The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-28

compared TO the St. Anthony
Park Financier-FirstS Sunday In
the County. Jail.
NO time check issued by James H
SouthaH, the late chief clerk of the
United States engineering department.
now under arrest for forgery and coun-
terfeltlng pay warrants, ever was gen
uine or worth enc cent. They were ALL
Wlthout exception, bogus. Assistant
Chief Engineer Mckenzie, and later his
successor at st. Paul, James D. Du
Shane. were the only persons ever au-
thorlzed to issue the time checks. The
checks which they issued were paid
years ago, and none have been sent
out since. Southall never was empoW-
cred to sign a time check, and it is
believed that every signature on the
back of the checks, purporting to have
been written by a laborer, was written
by SOuthall
1t is remarkable fact in connection
With the men whose names appear on
the checks that, though they worked
for $50 and $40 a month, they were all
educated so that they wrote their
names with considerable ease and even
grace. Not one of the checks that have
turned up in the market is signed with
cross, as is usual. There are GER
tain twists in the writing that indicate
intelligence Of higher order than is
usually found among a gang of Mis-
slsslppi river laborers. Some of the in
dorsements show lines very similar to
those in SouthalPs handwriting. The
resemblance is noticeable in the final
strokes Of Us and Gs and in small
rs. There are other points Of re-
semblance that have hitherto escaped
attention of the holders and even of
experts who have examined the paper.
~
have q knowledge of such things have
declared that sSouthall nor any other
man could initiate so many different
styles of penmanship, but man who
has lately examined them under a mi
croscope says positively that Southall
wrote them all.
Jim Wasn't in 1t.
If this is correct, Jim the Penman
was a tyro compared to Southall
1t is barely possible that Southall in
duced laborers who called at the en-
gineer's office for their pay to sign
their names on the backs of his bogus
time checks, representing that the pa
pers were receipts for their money and
required Endorsement. But this is not
considered probable
A peculiar thing about the signatures
Is that they We're written in different
blue ink, some with pale black, others
With deep black, and in fact with ev-
cry color and quality of ink The idea
to be conveyed was that the men sign
ed the checks at their homes and not
in the office
Another circumstance that escaped
suspicion, but which was calculated to
arouse 1T in the minds of careful men,
was the fact that among the names Of
the indorsers there were few dupli-
Gates. Each months issue of the time
checks was for a new gang. No man
appeared to work for the government
two months in succession. Yet they
were supposed to be men who were so
anxious to get money that they were
willing to sell their pay warrants at
large discounts. -
Didn't Have Witnesses.
BUT 1t Is the circumstance that the
men all signed their names in full that
convinces certain persons that they are
all forgeries. AiIcross for a signature
would have required witness, and
Southall did not want any witnesses.
The men who yhave been caught in
their DEALINGS with SouthaH object to
being calleds ShyIocks. They say the
name does dot at them. but that, on
the contrarE they were actuated by
| the best motives in buying the time
| checks. H III
When the Checks were first put on
the market they ere redeemed within
| two or ,threegmonfhs, and Southall dis
posed Of them at 80 and 80. Then the
men who bought them-the middle
men-found fhatN,if they ran year
they could NOT make any profit in the
transaction. Nnasnluch as they had to
pay and 10 per cent on money they
borrowed on pledge of the checks as
collateral. And as the certificates ran
longer and longer the price paid for
them naturally decreased until finally
it got as low as 75
The oldest certificates now outstand-
ing, so far as known, are four years
old, and If they were bought at 70 and
the purchaser had to pay 10 per cent
for his money he would be hardly
even If they were paid today. So that
the belief that purchasers made money
on the trade is not as correct as at
first appears. The present holders,
who took them as collateral from the
purchasers, and who hold them now
simply as pledges. had no dealings