The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-15
TO STEAL MANY MILLIONS.
REAL AIM OF THE INGHAM-NEWITT
COUNTERFEITING GANG.

| gus Notes in the Vaults and With
draw Good Ones for Division
Among ConspiratOrs.
From the New York Sun
Philadelphia. Dec. Ever since the
| friends of ElIery P Ingham and Harvey
| K. hewitt became aware OF their arres.
| in connection with the great counterfeit
| ing scheme that was revealed last April
by the arrest Of Kendig. Jacobs and 9TH
ers Of the Lancaster and Philadelphia
gang, there has been a great deal of SPEC
| ulation as to the motive that induced the
former United States attorney and his as
sistant TO take part in the scheme that
would, in the event of discovery, incrim-
mate them and lead TO certain trouble
with the United States government Bo.h
young, and comparatively wealthy, prom
inent professionally and with every pros
pect of political preferment; enjoying to-
gether a practice at the bar that yielded
them Jointly an income from $1,000 to
$4,000 annually, much wonder has been
caused as TO the kind of persuasion that
was used upon them. That the argument
was golden was not doubted but the
wonder has been that they, being aware
OF the law and the punishment that
would be meted out TO them If they were
caught would involve themselves unless
II was for an exceedingly high stake and
that they were convinced that the chances
of escape were almost certain.
During the trial nothing was revealed
that would lead to the solution of this
puzzle. 1t did not appear that the stake
for which they sold themselves was ex-
ceptionally large or that they were con-
WINGED beyond reasonable doubt that their
chances Of escaping detection were great
er than those of many men who, dur
ing the years that they represented the
United States government, were sent TO
prison for counterfeitng.
The reason this apparent mystery was
not solved was that the evidence that
would have shown the sum for which
these men banded themselves together, for
which they risked honor and fortune and
rendered themselves amenable to the laws,
was stupendous, For months the Secret
Service men have been working on it and
at present they are resting completely
baffied. Their downfall was due 10 two
things. First, the failure of Kendig and
Jacobs to put full trust in all their con-
federates and, second, lack of honor
among thieves.
The plans of the leaders, Jacobs and
Kendig was to make the United States
treasury the distributing agency for their
bad notes The way in which the United
States treasury was to be made a party
to the plan was through a receiving teller
in the treasury at Washington, or through
one of the sub-treasuries. To Jacobs
sharp, shrewd, smooth, was entrusted the
task of securing this man, and ne was
authorized to pay for this service $3.50 900,
or, If necessary, more. The sub-treasury
here was to be The first to be tried ac-
cording to the original plan, but for some
reason this was changed and it was de-
termined to make the attempt to seduce,
by the offer of a large sum, an official of
the treasury at Washington and one at a
| sdb-treasury. OF the latter there are
nine, one in each of the following cities:
New York. Boston, Chicago, Baltimore,
st. Louis, San Francisco, Cincinnati New
| Orleans and Philadelphia.
The puzzle that the secret service agents
have for months been endeavorlng to I'M
| ravel is In which one of these institutions
| did Jacobs work? What success did he
| have? Who was the man? And in the
| hope of finding out this, receiving tellers,
| cashiers and assistant treasurers in all
| these institutions have for months been
| subjected to the closet espionage. Day
| and night they have been followed, their
| slightest acts noted by emissaries of the
secret service and reported to the head of
| the treasury department Men and wo-
| men have been used in this hunt, thou
| sands of dollars have been expended but
| although closer attention has been paid to
| two men than to others, nothing definite,
| not the slightest reason to excuse an ar
| rest has been discovered, and Chief Will
kie has come to the conclusion that ii is
| time to give up the chase. This secret
has been guarded jealously. Whether
| Jacobs failed or succeeded will probably
never be known, unless he consents to
| name the one who promised to assist in
| Heir of the notes He
| however, that he was not successful, but
| Chief Wlkie and these associated with
| him do not believe it.
| The cunning of the conspirators was re-
markable. Men of comparative wealth,
| accustomed to handle large sums, to have
extensive dealings with banks, they were
| aware that at the treasury or sub-treasury
| they could only get gold or authorized
| gold notes for their gold certificates, and
in order to accomplish this they had a
| plate of the treasury note-that known as
the Lincoln head-made; and it was that
| plate that was found near Elkton, Nd,
after the confession of Breden and Taylor
had been made and directions secured
| from them as 10 its hiding place. This
| plate an official of the sub-treasury to-
day said. was perfect. 1t was absolutely
| without the slightest mark that would en-
able an expert to distinguish that a note
| printed from 1t was not genuine. The only
possibility of detecting the fact that the
notes printed from it were bogus was that
in printing the colors would differ In some
slight degree from those used in the
properly issued note.
II was the same official who said:
1.-The intention of the game was to put
into the depository selected S0,000,000 of
these notes in the shortest possible time.
| That is the reason that the paper for print
ing $200,000000 was on hand when the
place In Cumberland county. Maryland.
was raided. How easy the scheme would
| have been to accomplish may be readily
| shown. For instance, say that the receiv-
! ing teller at the Philadelphia sub-treasury
or the assistant treasurer had yielded to
temptation. Both these men have access
to the vaults in which money is stored
AT present there are In the vaults of the
sub treasury here nearly $l5,000,000 In gold
coin and notes, the notes amounting TO
| nearly 100000. With the connivance Of
one Of the officials named the good notes
could have been put in packages contain
| ing possibly IS, 100000 a day, and the coun-