The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1906-06-15
PUZZLED THE SHARPS
STORY OF THE CLEVEREST OF ALL
THE COUNTERFEITERS.

THE COUNTERFEITERS.
The Taylor-Bredeu Crowd Original
ed u Scheme That Eailel the Secret
Service Men For Years-They Even
Made C~Ounterfeits In Jail.
The men who make Uncle Sans
treasury notes sometimes achieve Won
ders in the way of finished workman
ship. Yet any experienced secret Serv.
ice man will tell you that the counter.
feiters' device is Il surprisingly simple
one in most instances and in what is
perhaps the most famous of all cases Of
this kind-the TaylOr-Bredell case III
Philadelphia in 1S96-97-an apt illustra-
ton is found of this fact. That case
was run down by Chief John Z. Wilkic
of the secret service and his men Until
the two arch conSpirators were safely
in Jail, and still the countcrfeiting con-
tiifued. The browning feature of the
whole story came when it appeared
that Taylor and Bredell actually coun-
terfeited twenty dollar bills in the Phi
adeiphia Jail and sent them by Taylor'5
brother rs a confederate to be worked
off on the outside. That they could do
this is one thing which secret service
men will point to when they say that
cOunterfeiting is really an amazingly
simple undertaking.
Yet Arthur Taylor and Baldwin S.
Bredell, expert engravers and chemists
of no mean ability, hit upon a device
for duplicating the currency of the land
that marked 4 new epoch in the history
of Counterfeiting in this country. IL
the middle nineties at the Philadelphia
subtreasury II day there turned up Il
Monroe" hundred dollar bill on which
the red seal on the face appeared to be
altogether too light in color. Otherwise
the bill was to all intents and purposes
perfect. But it wouldn't go through
with|the light red seal, and it was sent
to Washington for examination. There
the government experts took 1t, sub
mitted it face and reverse to every
known test without being able to de-
tect through any of the recog .Ied
symptoms the counterfeit, and final
ly, as the last resort, split it, to find to
their great establishment that the Mon
roe 500 was as a matter of fact the
halves Of two one dollar bills which
had been split, as one splits a bit Of
birch bark, and pasted together again.
Many times before had split bills
been discovered by the department,
but almost invariably the workman
ship on the face and back had borne
some defect that gave away the oun
terfeit Immediately. In this bill, how
ever, no such defects were traCeable.
The myriad lines which the geometric
lathe had apparently put in the border
about the figures and the printing were
SO near like the lines which bona fide
lathes had put in the borders of hon
est currency that no clew was offered,
ever on a second and third inspection,
to the nature of the new counterfeit.
The letters themselves and the general
printing work on the bill measured up
with the letters and figures on the
original to the last fraction of q MILL
meter. The portrait was q perfect re-
production, and, generally speaking.
the bill was as near the real thing
as it could possibly be-all but the red
seal; that wasn't dark enough. SO they
started up in Philadelphia the most
cOunterfeiting hunt of the cen
fury, and when a warning had been
to all banks and other large han
dlers of money and to the subtreasu-
rieS throughout the country various
other Monroe" hundred dollar bills
turned up with the light red seal in the
Several of them were traced
to a well known race track, and finally
a man named Taylor, who generally
made and paid his debts by hundreds.
came under suspicion. Yet the princi~
pals in the case could not be penned
down, and it was evident that this
who passed the money was SIM
ply a subordinate in the gigantic swim
die. So the government men bided
time.
But they took Arthur Taylor, a broth
er of the race track spender, and his
associate, Baldwin S. Bredell, under
surveillance. Months passed. The /
newspapers which had taken up the 1
at first dropped it, and Sc far as -!
any one knew the mystery of the
Monroe $1C0 was in a fair way to
90 down in history unsolyed. Chief
Wilkes men, however, never for q t
1