The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-10-03
coUNTERFEiTERs' PAY.
Ten Times More Could he Made By
Them I'm Honest business.

r .I
Ten Times More Could BE Made By
Them I'm Honest business.
"Nobody has ever been able TO ez-
plain the mysterious fascsnotion Of
counterfeiting," said an old federal
official ut the custom houre 'tThere Is,
without doubt, something about the
work, aside from it's possible profits,
that draws men into itand keeps them
there ut tie sacrifice of almost every
thing that would appear to make lie
worth living. l'Once counterfeiter al
ways a countcrfeitcr' is all axiom in
the secret service, and 1t Is borne out
by facts.
.Yct couE tdrfeiting would seem, on
the surface. to be one of, the least at
tractive brandhes of crime. 1t involves
mn Immense amount OF hard work, ac-
companIed, MS rule, by exposure and
pr,vation, and there is not one single
case OH record In which maker or
shower Of the queer retired III peace
with anything like competence. In
deco, there are very few known in-
stances in which II counlerfeiter ever
made as much as $1,000 out of the
opcration. They are almost invariably
caught OIL driven to cover before they
succeed in floating enough Of their
wares to pay them ordinary dny wages
for the time they have put in.
The engraving Of bogus treasury
note is n long and tedious operation.
Even In the government bureau at
Washington, where every modern
labor saving appliance Is at hand and
the work is distributed among dozen
skillful -oncrators-ene doing the VI
Saoitc. another the lettering, another
the scrolls. and 80 ONT takes several
months to finish plate. One man,
doing the whole thing and working
under cover In continual dread OF dis
covery, would easily be occupied two
or three years at the same task. And
YOU must bear In mind that an engrav-
or competent to turn out dangerous
replica could easily be earning from IS
to $12 day at honest employment.
In other words, he puts nll the way
from $500 to $4,000 worth Of work
into the undertaking, and when the
plate. is Mt last ready for the press he
has no assurance whatever that
dozen Of the bills Will ever actually
be passed. The chances are about two
to one that the job will land him In
prison.
''But IN spite Of all this" continued the
officer, "some Of the best engravers In
the country have turned out counter
feiters and persisted in II to the bitter
end. 1t is very strange. The same rule
applies to all grades of bogus money
making None OF 1t ever pays as
business proposition. Some time ago
an italian was arrested here In New
Orleans for manufacturing spurious
quarters. He turned out very clever
ly made white metal coin, but had
showed less than $40 worth when he
was caught and given term behind
tie bars. The fake qua rters were
first cast In mold and afterward
touched up or 'sharpened,' as It Is
called technically, by hand. The reed
ing around the edge was also hand
work and very tedious. I calculated
that he could finish not over eight coins
day. working hard for at least ten
hours. Just think of 1t! Only So
day for highly skilled labor, and even
then he didn't reap that amount as
net profit. The coins had to be passed,
the object being Of course, to secure
good money in change. That necessi-
tated making some little purchase with
every piece, SO at best not more than
20 cents was actually realized on the
transaction. In short, the Italian was
obliged to put in one day counterfeit
ing and the best part Of another 'shoy-
ing,' all for beggarly $1.80, and mean
while he was constantly Jeopardizing
his liberty. He was man Of consid-
erable artistic ability and ought to
have been able to have earned S3 or $4
q day as q pattern maker CT designer.
Almost every one OF the famous
bank note counterfeiters has had on.
portunities to quit crooked work with
full assurance Of no future molesta-
ton on the part OF the authorities. You
see, the government is generally only
too willing to make terms with such
dangerous Fellows. But It Ia no use.
Not one Of them has ever sstaid
straight six months after alleged
reformation. They can't resist the
fatal fascination" New Orleans Times.
Democrat.