The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-18
RAN SHREWD
GANG TO EARTH.
An Exciting Story of the United States Secret Service
Department.
Department.

work, and only possible when the sun
light was ~ the right direction and the
window BIZ IDS up. But by the exercise
of a little patience, Captain Burns was
rewarded. or. rather. 50 impressed with
the result of his observations, that he
decided to make a closer examine ton.
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Locks bolts and bars soon fly asunder
- captains of the United States secret
service, and when, after several weeks,
Captain Burns decided upon midnight
raid on the engraving office of BredelI
& Taylor, the thing was accomplished
what he discovered on entering more
than recomDensed for the two years
patient search. Plates for every de-
nomination of bill from $50 upward
were found.
The most perfect counterfeiting Of
flee ever organized lay exposed
Presses, dies, rollers, plates, engravers'
tools, acid baths, every minute detail
for the equipment of a modern engrav-
ing shop was there.
One after another, Captain Burns
took UP and examined the objects be-
fore him, making careful note of every
thing he touched, and replacing it eX-
actly as ne found it. But one plate
he came across at first somewhat mys
titled him 1t was the engraving of
an internal revenue Stamp, such as are
used on cigar boxes. perfect in the
n1inutest detail, just as the counterfeit
band on the plate was perfect.
Leaving everything exactly as he
found it, Captain Burns left the office
To its midnight solitude and at once
dispatched a cipher message to Chief
Wilkie notifying him of the discovery.
His Instructions at the outset of the
investigation had been precise and en-
phatic regarding what should be done
when anyone struck the trail. To.
a ha ne 20 iv, ap
sudden excitement of a discovery, he
had given strict orders that no arrests
should be made unless the circum-
stances of the discovery left no other
course open. To arrest the actual
printers would have been to insure the
bigger criminals escaping, presuming,
as the chief rightly foresaw, that the
real leaders of the gang might be miles
away from the place where the coun-
terfeits were actually produced.
To establish a shadow on the two
men comprising the firm was the first
care of the secret service men When
BredelI and Taylor reached their Of
flee next morning and found every
thing exactly as they had left it, not
a plate out of its place, and proceeded
with their usual work, they little sus-
pected that a dozen of the keenest
secret service men were watching their
every move; day and night, awake or
asleep, in the street, on the cars, in
church. at their meals at the theatre,
anywhere and everywhere, each of
these men was thenceforth never out
of range of at least two pairs Of watch
ing eyes. Did they speak to anyone,
give anyone a message, send a parcel
anywhere, that person or that parcel
was logged to his or it's destination and
the subject of the message or contents
of the package made known to Chief
Wilkie an hour after.
For weeks, the persistent, tireless
watch was maintained, one operator
taking up the shadow where his fellow
left off, reporting every move or word
of the prospects with the fidelity of a
photograph or camera
In the meantime, Chief Wilkie had
been piecing together threads of evil
dence which the discoveries made by
Captain Burns had suddenly lifted to
the utmost Importance. In the drag
net inquiry regarding paper mills. in
formation had been received out of a
curious order given to a little, out OF
the way mill in New York state. This
was for several reams of blue paper,
water marked "U. S. /. r." in letters
an inch deep and running in words
across the paper. The man who gave
the order explained that it was intended
as a wrapper for patent medicine, the
letters standing for '.Uncle Sans In
dian remedy" And as he had paid
cash for the paper when delivered, the
manufacturer had thought no more
about it
But Chief Wfl6ie did. The letters
u. S. I. r." also stand for United
States Internal Revenue Moreover,
the blue paper was exactly of the char
acter used by the internal revenue Of
flee for duty stamps on cigar boxes.
And, even more curious, the plate seen
l hx~ "A ,fafF in mir
was an exact counterfeit of the en-
craving of the stamp itself. 1t re-
quired no Sherlock Holmes power of
deduction to connect the plates found
7 i'll Philadelphia with the paper made in
} New York state. But unless Bredell
&, Taylor were in the counterfeiting
business on a wholesale scale, there was
more than appeared on the surface of
connection between the cigar stamps
and the counterfeit greenbacks-
Three weeks after the raid on the
/ engraving workshop, one of the part
ners, Bredell, was Swallowed to the rail-
way station, where he took a train TO
! the town of Lancaster, Pa On the
same train and in the same carriage
were the inevitable secret service men,
/ also bound for Lancaster. On arriving
! the pair Swallowed their quarry to a
I cigar mandatory one Of the largest
/ ia the state, owned by the firm of ia
cobs & Kendig. Instantly the news
was flashed to washington and by the
, next train Chief Wilkie himself arrived
at the little Pennsylvania town.
/ Upon being informed that the square
/ package which BredeH had brought
4 with him from Philadelphia had been
| deposited at the cigar factory. the
! chief at once began to see daylight, as
| il were. But with the revelation came
another and even more astounding fea-
! ture of the case, which made caution
la hundredfold more necessary
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| Forgeries of cigar stamps are very
/ rare, owing to the difficulty attending
/ their use. In the first place they are
/ only of value to cigar manufacturer.
1 and unless he be in the cOunterfeiting
] business himself, it is hardly conceiva-
bic that ne would place his business
and his liberty in the hands of a gang
/ of cOunterfeiters, who might any day
turn states evidence. Moreover, TO sue
,Gssfully use proper cigar stamps in
/ quantities sufficient to make it worth
while, he would have either to bribe a
! government Inspector who visited the
/ factory every week and inspected the
work or to so manipulate his works
and arrange the working Of his factory
! that the apparent output should cor
respond with the actusl quantity OF
! bona fde stamps purchased at the in
! ternal revenue Office
Under the circumstances it became
/ instantly evident that to get at the
bottom Of this tangled web the most
/ likely place of ali to seek information.
! namely. the revenue Office, was at once
| the one to be reiigiously avoided II
the gang had confederates IN the gov
eminent employ. the moment inquiries