Evening star., 1896-12-12

| y the Otner was 10 SET
in motion the printing presses. Great as
| were the available resources of the south.
they were altogether inadequate for the
| carrying on of the tremendous conflict
| that engaged the land, and the alternative
| had to be accepted matter of necessity.
| But the task of turning out a great mass
| Of paper currency was in itself difficult
one. In the secessionist states there was
no paper mill manufacturing the kind of
| paper suitable for money, and no printing
| establishment equipped for the production
| of notes and bills in any quantities.
| For a time state money and the specie
on hand at the outbreak of the war was re-
| lied upon. Early in 1861 this was supple
| mented by notes of small denominations is
| sued in the name of the confederate states
of America, and printed in Richmond. the
| seat of the confederate government. These
| earlier efforts commanded little respect,
| even among the ardent supporters of the
| confederacy. The notes were contemp
| tuQusly termed rag money. They were
| poor quality of paper, and the design was
| calculated to excite the pity of even an un
| Skillful counterfeter
| In July, 1851 in the words of President
| Davis, 1.-The confederate leaders realized
| that they had entered on desperate strug-
| gle, end the plan then adopted was to is
| sue treasury notes convertible at the pleas
ure of the holder into bonds.' More than
| six hundred millions of these treasury
| notes were issued within the next two
years. Before the work could even be be-
| gun on any large scale it was necessary to
| smuggle the paper and presses, the outfit
| for a large Hthographing esta abishment,
and the men to run this establishment
| through the blockade which President Lin
| coin had declared on all southern ports
One of the Few Survivors,.
Like most of their other supplies. the
confederate leaders got these from Eng
land and brought them in by way of the
West Indies. How the task of turning out
| millions of paper money, which the con-
| federacy had set for itself, was carried out
forms an interesting chapter in the un-
written history of the confederate move
| ment and is here set down for the first
Tune IN the narrative of Mr.. John Hodge,
one OF the few survivors of the group of
young English printers and photographers
brought to Charleston, S. c., in 1862. for
the express purpose of making confederate
| money. Mr.. Hodge is now an American
citizen.
I'm April, 1852, when L was in my twen-
ty-iourth year, was working in London
Ior Cnaries Straker & Sons a large .Iitho-
| graphing esta tablishment.I had then beon
eight years at my trade as a nthographer.
| ana was considered fairly good workman
All England was greatly interested in the
American struggle, and therefore we looked
with curiosity at a man of distinguished
appearance, plainly an American, who yts-
i'eu out snop one DAY, and who was re-
ported to be an agent of the confederate
states, engaged in purchasing supplies Our
interest was greatly increased when a story
got about that the American gentleman
mad purchased the machinery for q large
1thographing plant from our Arm and
was looking about for number of yonnp
fellows to man this establishment. which
| the confederacy Aoi
The prospect Of large pay and lively ad
venture was as attractive to me as 1t is
nkely TO be to young fellow of that age.
and l went TO the head of the firr, u,ith
the request that he should recommend mo
to our American visitor AS a result 7
was invited to visit Maj Evans Of Charles
10 ION, .. e., at ms hotel, and went to see him
IN company with ten other workers at NV
craft We found the major a very agree
abie person, and the upshot of our inter
view was that We agreed to go to Charles
ton 10 work for the confederate govern
| ment. we We're promised so week in
Boid ana liberal rate of piece work nav
ana each man ON signing his contract re-
ceived from TAO to f6O to pay the expenses
CT preparing for the journey.
How They Come to This Countrx
we left London on May 10, 1862, on the
ship Leopard Of Glasgow. We were the
only passengers except three southern Of
| hcers and Major Evans, who Joined US at
Cardin. where our ship stopped to make
some additions to her cargo. We STONED
again al Queenstown and from there sailed
directly for Bermuda in the West Indies
At all these places more cargo was brought
aboard. but although we were pretty GER
tain that 1t consisted of military stores We
were not allowed to know anything about
that, and were kept under military disci-
pine
From Bermuda we went to Nassau
ana mere we were told that both our party
anu the shlps cargo would be divided into
Two and would proceed by separate boat
Tor the short, but dangerous part of the
Journey still before us. Our party, contain
ing Major Evans and six of our men, was
put on the Autonica, a regular blockade
runner. and the rest Ct US went on the w
NJ Seaorook, an American river boat COM
manded by Capt. Dan Vincent, who was
known as one of the most daring of the
sau harbor with the palmetto flag and the
nall crescent, the South Carolina revenue
nag. at our masthead we were cheered by
the people on shore and saluted by the
other vessels in the harbor, for the object
OF our journey was well known
Inc Seabrook was light draught boat
ana the captains plan was not to sail di-
rectly into Charleston harbor but to slip
In through an inlet with which he was ac-
quainted: Unfortunately he made slight
mlscaiculatlon as to the tides, and that
proved his undOing. One morning as We
were bearing in close to- the South Caro-
INA coast We saw a United States cruiser
looming up close at hand. The Seabrook
sped away up Bulls Inlet, the little stream
where the cruiser could not follow us, al
though she chased us as far as she could
and fired shot or two across our bows
But as l said before the captain had
miscalculated the tide, which was further
out that he supposed, and presently we
round ourselves stuck fast in the mud The
Yankees were aware of our plight, too, and
presently our lookout announced that two
boats were putting off from the cruiser,
each carrying a howitzer in the bow and
were coming leisurely along to capture us.
Escaped From the Vessel.
when we heard this announcement we
youngsters. the confederate officers and
most Of the crew dropped quickly over the
ships side into the two boats and rowed
away. but the captain stuck doggedly to
his post. The stars and stripes had soon
| taken the place Of the palmetto flag on
the Seabrookshut we were out Of sight by
| that time. anf were trying to make our
| way through mixture of mud and water.
dragging ourselves along and pushing the
boats ahead Of US.
| I'VE were twenty-five miles from Charles
| ton, lost In wilderness OF swamps, ana
we spent two days tofling through the mud
| with nothing to eat and little hope OF ever
getting out alive. During that time we