The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-02-25
NEWS OF TACOMA
1AcoNA BuRKAr OF The Posr-Yrrxxxs-
euscrz, Iils PAcrrrc AvrxrK
Thomas sAxxoss, MArAsxa
|NANYBAD WARRANTS
Blanks Enough Stolen to Forge
an Enormous Sum.
wcMN's CRIME LONG KNOWN.
rs other ofzeiais flushed IL Up-Wnas
bs Little Forgery Compared WIN
the o. 200, 900 steal

TacoxA. Feb. A.-sSpecial. Mime hun
Cred and ninety-nine blank city warrants
hare been stolen from the city cisrk,s
ofce In the city hall, and IL IL, Of course.
sssnmed the Mccain brothers, Francis ID.
md Jonn and their accompEices, are the
fkisses. The stolen warrants are of thu
series b, and are numbered from 8, 80 to
t1f
As warrants are, - . rule never drawn
ior amounts below 500, II is possible that
The warrant forgers have raised 500 600 On
ferred warrants. Thus far only four war
Parts have been discovered, and the mum.
bers on them had been changed from the
1900 series to the {. 600 series. This leads
the officials to believe that IL the stolen
warrants are being put in circulation the
sambers are also being changed. Owing
10 the fact that but few OF the warrant,
handled by the forgers have turned up
here. :, Is surmised that the bulk of the
lorgesies have been worked off I'm the Ea..
sta discount Warrant shavsrs have been
greedy buyers of warrants when offered
BON 10 to % cents below par, and In this
case some OF them have been bitten.
Assistant City Clerk r. d. Mccain and
his brother John were held today IN
siion and went TO Jail. Il Ii not prohab,s
that they will secure the bonds. Their &C
eonpliees, who are understood to be con-
uscted with the engineers and surveyors
apartments Of the city. have not been
arrested
As originally stated in the Posr-IxrrIr
iIsEscER. the forgeries discovered aagre-
gate between 5000 and 1850, being sctu-
silly about s., 100. Comptroller Slaughter
says:
"The blank warrants are always kept By
the city clerk. Mccain, % the assistant
q the clerk, had an opportunity 70 get at
them. When the present administration
vent into office eight books OF city war
fnnts were bought, IL being estimated tina.
that number would be sufficient to carry
Us through two years of our term. We
have been working on the 6,00o series for
some time, and when the forgeries were
discovered 1t was the change in the series
number that attracted attention. II the
people who stole the warrants attempt TO
work them of suppose they will change
the numbers of the warrants. Four sigma
lures have to be forged. those Of tho prcsi-
dent Of the city council. the city clerk.
comptroller. and then, when the warrant
drawing interest. the name Of the city
treasurer must be forged also. OF course
AeCain's crookedness has been known for
sioag time. | have secured Investigations
from time to time, but he has retained"
1t has been assumed that Mccain was
retained because he owed City Treasurer
Boggs money. As has been stated In the
PosT-ISTELLraEScER Boggs denies 1t.
Boggs also says he never said Mccain was
gambling too much for q man who was
drawing the salary he was. However, Il
10 stated that Mccain got Boggs to adj
vance him money on his salary away back
last October, and then failed to pay up,
and that he was being held to allow Boggs
and possibly others 10 get even.
President Frank Allyn, of the CONNER
cisl bank, which has been handling . large
amount of city and other like paper. says:
''Al Of our warrants are carefully ex-
amined, and arm sure We have none of
the forgeries. l don't think any forged
warrants could be worked off on any re-
liable banking house. because the num-
hers of the same would be inquired into.
together with the signatures and other
matters pertaining 10 the issue. Is might
be that pawnbrokers and others, who are
anxious 10 buy warrant below It's face
vaIe. have been taken in. / am sure We
have no forged warrants"
However, considerable anxiety IN felt
regarding the missing warrants. - there
Is no telling just where they have been
placed.
Ex-Councilman Caughran says:
"Of course the warrants were stolen for
TIE purpose of filling them in and working
them OF. What else would they be taken
FORT Why would any one steal them. II
not for the purpose of working of the
iorgeriss2"
Mayor Huson doesn't like the state of
affairs. lie says:
The placing in Office of Mccain, and
The city clerk also for that matter was
the result of a combine among the city
councilman OF which do not and never
did approve
Yesterday. as was intimated I'm the
fosT-iNr ELLrsESCEs, the si,0o bond
Under which MeCaln was released was
considered entirely too small when the
smonnt Of his populations was taken into
consideration. Still the court was not
aware OF the amount of the forgeries. only
one case OF $3.50 being cited before him.
Nevertheless 20 those who knew that the
AMOUNT of the forgeries was exceeded by
isice the amount OF the bail bond. IL
looked very much like scheme 10 allow
AeCain to skip, This matter was talked
ever during the day. and when IL looked
sn Mccain might 90 10 Portland with
hts wife, he was remanied TO Jail.