The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-18

promises to Jacobs If they could only
print just few-say fifty or 160-as
an experiment. it would. be so much
velvet. an6 after that they could wait
till the tire was ripe for the bigger
scherse--But where 10 ind the paper2
Here BTedells ingenuity came to the
rescue. Procuring leo new 81 bills. he
carefully split them in halves. washed
of with acid all the printing. carefully
pasted together the acid burnt surfaces.
first replacing the silk fibre between
the new inssdeS. rolled out the fresh
outsides. and behold. a sheet OF white.
clean. government paper which no hui
man eye, without the aid of a micro
scope. could distinguish from the gen
uine.
Upon the paper thus manufactured
the young men proceeded to print leo
bills of 500 each. switch were put into
circulation. and some Of them ac-
tually-- receiver as currency at the
treasury without being detected. These
counterfeits were issued some months
before the firsH. discovery WAS made in
regard to the eosoF of the stamp. And
during the whole two years while the
secret service officers were hunting
down their source. not another bill
was altered. Indeed, so secretly was
the operation conducted that the hrst
time even Jacobs knew OF their issue
was when he was confronted with one
of them. produced as evidence at his
first trial.
When the lawyers engaged in the
defense of Bredell learned that he had
allowed every plate he had made TO
fall into the hands OF the government
they fatty told him that he had as
good as thrown away his principal
weapon of defense. Had he but slowed
away plate-say of a $50 bill-the
prosecution would certainly make its
surrender a reason for a considerable
reduction in his sentence. When Bre-
dell heard this he in turn astonished
his legal advisers by informing them
that he could. if supplied with the ma
terial, produce such plate, even while
confined in his prison cell. and. more
over. would do so if they would but
find the material.
To this proposition his lawyers at
once agreed. From drawings he made
on a sheet of paper passed through
the bars, he gave them instructions
what to buy, even to a miniature hand
press with steel roller. besides acids,
inks and the restsof the outfit Along
with these he asked for a few 81 bills.
which he subjected to the cleansing and
splitting process almost under the eye
of the turnkey. From a genuine $50
bill he made a photo etching on two
plates and from these IN turn he pro-
duced two wonderfully realistic coun-
terfeits The plates and paraphernalia
were then passed out and given to his
family, the plates themselves being
buried in the cemetery near his
fathers grave
When Ringer was arrested and
brought to trial he offered a curious
defense. He stated that the bills were
not counterfeits and that their utter
ance was not a fraud, inasmuch as they
were works of art and worth their face
value as such. In support of this
statement he actually brought two
witnesses, reputable business men,
who Acknowledged that they had in
their possession bills of the 500 de-
nomination, but which they valued at
twice that figure as works of art. The
plea, however. did not prevent Ringer
being sentenced to seven years in the
penitenrary.