Birmingham age-herald., 1894-08-19

- m cnarBe OI the prison. well, We HOb out of the prison safely enough, for the colored deputy was very much scared and didn't move. We climbed onto the "blind side" of freight train that was creeping by Oxford and made our way to Louisville, Ky.
 There was great excitement in Ox- ford, as we saw by the papers the morn ing after our escape. All the southern papers declared we must have broken jail with the assistance of the colored deputy sheriff, who, the editors de- clared, was probably bribed with a "afty-foot pole" They called counter felt bills poles" at that time.
 I am glad of the opportunity to vim dicate that colored deputy sheriff who was good enough not to even fire a sin gle shot while Hanford and I were making our escape.
 We had not been in Louisville long before we were arrested and taken be- fore Yankee" By, the chief of po- lice. As soon as got the opportunity l explained to Yankee" By who 1 was and what was doing with Han ford, whom he knew to be an escaped counterfeiter. Of courge the police chief decided at once that we were not the men he needed, and declared he had nothing against us.
 If Hanford's own brother had told him at this time that I was secret service man, he would undoubtedly have laughed at him. Had not risked my life to get him out of jail instead of getting him into one?
 After our arrest and release in Louis vile, we proceeded at once to Cincin- nati, where l was introduced to the leaders of the big gang by Hanford. who declared that 1 had proven my loyalty beyond any question or doubt.
 Then my work began in real earnest.
 In this famous gang of counterfeiters were Jim" Hanford, "Jim" Kitten house, Marry Brown, "BillD Gordon, Charles Freeman, Nelson Driggs, J. A. Price, Charles Stadfeldt, Ben" Boyd, Boyd, "Nelse" Horn, "Ned" Meyers, George Manning and others of lesser note. spent five or six months work ing with the gang and discovering all their secrets. They were doing an enormous business in making fifty-dol- lar notes of the Tradeslnans' bank of Chicago They changed the Trades mans note four times. It was very skillfully designed.
 Nelson Driggs was the moneyed man, or the packer of this band of counter feiters. He was remarkably shrewd and willy man. Boyd was the engraver, and very skillful and competent art list. Driggs superintended the entire business, The counterfeit money to the extent of $200, 900 was made on 8 small island in the Mississippi river about twenty-five miles below St. Paul. The gang had been at work making the money for three years and they had been very successful in the passage of it. At the time became member of the gang they were about to issue new counterfeit of large denomination, but before the work was finished had perfected my plans, and the arrest of the entire gang followed.
 While the workmanship on these notes was not equal to that on the bills turned out by Broadway and his gang, they were an excellent imitation and would deceive except under the most icare1ul scrutiny.
 The different members of the gang were tried and sentenced. George Manning, Driggs' right hand man for over thirty years, was arrested in Kan ,sas City and served his term Boyd, the skillful engraver, did time, and I be- lieve is now honestly engaged; Driggs, now eighty-fve years old, was sen- fenced to fifteen years in Joliet, H., and is now poor, barely making liv- ing from his little road house, which is half way between Dayton and the Sol idiers' home. Charley Stadfeldt was ar- rested again during the exposition in Chicago and got three years at Joliet for passing counterfeit money. Nearly all the rest of the gang are now dead, Hanford among the rest, who served. five years for this his last attempt to establish good currency In the south"
 The sheriff of the county in which the Oxford jail is located, ran for elec- ton soon after Hanford and I escaped, but because of his supposed negligence in letting us get away, he was defeated at the polls. The secret service officials did not know of the fact until after the election, so they could not pre- vent his defeat and the sheriff never learned that Twas In the government service, and that the escape from Jail had all been arranged beforehand with the United States marshal who took him to the dance.
 The famous Brockway gang of coun- terfeiters is also now completely broken up. Broadway is an old man. The last I heard of him he was earn ing five dollars week bookkeeping. Martin B. Foster, who was one of his right hand men, after doing different terms in prison throughout the coun-