The Washington times., 1902-09-16
STAGE FOLK MUST
USE REAL CURRENCY
Secret Service Men Round
ing Up Imitation Money.
Drastic Orders Issued Owing to Decep-
tion Practised on Unsuspect-
ing Immigrants.

| In consequence OF complaints received
at the Secret Service of the Treasur.
! Department. to the effect that unscrup
ulous individuals in the seaports OF tbi!
country are palming off stage money OF
unsuspecting immigrants, it has beer
decided by the Secret Service to seize al
plates and stage money made therefrom
that it may be destroyed.
Speaking on this matter yesterday
Mr.. Moran, assistant chief of the Secret
Service, said:
I'VE have been quietly looking up this
question Of stage money for some time
and we have seized quite large num-
! Der of plates and the impressions from
the same. / have heard, of course, oi
| the emigrant matter and our men have
| Instructions to act at once in the sup
preston of this wholesale distribution
of stage money OF advertising devices
which tend to deceive the ignorant and
| illiterate.
"Our men have orders to. first report
the matter to the United States attor-
ney in whose district the offense occurs,
and then, under orders from him, to
while this action is not aimed par
ticularly at the stage, l suppose it will
have to suffer with the advertising peo-
ple Section 5430 of the Revised Stat
utes deals very broadly with this very
matter. 1t provides that it shall be rn-
lawful to duplicate any piece of curren-
cy in paper or any portion thereof, or
adopt any similitude which might tend
to deceive.
Law Very Broad.
"This, as you will see, is very broad
in its construction, and the question
only remains whether a piece of paper
of the same size as a bill, of the stand
ard green color or of yellow. does rot
violate the law. We think it does, and
shall bend our efforts to it's suppress
sion.
1.-The original intention in the first
place by these advertising dodgers is to
deceive. If you were walking along the
street ard saw piece of plain paper.
you would not pick it up.-If you thought
it might possibly be money, however,
you would take it Immediately. Thus
on the face of 1t, these fake bills are
intended to deceive.
''It does not matter whether the ad
vertisement has a sign printed across it
referring 10 boots and shoes, il the per-
son who is the recipient of the adver-
tisement cannot read, he or she is no
better off. Sections 37OS, 51ss. and
5414 deal more in detail with this mat
ter, 370S referring to the United States
currency, while 51SS deals witt. national
bank notes Section 5414 has to do with
couIterfeiting pure and simple.
The aim of these various sections is
to provide that when the Government
has once adopted standard for its cur
rency, that currency shall be kept clean.
This we propose to see is done"
Lively Times Ahead for "Fake" Money.
All of which goes to show apparently
that the various merchants who have
been setting forth the value of their
wares on pieces of paper evidently in
tended to convey the impression of valu-
able currency; the actor man who gives
away millions nightly in stage money,
and the thousand and one little dodgers
which litter the streets of the cities, are
going to have lively time for the next
few weeks.
Even the paintings of barrels of
which have been flooding the |
OF late will not be exempt. They
will be seized and destroyed by the Gov
agents. The little pictures of |
several bills of large denominations |
tied with piece of ribbon will have |
to go with the others.
Some years ago the Treasury Depart
ment issued permits to certain persons
them to hang such pictures
in their places of business. but this has
been discontinued for several years and
no more will be issued in any case.
Several of these pictures and dodgers
with samples of stage money are in the
hands of the Secret Service department
at the present time and the law will be
rigidly enforced.