The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1893-11-23
COUNTERFEITS.
Several Railroads Lose a Large
Sum by Bogus Tickets.
Scores Of Passengers Buy Them of Brokers
and Lose Their Money-Not Until the
Tickets Reached the Auditing De-
partment Was 1t Discovered.


CHICAGO, Nov. 20. Counterfeit tick
cts to the amount of s1Oo, 600 have been
honored in the last four weeks by the
b. and o., Erie, Pittsburgh and Vest
ern, Nickle-Plate and other roads.
There was absolutely nothing on the
face of the tickets to indicate they were
counterfeit. They were accepted with
out question by conductors, passed
readily by the ticket counters and
passed off as of legal issue. The tick
cts are the most perfect counterfeit OF
any kind ever issued.
The first intimation of any crooked
ness cropped out in the auditors office
of one of the victimized lines nearly
three weeks ago.
In checking two tickets of the same
form the same numbers were found.
The auditor satisfied himself that both
tickets were genuine and sent a sting
ing note to his printer, scoring him mse-
verely for his carelessness. The prin-
ter appeared in person with an indig-
nant denial of the charges, but when
shown the two tickets of the same
number was compelled to acknowl-
edge that the error was made in his
| office
The next day the ticket auditor dis.
covered siSty-seven duplicated tickets
in the collections. There seemed no
possibility of the tickets being coun-
terfeit.'
They were exact duplicates The next
/ day nearly 800 duplicated tickets
showed up in the collections, and a
panic reigned in theN auditing depart
ment.
Each of the tickets read from Chica.
go to New York, and was worth S1S.
The one days collections showed the
company had honored at least s5,4O0
worth of tickets for which it had not
received cent of revenue.
Experts were Immediately called in.
At the end of three days, during which
time over three hundred more dupll-
Gated tickets piled up in the auditors
office, one of the experts declared that
! the duplication was a counterfeit. With
the aid OF powerful microscope he
had at last discovered minute imper-
fection in a small letter "o," which
! showed in just half the duplicated
| tickets The imperfection was in the
casting of the type, by which it was
made nearly ten-thousandths of an
| inch longer than the rest, or else par
ticle of dust had raised the type in the
7 form used by the counterfeiters
! In all other respects the jobs were
exactly alike. The paper ink, type and
press work could not have been nearer
! the same if both were printed consecu-
lively with exactly the same materials.
! Meantime the other roads had been
going through the same experience. n
each case the tickets We're passed with
out question by all the handlers, IN
cluding the auditors, and not one was
detected until the duplicate numbering
appeared.
Each of the roads promptly issued
minute instructions to their conductors
to take up all the counterfeit tickets
and enforce payment of passage from
persons holding them.
Each conductor was furnished means
to recognize the counterfeits, and the
first day the four roads named took up
over 800 of them. The passengers were
naturally indignant, but each was COM
PEELED to acknowledge he had bought
the tickets of Chicago scalper. Nine
| or ten of the passengers who made
written statements of the circumstances
declared they had bought the tickets of
a notorious ticket-scalper doing busi-
ness on Clark street. The rest were
bought in various offices.