The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-07-22
MAN CAN MAKE MORE
Working For $50 Day Than Can
the Most Successful Counter
feiter.

would engage In the work, yer this
business is one of the chief annoy.
ances OF the government secret serv'
I ice. It is stated that in one month
/ 1886 bad pennies were found in the
I New York sub.treasury, evidence that
/ some coiners had directed their at
tention to t., The manufacture Of a
penny costs the government one-tiith
| of a cent. The counterfeiter does II
as cheaply or at a little lower figure.
Almost any copper disk of the proper
/ size will pass muster, so that the i'm
! itation Of this coin Is easier and the
passing of il attended with less risk
| than making and showing the queer"
in larger denominations, But penny.
counterfeiting has the drawback TO
the criminal of smaller returns. and
the penalty attached is just a. heavy
ii he Is convicted The government
does a big business in pennies in the
east, but has much less demand from
the west. Over 100000 one-cent
pieces are sorted out in year in the
New York sub-treasury. One man
will count G0,ooe a day, throwing ont
the bad ones. One days record of
bad coppers discovered by one hand
Ter of cents was 1850.
Counterfeiting stamps, chiefly of
the 2-cent denomination. figures next
after the manufacture of spurious
pennies in the motion branch of the
bad money business Some stamp
counterfeiting has been notably sue
cessful Kendig and Jacobs, TWO ia.
nous crooks. are believed to have sold
s260000 worth of bad stamps before
the secret service men ran them to
earth Then it was through branch.
ing ont into the field of paper money
that these men came to grief They
went from 2.cent stamps to bills Of
large denominations, They were
caught in time TO prevent the compile
ton of a scheme that intended putting
Sl0.0o0,000 in bad money into eircula.
ton. and their work was so skilled
that detection Of their paper was diff
ficult
Besides the turning out of pennies
and stamps a third oddly of modern
counterfeitlng is the manufacture of
good dollars that are bad. That is.
the counterfeiter turns out silver
dollar that contains as much. If not
more, silver. than the coin approved
by Uncle Sam and placed in circula
ton from his minis. There is still a
profit for the counterteiter. because
the value OF silver in silver dollar
ranges somewhere between 80 and go
cents, according to the market II
has been 40 cents The balance in
value lies in Uncle Sans credit
The counterfeiter takes the Mexi.
can silver dollar, melts it and recoins
II with Uncle Sans fit forged there
on Cinnamon developed this scheme.
Mexican dollars circulate extensively
in the celestial empire, Some of the
heather" evolved the notion of TAX
ing this collateral out of bear mar
ket and reaping par value from lit
tie manipulation OF the silver and al
10y contained therein.
But the secret service men checked
this operation before the profits be.
came extensive.
From the careful statistics they
have collected the secret service men
estimate that any man can make more
money working at $3.50 day or less.
than through the most successful ca
reer he may hope for as a counter
feiter The best of them. considering
the years devoted to this business.
the time ont of that spent in jail, and
the value received which has been
actually returned on their inves;
ment Of time and skilled labor Of the
highest order. have enjoyed less aver
age prosperity. have had less money
to spend year in and year out than
the poorest paid clerk in a department
store.
To secure this small return they
have devoted brains and talent that
would have furnished them with a
ItUEiOuN lifUliit III dAulhNA any hlAlA
NJ business Veteran counterfeiters. 1
whom the secret service man have /
placed behind the bars. have always I
insisted that there was no real profit I
in counterfeiting for the criminal
There is an ex-newspaper man In /
who is chiefly respons-
BILE for this condition Of affairs In
he United States. This Is Chief VIII
Sie. head OF the secret service. And
Z is a secret" service His men per
'orm miracles; they do work which
Conan Doyle could credit TO Sherlock
Iolmes TO the Increase Of that great
reputation. but no one
lears much about II. They receive
rom s. to s. a day and expenses.
They collect information after a fash
on simply marvellous. But no one
viii ever know how IL is done, be
ause that would defeat their ends. In
ecent cases il has developed that
hey could lay hands on the secret
Igures Of private bank accounts. that
hey could produce a schedule Of thG
ontents Of suspects safety deposit
OK.
GUESTS HoNoRED.