the
victim, who rarely thinks it necessary to
examine the other side. He scans the side
exposed to him by the trickster, and, of
course, accepts it as genuine. BY this de-
vice the splitter clears a profit of S45 on
every two bank notes he works off.
Chief Brooks was asked to explain how
the notes were split. He refused for the
reason that IL the trick was made clear by
publication host of ras9als would take
advantage of the knowledge thus gained
and begin the work on their own hook,
which would not only greatly increase the
work of the secret service men, but would
make the circulation Of the worthless notes
general
Inspector Byrnes was more communion
tive. He said:
have been hunted so holly that they have
abandoned coming and taken up note-split-
ting, which is safer and more remunera-
tive.
THE bank notes." he continued, "are
hslved sidewise by little machine built for
the purpose. The first machines came from
Europe, but they we're bungling affairs
compared to the delicate bits OF mechanism
now used in this country.
Half the scamps now engaged in swap
ping halved $50 and IS notes." continued
he, ''are skilled mechanics, who when in the
counterfeiting business made all their own
tools. Therefore, they make currency
splitting machines that are absolutely per-
feet.
Even if a man is not a clever enough
mechanic to build such piece Of mechan-
ism, he can have it made in any Of the New
England manufacturing towns
"All be would have to do would be to
submit drawings or even a verbal descrip-
ton Of the contrivance he wanted without
explaining what use 1t was intended for"