The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-02-26

authorities of his guilt or innocence,
as the case may be.
If 1t is the work of a new man or
woman in the counterfeiting field, the
Service first sets about to locate the
plant, which, not infrequently is bur-
led underground, or on the outskirts
of some small town. Then, according
to the exigencies of the case, there
may be raid, or some agent may be
detailed to gain the confidence of THE
gang" First he forms an acquaint-
ance with the persons who are "shoy-
ious bills. Later he may even pre-
tend to become one of the counter
letters themselves, working with them
over their molds and plates. II such
is the case, when the plant is even
tually raided, he is arrested along
with the others, in order that his true
identity may be kept secret and he
may work on other similar cases in
the future. OF course he is never sent
Ito Jail
When secret service man joins, or
pretends to join counterfeiting gang,
however, he takes his life in his
hands. Should his quarry grow sns-
picious, they would not hesitate to cut
his throat, and he knows it. There
have been more than a few Secret
Service men who have lost their lives
that way. There have been others who
haev been so terribly beaten that they
have been forced to go through the
remainder of their lives, crippled CT
manned.
But the Secret Service missions are
not always dangerous. Sometimes
they merely afford an opportunity to
display the dramatic talent without
! which no special government agent
can hope to be successful. Such a
lease was encountered not long ago,
when word reached Washington head
quarters that two men were reaping
la harvest in the smaller towns of
New York state selling machines
which they represent as being cap
fable of manufacturing twenty dollar
gold pieces out OF white metal.
per discs, each containing a mould of
a side of gold eagle" Molten white
| metal was poured into the disc, and ap-
parently on the moulds. In reality ii
went into a secret recepticle. After
pouring the metal the confidence men
would place the discs close together
and hold them in that position for sew
eral moments Then on opening them
they would employ sleight of hand to
slip a genuine twenty dollar gold
piece, coated with white metal, on the
moulds, and thus convince their dups
that the coin had been made by the
machine.
/ The coated coin would then be drop
ped into an acid solution, claimed by
1.-THE confidence men to be a secret for
mula discovered by them, which dyed
lit yellow IN reality the acid ate off
1.-THE white metal coating, leaving OF
course perfectly good twenty dot
liar gold piece, which was presented &c
the dupe, with instructions that ne
TRY to pass it at some bank.
There was naturally no difficulty in
getting bank to accept genuine cur
rency. AS a result, the victim was
usually persuaded to pay $500 for the
machine, the inestinable value OF
which he was convinced had been
proved before his eyes.
1t was necessary for a Secret Ser
vice man to pose as countryman In
order to attract the attention of ven
lers of these money making ma.
chimes" which worked according t.
inverse ratio. Pretending to be guE
ible and >avaricious in the extreme
1.-The agent acted his part SO we'll thai
in due course of time he was giver
the opportunity to invest" with them
He did so. He paid $500 for machine
Two hours later as the confidence
linen were boarding a train out o.
town. they were arrested by local