Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-01-10
WOMEN couNTERFE,Tr-a,-.
Every Gang Ever Arrested u
 One Female Aro. o at Leas

' V et " Ne3h1lSSS for terfeiting. The first person sa egas eoun' euted for that crime was . s'ef exc She was an Englishwoman na,,,a3 @g'llaa bara Spencer, and was put to lsu doa.1 Gar ] 1721 for making false shillinas sa'a ID
 was strangled and burned at t5a she Curiously enough, her acconnlia. 1e stake, acquitted p'ieeS We're
 Nancy Kidd was one of the mo..
 markable female eounterfeitars Se' re
 known in this country. She baloa eseI to a family of noted forgers stoaged sb ried on her nefarious trade faa sue car than 30 years in Chicago and ma lofe rested there many times. or as af' these occasions lot of fiber paper s wa, ol discovered on her person. ei The was was ernment officials were completelr gov loss to know how she had obta. ~
 this. Finally she confessed An las,ed chemical solution had been nsos wash the faces of the notes and - 10 them perfectly clean. Thus. sba in the habit of taking one-dolIar b;' ssas and changing them into larcer dano.5. o,.is nations. The government autbor;4i1 | released her in return for this val,aI1 information and for telling them. ,vbat the solution was. However. tbpv bsa her snadowed by detectives and 8nan1 caught her with S17, ,000 worth of oo,,. terfeit money in q box. She was fond guilty upon seven different indictments for eounterfeiting and was sentenooa to eight years in the state prison. wbara she finally died.
 One of the eleverest tricks ever played on Uncle Sam was invented br woman who lived in Philadelnbis Her plan was to take S1o and S2o ool5 pieces and with a small drir worked by steam power to bore out the fnsidos and then refill them with some base met. al, being very careful that they should weigh exactly the right amount when she had finished. This sheaceomplisbed by drilling through the milled edgs of the coin, and then, after filing fba hole, covered it with a little of the ex. tracted gold In this way she made $T.50 on every eagle and about S16 on every double eagle. The officials of the secret service say that this is the safest device ever invented for cheating the treasury.
 Counterfeiting is very apt 10 run in families. This, of course, is natural as a father brings up his son or daugh. ten to follGw his profession. Women who would otherwise be good are often led into this sort of crime by men wllo carry it on as a business. But some times it works the other way. Women teach their husbands how to make false money. This is what happened when Ben Boyd married Mary Alderman. of Indiana. Her father was one of the most successful counterfeiters of his day. and his daughter had q thorough acquaintance with the art. Mrs. Boyd carefully taught her husband all the secrets of the trade, and he became one of the most famous forgers of the age,
 They carried on the business with such a high degree of skill that they were not captured for years. and when al last the secret service Hawkshaws did run them down not a single counter, felt plate, note or coin was found in their possession. When their house was searched $, ,000 in good money was found. This small amount was all the money they had accumulated dur. ing all their years of crime. Of course. the officers could not touch it. After. wards sufficient evidence was secured to convict them and they were sent te prison. They both claimed to be con. verted while in state prison. and after their release settled in Chicago, where they apparently lived an honestlife.
 4 case that annoyed the secret serv ice very much was that of a woman who employed a clever dodge. She went to large shop and selected q valuable shawl. To pay for this she handed the clerk United States treasury note for S4.0o0. He took the money and dis. appeared. not returning for several min, utes. When he came back she asked him why he had kept her waiting. and he confessed that he had taken the bill to bank near by 10 be sure that il was good. She pretended to be very angry and said that she would not buy the shawl on any account. and walked out of the shop. 4 little later in the day she returned and said that as she could not find any other shawl that suited her as well in the other shops she had decided to take it in spite oi the insult offered her. She gave him the S1,000 bill. and, getting the shawl and the change, left the shop. The owner of the shop afterward discovered thai the note he finally accepted was g counterfeit. The first bill had been good. but on her return she gave him the false one, which was a wonderfully clever imitation. The secret service was much agitated about this and several others of the $i i.000 bills which turned up, but they have since captured the plates.
 Practically every gang of counterfeit. CTS ever arrested has had women asso ciates. In the office of the secret serv. ice in Washington there is a large frame four feet Snaaa~e e3lad 4x-f4f .I,a 4hasn-