The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-15

until the acid is saturated" when it will absorb no more of the metal. The
 coins are exchanged for silver or other
 currency, as only an expert could de- | tect the small substraction In weight,
 and then the silver is then re-eXchanged
 for more gold, upon which the operator performs his little game in due course.
 It is only necessary for the villain to | boil down his acid to complete evapora- | ton, when the residue in the kettle will | be found in the shape of a gleaming | button of pure gold, varying is size according to the amount of acid and
 the charge it carries in solution.
 In San Francisco the Government
 secret agents have waged a long and
 bitter war with sweaters. They have captured many who were guilty enough in all conscience, but against whom no conviction could be obtained for lack of evidence, and they have placed others beyond all worldly temptation for vari-' ous terms of years. One of the lone
 kings of this nefarious business who finally was obliged to sojourn for rest
 in the pententiary at San Quentin, was
 named Goodrich. He was an exceeding
 ly modest and retiring man. He occu-
 pied an ordinary dwelling and con
 ducted his operations on the roof. After
 many long weeks of vigil on the port
 of Government detectives he was taken
 into custody, not red handed, but at
 least black fingered by the acid. His
 appartus was found, most cleverly con-
 cealed behind movable bricks in the
 chimney, on top of his house. At the
 time of his capture a small bottle of
 greenish fluid was found, and this, upon
 being carefully reduced to fumes, yield
 ed button worth fully two guineas A
 few coins were discovered in the mans pockets and also in his residence. These,
 to all appearances were honest coins
 of the realm. Under the microscope
 they were found to be fairly cross
 matched with tiny lines which had been
 produced by the process of polishing. to
 remove the traces where the acid had
 eated away the metal
 Insidious as this acid thieving may appear, it might be regarded as crude
 by those who are acquainted with the
 tricks that are vain exercised by the "heathen Chinee." John Chinaman is numerous in California. He gets his long hands on many golden disk, and
 with great reluctance does he ever re- linquish his grip. He has never learned the "art' of sweating the coins win acid but he accomplishes his purpose in his characteristlcally patient man. ner He simply places many coins to- gether in a bucksking bag and then pro- ceeds to shake and toss and otherwise agitate that receptacle by the hour, or txy h hoe r,ff I,xy abrasion ten or twenty dollars worth of fine dust of gold, The coins wear one another The present the appearance, when at length they emerge from the sack. of having been regularly abraded by pocket-to pocket circulation, and therefore to all intents and purposes nothing illegal has been done. As a matter of fact, no Chinese has ever been apprehended or put on trial for this work. It is doubtful If the authorities have ever taken cognizance of the prac- tice. Only a few people ever realized what the sly Ceestlals were at when witnessing the hourly agitation of the coins. It is, of course, unlawful to bore a hole through 6 gold coin in America | or to perform any other mutilation, but l MT. Chinaman cannot be said to muti- l late the money he. wears out so artfully, | and therefore he pursaes his course | serene and unmolested.
 There have been clever rogues from | time to time who employ a slender tool | with which to gut coin. This meth l cd is to make a small incison in the | edge of a coin, and then patiently dig | out the inside, after which they refill | the hollow space with baser metal. | High art like this has become almost obsolete, for the acid business has fre- quently proved safer and less difficult | of performance. Laws will multiply | and detectives will wax more and more like Sherlock Holmes, but the makers | and administrators of penal regulations will be obliged to arise early in the to prevent for all time the ef- fort of man to accumulate his pile" for nothing. London Globe.