Connecticut western news., 1892-03-24
THE PUNCHED KOPECK.


 extravagsnt imsginings of your Belots and Gaboriaus." said a handsome. heav- fly whiskered man who was onS of little party, Of five gentlemen in 4 small room in St. Petersburg private palace. I've have excellent writers of fiction here in Russia" two of his auditors were Frenchmen). ''and they sometimes go to the real for material. but am sure that the shrewdest of them have never heard of the punched kopeck which belongs to the annals of the police just mentioned.~
 The man with the whiskers emptied his wineglsss and pushed it away as he continued: @
 "About fifteen years ago Count Yasil- witch was one of the best known nobles of the empire. His St. Petersburg estab- ishment was conducted on a style of royal magnificence, and he had the i'm 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 hip out of the world. AS matter of course the Russian police took the affair in hand and that was the last we heard of 1t.
 ''At that time there was said to be at tached to the Third section man named Paritx. Rumor invested him with all the attributes of the ideal slsuth. Mo- body could be found who had ever seen him. but Ml the same the great discov- cries in crime continued to be placed to his credit. He worked out great results from impossible beginnings. and some .l &ks.A se 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 kind transpiring, Paritx became the laughing stock of St. Petersburg.
 Count YAsilvitch was known far 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 the collection were two kopecks which had been curiously punched through the center. Count Yasilvitch valued these coins above any in his possession, and il was understood that they had a history wnlcn ne would not reveal.
 "When 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 kopecks. Of course the authorities did 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 story's sake. gentlemen. was given to the misty Paritz. with orders to find it's mate and the counts enemy as we'll
 "Paritz took the case with his usual bow. and there the chief of police left it. The counts coins were put up 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 and hia trail. We did not hear so much about ais prowess now. and there were fewer great discoveries in crime, although the number of exiles was not lessened.
 "l recollect that l took considerable interest in the trail of the 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 as adroitly as 1 would. l could learn nothing of the identity of the renowned Parltz. h. deed. was more than ever inclined to consider him myth. and to believe that the name had become a general term for the Third section. went abroad a few months after the Yasil- witch mystery was sprung on society and travelled almost necessarily for ten years visited nearly every part of tho | globe. finding wherever 1 went secret representatives of our police. with whom. being a native Russian myself, became as intimate as possible. tried by these l means to keep track of the mythical Paritz and his trail. The secret agents had heard about the missing kopeck. but they did not know how far Paritz had | progressed. nor where he was then.
 | "There was something ludicrous in tho story of Paritz and the punched ko- peck. The coin had continually baffled | the czar's spy. and he had heard nosh- l ing of it from the time it left Count Yasilvitch's possession. Your French detectives might have done 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 lot of rare coins on his person. There was said to be some of these missing from the mur- dered mans collection. and they were \ <,1D fellow arrested was an honest and illit- crate mudjik, who averred that he had found the coins in the weed grown gar den attached to the late counts resi-. ience. 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 described iu the Yasilvitch catalogue.
 "Now more than ever Paritz and the punched kopeck became objects of deri. sion Several of the Russian newspa. pers received pasquinades on the sub
 ect, but as . matter of course they were oot published. A Russian editor is sup posed to know just how far to go to cal his bread this side of the frontier. Flo,
 fifteen years the punched kopeck has
 been missing to the Russian police. The
 Yasilvitch case is as great a mystery
 now as 1t was then. and for once Parit,
 has been thoroughly baffied.
 If he is not police fiction, he know:
 no more today of the whereabouts of thu
 mutilated kopeck than does the gentle
 mxn who inhxbits the moon Our polic'
 stand bafnsa by ons sf the most insig