The age-herald., 1901-02-01
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

Mars said man who lives on salary. When read in the paper the other day that one of his instruments had received three distinct jars, I felt as much shocked as if someone had given three distinct jerks on my coatail' What possible ob- jection can you have to communication with Mars?" asked a listener. Purely financial" continued the salary man. You see live on fixed income and every one of these new fangled discoveries costs me money. Consequently I am opposed to the whole lot of them. l got very well with out the telephone, but as soon as it was invented and came into general use my daughter had to have one. It cut out a small slice from my salary without any corresponding benefit. Then the long dis tance phone came into which every now and then costs me money. If Tesla succeeds in establishing communication with Mars it simply means more expense. Social communication will be opened up and some of my daughters friends will be using the Earthly Mars long distance phone at a cost to me of about $2O a word. The Earth being little nearer the sun than Mars the spring fashions will open here a little earlier than with the Martians and the Martian ladies will be teephoning their Earthly friends to get dots as to what they are wearing. Not only that, but If the fashions on Mars should be entirely differ ent from ours and become the fad here think of the expense of an entire change ofwardrobe. The government, too, will probably own the communicating apparatus which will be very expensive to maintain and taxes will have to be raised to meet the expense. Mars is about fifty million miles from the earth when they are near est together so you can imagine how ex- pensive communicating machine will be-
 Tt is not as difficult to detect counter feiters as you would imagine" said a man who has had some experience in the reve- nue service Tn the majority of cases they get careless and give themselves away. Often they even get to bragging about their success, and in this way the matter reaches the ears of the government. There was a gang recently caught in New York that were making real silver dollars, as good as any made by the government They had stamping and milling machines and were turning out coins that could not be de- tected. They bought the silver for about 50 cents and made it into dollar. They got careless however, In buying their sil- yer, and were caught in this way. They bought large quantity from dealer who noticed one of the men measuring the sheet of silver to see if 1t was the proper thickness The dealer reported the matter to the government secret service officials, who had the men arrested and their ap- paratus destroyed. There was case in Birmingham recently where some men were arrested for making counterfeit dollars. Their product very inferior and could readily be detected. They made plaster or paris mouds and used brass some other cheap metal for the coins. These they plated with silver and passed as genuine. One of them got to bragging about his skill as counterfeiter, and in this way he was found out and arrested. Then there is the man who deals only in paper goods. He raises two-dollar bills to tens and twenties Usually this is done with pen, ink and an eraser as the necessary ap- paratus This class of counterfeiter is per haps the ceverest of all and the most dif- ficult to capture One of them has recently been operating in Birmingham and several merchants have been stuck This class of counterfeter must be somewhat of an art ist for after having scratched out the fig ure on a two-dollar bill he must be able to draw the figure 10 20 cleyerly as to deceive the eye. He always uses an old and much wern bill, they are less lia- ble to show any alterations. An advantage he has over the silver man is that he can ply his trade anywhere, a pen and eraser being his only tools. Even if arrested these are not damaging evidence against him, like stamping machine or mould.
 Another type of counterfeiter is the man who makes split bills. This fellow re- ouires more paraphernalia than the man who merely raises bills Usually he takes a genuine bil say twenty dollar blll, irons it out perfectly smooth and fiat, smears both sides with glue and places it between two fiat boards. The boards are then placed in a vice and the glue allowed to harden, after which the boards are pull ed apart and the bill is split in two, one half of 1t sticking to each board These two halves are then loosened and smaller bill is split in the same way, the two halves of which are glued to the two halves of the twenty dollar bill. In addition to this the numbers the halves of the small bill have to be raised to correspond to the larger bill. The whole process is trouble some and difficult and there are not many of them found. The only advantage they have over the ordinary raised bill is that one half of the bill is perfectly good and any one desiring it changed canoi lay it down on the counter with the good Side up. and not one merchant in dozen would be apt to carefully examine the otherFside. Of course counterfeiters carefully choose their victims and 1t is needless to say they do not select bank tellers or other experts
 "A CONTRASTING FEATURE
 From the St. Louis Republic. -s
 In giving both sides of the case, it is only