The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-09-03
IHE. MOUNT VERNON ()NFY MEN

1 i Is not pfobaDir tldl Il more It.
markable letter ever was received
by the secretary Of the United
States treasury than one which reached
that official I'm February. 1876, from
Charles d. Ham. cashier of the First
National bank of Mount Vernon, Ill.
After setting forth general conditions
H. the city I'm which he lived ia respect
10 the nature Of the money in circula-
Uou, Mr. Ham made this dat state
ment.
There is more counterfeit money in
circulation Ia Mount Vernon than gem
uine mone-."
In none of the many communications
received by government officials from
bankers and other business men, IN
none OF the complaints lodged with the
treasury department by persons vic
timiZed by counterfeiters, had 80 aston
ishiug a statement been made. The
letter was turned over to the secret
service division and in a few days
found its way To me, Mount Vernon,
the source of the information, being
Ia the district over which j had super
vision. Besides the statement touching
The excess OF counterfeit over genuine
money, the letter contained a Mace
uUnian cry for assistance from the gov
eminent in relieving the people of JET
Iorson county, IN which Mount Vernon
was located. from the troublesome and
expensive operations of the counter
fciters.
While / knew there was much
''coney" in circulation in southern Hi
nois, and. in fact, was working at the
time 10 capture the men primarily re-
spOnsible for its existence. l read Mr.
Hams letter with a large degree Of al
loWance. The natural tendency of any
man who had been made a victim of a
counterfeit was to eXaggerate the eX-
tent of the evil and bankers, through
whose hands sooner or later there
Passed much OF the currency in ciTcu-
lGtiOn, thereby bringing them into con-
tact With most OF the counterfeit
money, were especially prone to eXag-
geTate the amount of bogus money IN
the district. Therefore when / perused
the Mount Vernon cashiers bill OF conf
piaint and statement of alleged f.
i accepted il, not for an accurate ac-
count OF actual conditions, but as the
hyperbOlic statement of "a condition,
probably bad enough without exagger-
alton.
Just az this time the government at
JOrneys We're preparing 10 begin the
trial of the celebrated whisky ring
cases, and 7 had been assigned 10
make a secret investigation into the
character. political and religious be
lief, social and political affiliations and
private and public history Of every
member of the jury that had been
drawn 10 try that case The whisky
ring" fraud, need not state. was one
Of the great historic cOnspiracies
At -
information concerning the men who
were TO sit on the jury was OF much
importance TO the government attor-
neys. Feeling this my paramount duty,
Z continued this work and other i'm
portant tasks already begun until
Auril when / went TO Mount Vernon
10 run down the men responsible for
the conditions described by Mr.. Ham.
/ went directly To Cashier Ham,
whose remarkable statement was the
cause OF my being assigned 10 the
case
II have come TO Mount Vernon L
said, lin answer To your letter 10 the
secretary of the treasury"
Il am glad TO see that the govern
meut has taken some steps toward
clearing out this gang ne said. Il
made a statement in the letter which
YOU probably do not believe and which
would seem gross eXaggeration 10 any
one who was not familiar with the con-
ditions here, but the statements IN my
letter are nevertheless true
DO I understand you TO mean that
there is more counterfeit money DelnS
circulated here than genuine money!
That's Just what / do mean. II Is
not exaggeration. 1t is easy for you to
find out for yourself whether or not l
was exaggerating when 1 made that
statement"
smiled increrously. and Mr.. Ham
became very much in earnest.
GO 10 any store I'm town" he in
sisted, make a purchase, have bill
changed and if more Of the money
given you in change IS not counterfeit
than good, I'll gladly retract."
Deciding 10 make the test. / saun-
tered forth and entered a grocery store.
Buying 20 cents worth of apples 1
rendered a s. bill and was given $3.50.
/ did not inspect the money until l LETT
the store when. much 10 my amaze
lnent. 1 found that more than $3.50 OF
il was counterfeit scrip ia denomina-
lion of 80 and % cents. Previously /
had been in districts where "eoney
had been pretty freely Heated, ouJ
never had "a situation equal TO this
presented itself. To M. Ham /
promptly apOlogiZed for having doubted
the literal truth of his statement. He
assured me that for years not a day
had passed during which dozens OF
counterfeit currency notes had not been
presented at the bank. He admitted
however, that since the capture of Ben
Boyd and Nelson briggs, the "cOney-
men of southern Illinois had been
more cautious in attempting to shove"
bogus notes at the banks of the dis
trict, but he said the tradesmen We're
suffering then as much as they had for
years.
All of the counterfeit in circulation in
southern Illinois / found TO be paper
money, ard I was not surprised TO dis
cover that the $40 counterfeit of the