The Washington herald., 1907-09-22

New York, Sept 2L-FoF thirty min
utes this afternoon James Mcdonald
and Joseph Curran, two humble lumber
handlers, acquired what appeared 20 them
wealth of s. bills, in comparison with
which Rockcfeller's fortune looked like
three battered dimes.
At the end Of thirty minutes the vision
was shattered. The police swooped down
upon them, patrol wagon came at
gallop. and their box with what looked
like 1900 $ silver certificates, was hur-
ried 10 police headquarters
See Four Thousand Bills.
The attention Of Mcdonald and Curran,
on the pier at the foot OF East Eigh-
teenth street, East River, was attracted
to what seemed to be a box wrapped IN
paper. floating down the river with the
tide, about ten feet from the pier. Cur
ran got a rOwboat pulled out and got the
box. and brought it in. As soon as he
got on land he opened the box. He said
he had expected TO find perhaps a baby
in it. and had thought that it might still
be alive.
Instead. he found the box was packed
full OF money There were about forty
bundles, each containing one hundred of
what appeared TO be s. silver certificates
of the weH-known Indian head design Of
1899. The box was about eighteen inches
long. twelve wide. and six deep. II was
evidently a milliner's box, and there
were no marks on IT,
Curran gave great shout when he
opened the box.
I'm rich" he yelled. Here's thou
sands upon thousands Of dollars. money
10 burn; barrels of It,"
Mob Struggles for the Money.
A stampede followed. Men ran 10 the
place and struggled with Curran and Nc
Donald for the money There were sew
eraI mix-ups before Curran and Mcdonald
got complete control Of the box. and in
the encounters one or two of the bundles
Of notes were torn open and some Of the
notes had been grabbed.
Word was sent patrolman Frederick
Weber, Of the East Twenty second street
station, on post near by, and he ran TO
the place, stopped the scramble which
/ still continued for the possession Of part
of the bundle that had been distributed,
| and took the box and It's contents to the
station house
/ Police Capt. McDermott made a hasty
examination Of the box and its contents,
and at once ordered headquarters noti-
/ fed and a message was sent 20 Chief
/ Flynn. of the government Secret Service.
/ Then a thorough examination of the find
was made.
/ Thousands of Forged Silver Notes.
| II was found that there were nearly
I 1000 half-fnished s. silver Treasury notes.
/ some printed on the face and the rest on
/ the backs. in the box. They were made
from elecuotype plates from photographs.
were printed on white paper. and bore the
! serial number BZTllOlA, with the check
/ letter d on them. They were excellent
reproductions from a cheap process.
! Further examination showed on the
| bottom Of the box the plates from which
d
/ found some specimens with the fronts
and backs pasted together. It was
| these which had been snapped up in the
general grabbing on the pier. Two
| front plates and two back plates of the
8 notes were found. with the pieces Of
plate which had not been put to
gether, or had been broken. There were
| also in the box a front and a back plate
| Of 81 note made by the same process.
Secret Service on the Trail.
The box had been in the water only
short time, because only the bottom
was Wet and only a few of the counter
| felt notes were damp.
Chief Flynn at once started his men
out, and so did Capt. McDermott. It
was believed that the box had been
4 thrown from a ferryboat arriving at the
/ East Twenty-third street ferry less than
an hour before. The tide wss running
out strong There is a bend in the Man
haitian shore Just below Twenty-third
street and the box if it was thrown
| from & boat, was evidently tossed over
board 200 or 800 yards from the slip.
Shortly after o'clock this eveuing.
when the news that the notes were
counterfeit had been spread abroad
through the neighborhood, three men
came to the East Twenty-second street
station house with specimens. saying
/ that they had been swindled.
Bad Money Gets in Circulation.
They were Henry Minkowitz. of 26O
Avenue B; John Sandhoof, of 6l2 East
Seventeenth street, and Morris Gurin, of
2S4 Avenue B. Gurin said he had ac-
cepted the note from a boy and had sent
| it in next door to a saloon to have it
changed. The bartender told him that
| it was bogus. 1t was one of the pasted
notes.
Capt McDermott had the night squad
notified at once to tell all shopkeepers
and other business men of the district
about the counterfeits, and to warn them
| that the money was floating around
Chief Flynn said that the bogus notes
were well done for the kind OF process
used. The large number. of notes indi-
Gated, he said. plant Of some size. and
that quite a large band were in the
operation.
1t is known that Secret Service people
have been suspecting counterfeiters in
Greenpoint, and it was Chief Flynn's be-
lief that they became frightened and de-
cided to get rid of their stock on hand
1t is thought that the members. Of the