Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-04-06
CHAPTER Il

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Altce's Identification.
"If that rascally boy of mine has not
made good fire." said to myself as
walked down town the Monday morn
ing following, II shall certainly give
him the thrashing in which / have stood
indebted to him so long"
From this novel species Of accord and
satisfaction, however, the much-thereof-
deserving youth was saved by an unex-
pected incident. Seated by the cheer
less and neglected CRATE as entered
beheld my visitor of the preceding Sat
urday night. Her pale, sad face was
even paler and sadder than before, and
thought there were tears in her eyes
and traces of many that had preceded |
them. But perhaps this was owing to |
the smoke now pouring from the mass
of paper and etwood with which Tom, |
as usual, greeted my arrival.
81 am sorry to tell you, sir" she said,
after answering my salutation, "that
the coin you gave me was bad one."
A bad one-my beautiful half eagle a
counterfeit In what of earth can con-
fidence then be placed? took it in my
hand; it certainly had every appearance
of being genuine.
Positively, you must be mistaken,
my dear. l could not be deceived SO
easily" And feeling that l undoubtedly
appeared to her as a gentleman, whom
the daily inspection of unlimited gold
coin had made perfect Sir Oracle upon
the subject, drew myself up before the
fire
AS who should say,
Let no dog bark"
Her lip quivered as she replied:
"Indeed, sir, 1 am very, very sorry,
but it must be so, for-for you know !
had no other but that"
"And pray how did you learn it to be
counterfeit%
when / left here, sir, went directly
up TOTO a place where some of our
things were; l went to pay the little
sum we had borrowed on them when
my mother was taken sick, and the man
took the half eagle and said it was a
counterfeit and gave it back to me-"
Nonsense, child, the man was mis-
taken"
She did not argue the point, but made
brief apology for the trouble she had
given me, and hesitated.
81 trust" said l, still somewhat gran
eloquent and condescending, as a man
whose resources have unjustly been sus-
pected, ''that the fellows stupidity has
caused you no inconvenience"
A bright hectic flush crossed her pale
cheek as an instructive denial rose to her
lips. Farther than that the falsehood
could not come; her head sunk between
her hands, and the poor girl, weak and
cold and starving, as I afterward knew
sobbed violently.
Little by little I learned her sad story
1t need not be repeated here; it lacks
? alas, the charm of novelty. Years O
r still deepening poverty, and yesterday
, when Mrs. Quidam and l were grum
+ bling at our leg of cold mutton this poo
+ child and her sick mother passed tn
n long cold day without food or fire, evel
7 the warm clothes and bedding, whicl
1 this money was to have redeemed fron
y the pawnbroker's, denied to their shiv
= ering limbs.
4 I put on my hat and stepped over t
: Bullion's to get change for the hal
eagle. The clerk threw it carelessly O
balance, and had already handed m
r the change, when he saw that the del
r cate arm after vibrating little did nc
a decline with the weight. He took it u
A and handed it to the head of the firm
. and after a short consultation betwee
them was asked into the inner Office
Q A chemical test soon proved the wortl
Z less character of the coin. Bullion aske
d me if I knew where had received it.
ii Certainly"
a, 81 have seen two or three of late pr
"a cisely like it. The counterfeit is
le dextrous one, and we have in vain trie
sr to trace it's origin. If you can assist
re in this it will be great service to th
le community"
took up the deceptive coin and SCR
tinized it curiously. The workmanshi
was perfect; the thought at once hashe
us across my mind, too perfect; where W.T.
w the knife mark I myself had made?
" could not be deceived-the coin ha
81 certainly been changed. And this WI
n the end of all my fine sentiment abol
the interesting young girl!
ri In few words l communicated tt
NJ circumstances connected with it to M
n Bullion, who jumped at once to the CO.
vi clusion.
IA 81 thought so," said he, II thougl
ID so! knew that some fresh and unsu
n pected parties must be made use Of
n this business. The old hands we kno
n too we'll" he added with a chuckle.
It was soon agreed between us thi
the girl should be detained and no TIN
lost in extracting from her confesslt
as to the persons whose tool she undout
edly was. We accordingly repaired
'e- gether to my Office, where we found h
"a patiently waiting. In answer to .
,oS questions she repeated her story WI
sd "a much apparent frankness, until ask
the name of the person to whom she n
offered the coin. After some hesitatl
she named a very respectable paw
/, : broker in c. street, to whom, as W
as to the police Office, messenger "
at Immediately dispatched.
of Mr.. Forceps soon came, and we
ceived him in another apartment.
ny answers to the inquiries we made co
liy pletely confirmed our suspicious. 81
M coin as we showed him (the count
ng feit) had been offered to him on the P
)ln vions Saturday night by o young VIC