El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-12

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terprise of showing counterfeit coins.
His connection with this
sort of work was unsupported
until in q moment of bravado he
exhibited a quantity of new bogus coins
In small mountain town. An operat-
i've of the Secret Service division, after
some weeks of patient work, succeeded
in approaching Ware and Funk with Q
proposition to purchase a quantity or
their product. It was not an easy mat
ter to bring them to the point of actu-
ally making the trade. Suspicious al
ways of possible pitfalls, they INDUCED
| in q series OF tests to esta blish to their
satisfaction the character OF the man
with whom they were to deal. APP
pointments were made apparently In
good faith for the exchange of bogus
metal, packages ostensibly containing
che coins were brought to the place of
meeting for the deliberate purpose of
| drawing the fire, if 1 may so express 1t,
| of government officers, should this
| really be q trap. Arrests on any OF
| these occasions would have beer fruit
less, for the packages contained moth
ing but blocks of wood. Patience and
good judgement on the part of the Of
fcers prevented precipitate action, and
| succeeded in lulling the suspicious OF
the coiners. Finally an appointment
was made at small hotel at Tyrone,
Pa. To Operative Abbott had fallen
the dangerous task of meeting the men
and carrying on the deal. Operative
Perkins, with an assistant. secured 8
room at the hotel on the opposite side
of the hall from that occupied by the
coiners and Abbott. 1t was arranged
that Abbott should by some ruse get
one of the men to leave the room after
the coin was actually in sight, and the
arrests were to be made as soon as this
was accomplished. "Slippery i'm"
and Abbott were first in their room,
aud a little later were joined by
"Bish," who carried an ordinary leath-
er travelling sstchel. This, which
weighed something over a hundred
pounds, was handed over to "Slippery
Jim,;' and he and Abbott
took seats at opposite sides of small
table, each with his revolver under his
right leg on the chair ready for any
gun in his hand, stood guard at the
door. 1t twas a trying moment for
the officer when Funk opened the grip
and took from it roll after roll of coin.
made up in packages of $40. The time
had nearly come to act, and he read
death in the faces of the two criminals.
One of them must be got rid of tenn
rapidly, and IS he took the rolls from
Funk one by one a plausible plan pre-
sented itself, which was at least worth
a trial. The counting went on slowly
until nearly the whole amount had
been transferred.
DESPERATE MEN.
"Look here" said Abbott suddenly,
II can't take chance on this stuff
coming loose and rafting around In
my Grip. I am taking long chances in
this thing and don't want to ship up.
Jim, addressing the lman across the
table, take this half dollar and run
across to the dry-goods store and get
me piece of muslin. I'll feel safer |
with these rolls done up in CLOTH"
swat until we get through, '''said |
Jim.
The count went on, and at Its con-
clusion ''Bish' stepped to the table |
and with an oath said that he would
get the cloth. Thrusting his revolver |
into his pocket, he dashed out of the |
room and downstairs. The moment
the door closed Abbott, declaring his |
identity as an officer, tackled Funk. |
In less than a minute Funk had the |
upper hand of the officer, and the muz-
zle Of his pistol was pressed against |
his forehead. Abbott managed TO get
one of his fingers under the hammer |
of tie weapon and prevented its use,
though Funk was slowly choking the |
life out of him, when Perkins
room and quickly had the desperate
overpowered and handcuffed. They |
stepped back into the hall just as |
"Bish" came dashipg back with the |
cloth in his hands. Perkins ordered q !,
surrender, and the answer was two |
pistol shots, so close that the flash al
most blinded him. The fire was re-
turned, and Ware, apparently unarm-
q
street, ran a short distance, turned
into an alley and there dropped dead,
having been shot through the lung.
Insignificant facts sometimes lead to
the unearthing of dangerous crowds of
counterfeiters. A couple of years ago
a man named Moses applied to die
sfnker in New York for set of metal
numbers, and gave as pattern for the
numbers tracing of til cir form on
gelstine. The engraver recognized |
the figures as being like those used by
the government in mum bering it's
notes, but kept his suspicious to him
self. Later he confided in an agent Of
the service, aud little patient inves-
tigatiOn resulted in rounding up a
number of persons who had beautifully
copies Of five dollar bill,
and who needed but the numbering de-
vice to perfect their product.
The ingenuity of counterfeiters in
avoiding the purchase and possession
of the elaborate machinery used in the
legitimate production of engraved
notes is often source of wonder. John
A. Skooe, of Chicago now fugitive
from justice, used as his press for the
production of a very deceptive bill an
ordinary clothes wringer, while another
western counterfeiter, Mellinger, who
committed suicide In Jail, used a small
wooden press of his own manufacture
that was wonderfully effective. But
no matter how clever the man may be
yr h ba rtxs this s0rt of fbora