Evening star., 1908-01-26

diyjsion OF the United states government:
1sst We very 'r responsible post. but has won spe,
cai Iaurels by his personal success Il, in several
seven Years ago. and before accepting the
headship OF the secret service had made ,si an
Wsiie Connected With the Chicago newspspers
h. made a speciality Of criminal invesuEa
uns9ersa, mon sn success as detective During the
Spanish American war he ORGANIZED q spt.iat p
sne,Eso.ym % ~ 'ofSs tS, %s sountry As consequence
he succeeded In in arresting Their PES, sPie es
the United States.
NE Monday morning. not many
years ago, smartly dressed
man strolled down lower Broad
vay and entered one of the
trust company buildings in the
bcar. of the financial district of New
York He was what is known to the
,,+rons of the turf as bookmaker. and
he had called at the bank for the purpose
of securing a roll of bank notes that ne
had left there on the previous SATURDAY
night for safekeeping. 1t was promptly
handed to him. roll as big as both or ms
fists. He counted it over rapidly TO see
that the amount was correct. and When
he got near the end of the roll he paused
long and looked earnestly at 800 soio
certificate that lay there conspicuously
among the bills of smaller denominations
He continued his study of the yellow
back. for a considerable period, and
finally thrusting the balance of the bills
in his pantaloons pocket. walked over to
the cashier and handed him the Dill
Whats the matter with this note?"
he asked.
~
and handed il back with smile
Nothing he answered. except that
it's counterfeit.
The bookmaker gasped with astonlsh-
ment He went over his roll and found
three or four more notes of the same kino.
That morning he notified his fellow book
makers and before twenty-four hours had
passed thirty or forty of the counterfeit
notes had been located in New York city.
Samples were Immediately secured py
the authorities and forwarded to John w.
Wilkie, the chief of the secret service
division OF the United States Treasury
Department That night urgent public
business compelled Chief Wilkie to go 10
Buffalo The following morning, While
he was seated in the Office of the United
States district attorney in that city, a
man from the KniSkerbocker race track
entered the room and showed the district
attorney a 500 counterfeit note that had
been given him on the track the pre-
vious day. Wilkie began to do some hard
thinking The note was companion of
those that had been located in New York
city. 1t looked very much as If there had
been a conspiracy to circulate these $loO
notes simultaneously at the race tracks
in all of the large cities of the United
States.
The chief dropped the business in hand
and Immediately turned his attention to
the new developments in the 500 counter
feits kilograms were sent to the agents
Of the secre: service instructing them to
visit the race tracks in their vicinity and
look out for bogus bills. These instruc-
stiops applied particularly to Cincinnati.
louisville Memphis, New Orleans and
St Louis.
At st. Louis Capt. John Murphy. the
secret service agent In charge OF that
district, went to the Delaware race track
and posted the bookmakers to look out for
any 500 bills that might be offered them
Agents of the service were posted In
various parts of the track, and 1t was
agreed that If any of these certificates
were offered by any of the patrons the
bookmakers should at once give the secret
service a prearranged signal. In less
than two hours one of the agents received
a signal and hurried to the booth occupied
by the bookmaker. He made a careful
examination Of the bill that had been
given to the 'boolIe' and found that 1t
was one of the counterfeits. The agents
were then posted at spots where they
could see the patrons of the track in the
act of 'cashing in" their winnings. The
man who had put up the 500 bill bet on