The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-05
FIRST jim IK P[NNAN
ORIGINAL HANDY MAN WITH THE
PEN CONCLUDES HIS TERM
IN PRISON
CoUNTERFEITED FOR YEARS
His Arrest Made1 on the Complaint
of Groeer's CIerk-secret Ofr
GERS Had Been After
Him for Years.

The six-year sentence imposed upon
Emanuel Ringer, the Jim the Penman Of
the counterfeiting profession, in 1S96-al-
| lowing for good time"-expired last
Monday at the Erie county, New York,
prison.
Here is man who completely baff1ed
the officers Of the law for more than fif-
teen years. There is always a touch
Of the romantic about the story of a
counterfeiter, but the case of Ninger is by
far more like fiction than that of any
other bogus note maker ever known to
the secret service.
Early IN the year 1879 there was re-
ceived at the redemption bureau of the
treasury department., in a batch Of notes
from one of the suhtreasuries, a 500 legal
tender note which the eye of the expert
examiner detected as4ceunterfeit, but I'M
like any previously discovered spurious
production Careful scrutiny under a
magnifying glass disclosed a startling
fact. The note was free hand drawing
with pen and ink and yet its likeness was
SO close to the genuine as to practically
defy detection at the hands Of any but
the most expert. The secret service Of
ficials were Immediately notified, but
were unable to do anything because the
tellers at the subtreasury from which the
note came were unable to say how it
came into their possession.
From that time until Ringers arrest in
March, 1896, these marvellous works of
art turned up at more or less regular
intervals, usually arriving at the treasury
in remittancese from banks where they
had escaped detection. Nor did they
come from any particular quarter every
section of the country contributing it's
share to the history, of these now famous
notes. Try as hard as they would the
secret service agents could get no clue
to the maker the7 general appearance
of the notes was so good that no shop
keeper hesitated t6 accept them, and,
in the course Of a few days when they
reached the bank. it was an even chance
they would pass scrutiny, so that officers
We're blocked at every turn in endeavor-
ing to trace then1 from hand to hand.
A theory was advanced by some that
the author of these amazing counterfeits
was a person t0f leisure, gifted with the
faculty OF imitation, who had developed
this strange fad as an amusement. 1t
pleased him to lead Uncle Sans detec-
tives a merry dance in pursuit of a will
Up to Novembef, 1893, all of these pen
and ink notes received at the treasury
were tWenties and =fifties. Then. how
ever, a fresh specimen of this mans
handwork was discovered, like the first,
in a remittance from q subtreasury 1t
was a $l00 legal tender issue of the series
of 1880, bearing the portrait Of Lincoln.
In aid save the deneminat ton it was like
previous specimens by the same author.
Warnings of these ceunterfeits were re-
peatedly given widest publicity and nu-
merous points wherein they differed from
the genuine, as iWeH. as methods for de
lection, were Incorporated In these warn
1ngs. One of1these methods was to pass
q moistened finger across the serial num-
Der: Under this test the ink would blur,
I 1t was the. Unintentional application of
this test which caused Ninger's down
fal.
When be started oztfrom Flagtown, N
is, on Saturday morning, March %, 1896
Nfnger had in his possession six $40 notes
and one $50 note, which together were the
product Of fifteen weeks work He passed
FIVE of the tWentles without any difficulty
The sixth nearly brought him to grief
Entering J. Weyman's grocery store, No
1872 Third avenue, New York city, he call
ed for a bottle Of whisky and gave the $40
note in payment Immediately after his
departure the cashier, while taking an ac-
count of cash" noticed the blurred con-
dltion of the number on twenty as 1t
passed underSher moistened thumb, and
quickly realizing that something was
wrong with the note, clerks We're sent in