The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-03-16


the gang was Big Red, a pugilist, but a
good natured sort of a fellow, burly and
bluff. They ran things in their neighbor-
hood, and many a countryman was run
into the place, passed his good coin over
the bar and woke up in the morning with
pocketful of counterfeits. Grace's
wasn't the only place of the kind either.
and the secret service men had their eyes
on the row and knew all the men in the
gangs. But knowing and proving are
two different things, and the secret serv-
ice officers were constantly engaged in
trying to secure evidence against the
men.
Living in that neighborhood was Joe
Hennessy, who was then boss Of the
Plasterers' union and was given to occa-
sional iags, when he would frequent Matt
Grace's place, although he was thor
oughly honest man and when sober kept
away from the crooks who used to fire.
quent Murderers row. He knew them
ALL however, and was safe among them
when drunk, which was not often the
case. Because Of this he was unknown
to the secret service men, of whom Colo
mel Whitley was chief, with headquarters
at So Blocker street, near Crosby.
Colonel Whitley one day decided to
sec IL he couldn't trap the counterfeiters
who hung out at Graces. So he had one
of his men make up as a countryman and
go around at night. 1t happened that
Colonel Whitley's plan was put into exc
cution at the time when Hennessy was
enjoying one of his infrequent jags in
Mats place, and he was the one whom
the disguised detective first saw when he
entered and whom he took up with, as
he could do easily enough, for Joe was in
his usual good humor
"They had few drinks, and by and
by the pseudo farmer said to Joe, III
give you 50 if you'll get me 500 in coun-
terfeit.' Joe was mad at first 10 be TAX
en- for one who would deal in fairy mon
ey, but after a little thought he decided
to have joke on the supposed farmer.
$50 he said: All right. can't get it
tonight, but you meet me here tomorrow
morning. I'll have it ready for you
Then they separated. the farmer going
out. Joe told the gang what had hap
pened and invited them all to be OH hand
when he fooled the guy. Then he went
" Nplh " plfpult " iooi iihi.
"Iennessy got two 81 bills and lot
Of paper as near to the texture of bank
note paper as he could, cut it into sheets
the exact size Of a 81 bill, bound 9S Of
them together with dollar bill on the
bottom and another on the top. He stain
ed the edges of the bundle with green ink
and was ready.
THE supposed farmer got around at
the appointed time, and all Of the gang
were on hand when he came in. He soon
got away in corner at n table with
Hennessy and asked him if he had the
fairy money with him. Yes said Joe,
! but all these fellows are sort Of looking
at US, so III have to pass it to you under
the table. Where's your S2?' The 81
was pushed to him over the top Of the
table. and Joe passed the supposed coun-
terfeit money under it. The detective
| looked at the package, saw the top bill,
| jumped up and, pulling off his disguise,
arrested Joe.
1.-THE whole party accompanied the
slcuth and Joe to Colonel Whit!cy's head
| quarters. where Joe wanted to know
what he had been arrested for.
"'T'or dealing in counterfeit money,
replied Colonel Whitley.
"'There's nothing false about that
money said Joe. Just examine that
package, and you'll find two 81 bills and
lot OF worthless, green stained paper
which cost Inc nothing, and for il all
got 81. No one has lost or made cent
! ! thought TO plny a harmless joke on a
dishonest countryman.'
Colonel Whitley let Joe go, of course
| J,,t NI,I Nj; al III b,,.
with 4 big idea in their brains. Here,
said they. we have been dealing in coun
tcrfcit money, which is against the law
and we are liable to arrest If it is fount
in our possession We have to show it Il
our come ons. Now, why not show then
real money and let them test it? Wei
tell them it's counterfeit and that no
even an expert could tell it from the gen
uine. Then when they buy it wen do i
up in packages and put it in a satche
while the come on is looking, have an
other satchcl just like it with package
Of green paper with 81 bill on top an,
change satchels going through 4 passag
or In some other way
"That's what they did and that is how
the green goods game Of the present da,
originated, from the joke Of an homes
man, innocent of any intent 10 do wrong
and its possibilities revealed to counter
feiters by secret service man. o
course, it was developed and enlarged
subsequently, and for years there was n
law by which operators could be punish
ed. They did no counterfeting. If the
cheated any one, It was a person VIII
had tried to buy counterfeit money. an
there was no provision to punish thcr
for failing to deliver dishonest goods to
dishonest man. The police were il O
the scheme and protected it. They 60
hundreds of thousands Of dollars Of hus
money, and the men who ran the gam
Jared equally we'll Eventually the pies
ent federal laws providing punishment
for use of the mails with intent to Dc
fraud were passed, but it's hard to dctec
green goods correspondence, and so Ion
as there are dishonesty and ignorance i
the land the game will flourish" Ne,
York Sun.