The Savannah morning news., 1904-09-11

detection, so that the officers were
blocked at every stage in endeavoring
to trace them from hand to hand.
Gave the Sleuths Merry Chase.
The chief OF the Secret Service Blu
reau and his assistants advanced every
theory. One of them was that the
maker of the notes was a person OF
leisure, gifted with the faculty of ini-
tation, who developed this strange fad
as an amusement. and that 1t pleased
him to lead the Secret Service sleuths a
merry chase in pursuit. Until Novem-
Der, 1883. all the notes received at the
Treasury Department were SOS and
S50s. Then a new specimen of Jim
the Penman's" handiWork turned up.
1t was a 500 legal tender issue of 1880,
bearing the portrait of Lincoln, and,
like the first, received in a remittance
from sub-treasury. Warnings of this
counterfeit, as of the others, was given
the widest publicity. Numerous points
were given wherein they differed from
the genuine. and how to detect them.
One of the suggestions was that by
passing a noistened finger over the Sc
rial number the ink would blur, while
In the genuine notes this was not so.
1t was in the accidental application of
this test that finally caused Ringers
downfall.
Kept HIS own secrets
The Secret Service officers attribute
ed Ringers long immunity from ar
rest to the fact that he worked alone,
having no confederates, and that he
did not attempt TO put many bills on
the market at the same time. The
first thing Ringer did was to secure
bond paper of about the same quality
as that upon which the genuine notes
are printed, with the exception, OF
course, that this paper was without
the silk threads to be found in the
genuine. Cutting the paper the exact
size of the regular notes. Ringer inn
mersed it in a week solution of coffee.
This impaired to the paper the APP
pearance of age, and as having pass
ed through several hands. While the
paper was still wet 1t was placed over
the face of q genuine note, the edges
being exactly together. The two were
then placed upon a fat glass. and
every figure and letter. portrait and
vignette, together with the signatures
and seals. were brought out in bold
relief, and could be plainly seen
through the transparent bond paper.
The pane of glass was then placed
against the window frame at an angle
OF about As degrees. The light shin
ing through rendered the tracing Of the
genuine engraving quite distinct. In
this position the counterfeiter COM
menced work. first with an extremely
sharp and hard pointed pencil. With
1t he carefully traced all outlines on
the original note.
Marvellous skin with Pen.
After the note was thoroughly dry
the same ground was gone over with
pen and ink II was here that the
marvellous touch and skill Of the PEN
man was displayed. testing the ac-
curacy OF his eye and the steadiness
Of his nerve. The colors on the note
were applied with a camers hairbrush.
and these colors so closely resembled
the colors on the genuine note as to
contribute materially to the appear
ance OF the counterfeit. Red and blue
ink marks were made to take the
place Of the silk threads which are
worked into the pulp OF the govern
ment paper. The treasury seal which
Is placed on all paper currency Is al
most invariably placed over a portion
Of the main design OF the note. thus
adding difficulty to the tracing OF the
different lines, but Ninger kept at IL
with wonderful skill and fidelity. The
same care and attention were not de-
voted to the back OF the note. IL was
usually executed with a brush. In do
ing this the artist relied mainly upon
the coloring 20 add to the deception.
There have been many famous coun-
terfeiters since Ringers time. but he
holds the record as a penman. and Il
IN quite likely that the Secret Service
officers will never have 10 deal again
with a man who can be put IN his
class.
Copyright, the Washington Press As
aociation)