The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-14
nah, Ga.


that for one to turn states evidence II
hard pressed, would secure him immu-
nifty from punishment; and with our
present perfected system of telegraphs
and police cooperation, the guilty ones
could not get far away, unless the earth
obligingly opened and swallowed them.
Small thefts by employees are equally out
of the question, because a careful system
OF checks and receipts requires strict
accounting for the contents OF the cash
wagon and leaves no smallest, loop-hole
for farthing to slip through. The men
whose everyday bread-winning business
is to handle money, become SO accuston-
ed to seeing and lingering immense sums,
that they come to regard greenbacks al
so much paper, and experience no such
thrills as tlngle in the fingers of those
visitors who are given packages of thous-
and-dollar bills to hold-for one brief.
blessed moment only! While in the treas
ury--if you look particularly honest and
the guide happens to be good-natured
and not too much in a hurry, you are
sometimes handed a bundle. which looks
like a package of green tea, but proves
to be two million dollars in bills of the
largest denomination; or you are allowed
to try your muscle on canvas bags con-
tanning a few thousand silver dollars. be-
ing facetiously told that 'you may have
1t IL you can carry IT," when SIMPSONS
strength would not be equal to the task.
Like a flash of light 1t goes through
your mind how much those surplus mil
lions would buy-friends, honors, worldly
advantages, and-yet dearer thought
what they would do for those you love.
This line OF thought leads one naturally
to the counterfeit notes that are very fire.
quently found In the mutilated currency
that comes into the treasury from banks
and individuals to be exchanged for
good money. Cases where notes have been
altered with fraudulent intent come to light
every day in redeeming battered cur
rency Everybody knows that counter
feiting is carried on as q profession, by
men of education who are capable of bet
ter things; but the fact is not so widely
disseminated that other mIsdirected gen
fuses make a business of altering notes
and of cutting off pieces OF them and
patching them together. to produce more
notes than the originals. The number
OF notes so dealt with shows that a regu-
lar profession in this line exists. The old
practice Of cutting ten or twelve notes
into ten stripes and making therefrom
one more than the original number has
been discontinued as too crude a trick
and too easily detected Latter-day artists
alter notes In more elaborate style The
simplest way is to raise the figures on
the notes. The bodies of nearly all the
notes are identical. The operator will
take a one-dollar bill and d two-dolIar
bill. for example. He cuts the figures
denoting the denomination OF the two, be-
ing careful to avoid cutting away too
much OF the note to render Ii redeem
able at less than its full value and then
carefully cuts out the figures of the one
and substitutes the figures two therefor.
He thus has two-dolar bin for his one,
and probably his original destroyed. As
people generally count money by pick
ing up the rigtIt-hand corner of each note,
detection OF changes notes In the ordin-
ary course OF business is not easy. But
when II comes to the redemption bureau
IL meets with counters who are skilled
detectives, on the lookout for Just such
crookedness.
Another way of changing notes is to
manipulate a ten dollar and hundred
dollar bill by splitting Off the body OF the
former. Then by FASTING II on the ten
and changing II around, there comes from
the $ll0 the sum of $40, In good deceptive
shape. This plan has only recently been
developed. The first so "doctored" came
In few weeks ago, Immediately follow
ed by q good many others. Another kind
of work is evidently the speciality OF
one firm. The notes operated upon are
all tens, OF a certain issue. They are
cut from one corner to the other, drag
onally, in zig-zag manner. Just how
the operator succeeds in getting enough
pieces to form a new note is not known;
but that he does It somehow, is proved
by the extent of his business. There are
numberless other ways, OF which we
have not now time to speak. While the
alteration of United States notes is car
ried on all over the country. they tell
us at the Redemption Bureau that the
wild and woody West is the section
where the practice most obtains. The
great field OF operation for tho altered
note industry is among banks just start
ed. The officers and clerks of new
banking institutions are naturally anx-
ious to receive deposits, and are not so
good judges OF faces or OF money as they
presumably will be by the by. The
man with the altered notes goes In and
makes a deposit. as big as he dare; and
in a day or two goes again and draws
most of II out. OF course he does not
get the same money that he puts in;
and the bank, when II finds out about
IT, has to forward the original deposit 20
Washington: to be redeemed as mutilated
currency for what IL is worth under the