The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-01
FAKE BARS OF GOLD.
yellow Metal stolen From the Car
son Mint.
From the Hartford Tlmes.

From the Hartford Times.
Seventy-hve thousand dollars is the
price just paid by Uncle Sam for a little
experience. He has been victimized by
a gold brick swindle on a large scale
The game was worked in the Carson
mint, and for five years It went on I'M
suspected. Three employees were en-
gagged in it; one of them has died, and
the other two have just been convicted
and sentenced to eight years at hard
labor. The story is unique in the annals
of the treasury.
The notion of cheating the government
by substituting chunks of baser metal
for bars Of gold was original with John
r. Jones, assistant melter and refiner
in the Carson mint. He took advantage
Of the fact that the quality Of gold bar
is not shown by Its appearances; it may
be almost pure and yet look like a piece
Of old iron The bars referred to are
those which came into the mint for sale;
they contain more or less silver and other
baser metals, and the first thing done is
to ascertain their value by assaying. Then
their ineness in gold ana silver is stamp
ed upon them, and each of them receives
number.
in getting away with a considerable guam
tity of gold incidentally to the perform
ance Of his routine duties, taking a few
ounces at a time. In the natural course Of
events his thievng would have been dis
covered before long; but against such a
misfortune he adopted an effective precau-
ounces of the pure yellow metal, ne would
make a fake gold bar composed almost
wholly of baser stuff and mark IL with a
false value initiating the assay stamp
Surprising the bar TO be less valuable than
IT was marked by sum equal TO the
worth of 500 ounces Of gold, II rendered
the accounts Of Mr.. Jones with the gov
eminent exactly square.
At the end Of the year the treasury in
spector came around and took stock Of the
bars. 1t was out OF the question FOR him
to make an assay Of each one; they were
examined and reckOned over, 50 that moth
ing wrong was suspected. In fact 1t was
only short time ago that an accidental
change of employees disclosed the game,
which was begun in 1880 1T could not
nave been conducted successfully, by one
man. With Jones were assoc dted James
Heny the silver discover, and a third
man who Is now dead. Acting in concert
these three conspirators were able to
cover no their tracks perfectly. Unfortu-
nately there was a dissension. Jones did
not treat Heny fairly, in the division OF
profits, so the latter started out 70 steal
Heny, as has been said. was the silver
DISCOVER. That Is 10 say, ne had charge
OF the kettle in which the silver bars were
treated for the purpose of separating the
gold out of them. All silver bars contain
some gold, from one-fourth Of their
THESE bricks Of white metal are put into
the kettle with sulphuric acid, and a fire
is lighted beneath. When the acid is
brought TO a boil, IL combines with the sill
yer in the form of a solution of sulphate
of silver But the gold is not soluble in
the acid, and it falls to the bottom of the
kettle in the shape Of a reddish powder
that looks like so much gravel Though
Il is absolutely pure gold, you would not
think it worth while to nil your pockets
II YOU saw a pile of it in the street.
The silver solution is drawn off from
the kettle, leaving behind the gold grav-
ell which is taken out and washed in hot
water This process is called ''sweeten-
ing" because the operator tastes the wa
ter from time 10 time, and when II Is quite
sweet-that is, without any acid taste-he