The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-01-08

accident Of the morning had involved
him, and 80 convinced was he that the
information must be for the time kept
secret, that he actually began to dread
what was clearly inc vitable, the ex-
PLANTATION he must shortly make to his
wife.
His inclination was to tell her all. His
duty to others forbade this, After pom
deriDg over the matter, he decided to
explain that he had happy surprise in
store for her, one that had an important
bearing on their future, and which I'M
fortunately neceesitated q change in
their plans for honeymoon in Europe.
This, on reaching the Delavan House,
he expressed to very pretty and very
anxious little woman who was awaiting
him, together with a good many other
things not necessary to this story. And,
instead of the steamer for Europe, the
reunited pair took train for Philadel.
phia. Early the next day the young
man presented himself at the Office of
DR.. james Wickliffe, at Germantown,
who smiliDgly admitted having given
the shining dollar TO his mother two
days before. He had received the coin
from patient, letter-carrier named
John Lennon, and remembered it be-
cause of the following strange story,
related to him by Lennon himself:
A few days before, the carrier was
engaged in delivering mail from door
to door along Vine street, Philadelphia,
when zig-zsg trip across the street
aud back again brought him to the mar.
row stair way of dingy brick house, in
front of which hung an enormous brass
key bearing the word Locksmith."
Here he paused to draw little parcel
from his bundle. AS he did 30 be
heard something fall with a metallic
cllnk upon the stone pavement. He
looked and saw that it was silver dol
lar, which rolled toward the gutter and
came to stop close by the curb. Has.
tenlng to pick 1t up, he instantly
dropped it with CRY of pain.
The coin ,oaS almost red hoti
The letter-carrier stood nursing his
hand and thinking for two or three
minutes. Silver dollars do not COM
monty drop out of the sky. But that
this one should thus fall like meteor.
tie in a condition too heated for hand
ling was certainly more than surpris-
ing-it was astounding! The man
looked up at the dingy brick house and
examined it attentively, noting that the
ground floor was occupied as a green
grocery and that all of the windows
were shut save one in the third story.
Then he kicked the mysterious coin
into puddle, dshed it out again with
his fingers, aud put it into his trousers
peck t. He was about to investigate
further, when some small boys called
his attention to the fact that it was the
first day of April, whereupon he pro-
ceeded on his way. He gave no further
thought to the matter until thai night,
hen he found that his thumb and fore.
finger had been SO badly burned as to
require treatment.
The next morning he called upon
the doctor, who dressed the painful
hand and received the mysterious coin
in payment for his services.
That night, behind locked doors in
one of the officers rooms of the United
States Mint in Chestnut street, two
men were engaged in long whispered
conference. The wife of one of the
men, as che sat in her room in the
Continental Hotel, anxiously waiting
for her husband, was beginning to won,
der whether, after all, marriage was
failurel
Two days later, in speaking of the
seizure of over forty thousand bogus
silver dollars and the clever capture of
three of the most dangerous counter
feiters that ever attacked the currency
OF the United States, the Daily NeUS
said
The most remarkable part of the whole
story is that one OF she coins, fresh from the
machine of one of the counterfeiters, fell
out of a thiId 'story window near which he
was working, was picked up while almost
red hot by letter. carrier, and passed rs
genuine through various hands until it
reached Buffalo, where, by the merest acct
dent, it came into the possession of Mr..
Ansel Hobart of the Secret Service. That
gentleman noticed an imperfection at one
point of its rim, and succeeded in tracing
the coin to the headquarters of the gang on
Vine street in this city, where, under the
cloak of a locksmith shop and green grocery
business, six hundred of the spurious coins
were turned out daily. SO admirably were
these counterfeits executed as to defy scru.
tiny save by experts of the government
The coins were not cast in mods after the
ordinary fashion, but were struck with
die, and plated so thickly with silver as to
Withstand ties 5 by acids. The defect which
led to the discovery was found only in the
Wv SNia toouy Sppheu Vi ana IL III sup
posed that it was this defect that caused
the piece to spring from the finishing ma
chine and fall out Of the window"
And the New York newspapers of
three days later contained the intelli-
gence that the White Star steamer
" Majestic" which sail d for Liverpool
that day, had among her passengers
Mr.. and Mrs. Ansel j. Hobart of Chi
cago, Illinois-The Black Cat.