The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-04-21

the counterfeiter notice. 1t would
not be policy to tell what any of these
marks are, but it will not be giving
anything away to say that defects are
put into bills sometimes in order to
testify to their genuineness. This is
done on the supposition that If coun.
terfelter goes to work on bill and
discovers what may seem to be
slight defect he will correct it, and by
dong so Will furnish evidence Of his
crooked work.
'' was put to work upon a gang of
counterfelters, however, which beat the
government at its own game. The
treasury department received notice of
counterfeit from Boston of Sl00
bill on the First National bank of that
city The bill in question aroused sus
plcion because the serial number was
duplicated. There was nothing else
about the bill that would excite sus.
plcion. In the vignette of Lincoln on
had been made in one of the lines in
the forehead, and it was reproduced
in the counterfeit, and a warning was
sent out calling attention TO it.
Within two weeks we had plenty
OF work on our hands, for the banks. in
scrutlnIzing bills after receiving no.
tice, discovered several other counter.
felts of different banks, Reports came
to Washington from New York, Chi
cago, Philadelphia, Boston, st. Louis
and other places Of the finding of
countcrfcits. 1t became very evident
that the country had been flooded
with the bogus money by a very
shrewd gang of counterfeiters. A
comparison of all the bogus bills indi-
Gated that they had all been made by
the same hand, for they were Just as
good as the genuine bills, with the ex.
ception of the duplicate serial number
and letter.
"The fact that the bogus money had
country at about the same time showed
that there had been concerted action in
getting rid Of them in large patches by
the gang, but this alone did not give
any clew to the operators or their
headquarters SO far as we knew they
might have been located in any one of
FIVE large cities. Secret service oper.
ators were put to work in these cities
with the intention of working back
from the time the money was put ont.
In every city where the thieves
did business they bought bonds and Sc
curities which could be disposed of
anywhere, from bankers and brokers
who were experts in detecting bogus
money. In each city we got good de-
s'i'ptioH VI lnG mdn VINO bought the
bonds. and it showed that it was a diff
ferent man in each place, The descrip-
tlons were good so far as they went.
Naturally the government printing bu-
reau came under suspicion because of
the quality of the work, and every man
at work IN that department was exam
med with Il searchlight Well, we
wasted lot of time proving the inno-
cence of government employees, but the |
work turned out to he of some value, !
after all.
While j was working in Washing.
ton | came across Richard Osgood, an |
eH-secret service operator, and he told |
me warn which came from his mulat- !
TO servant girl. The girl. who was good |
looking and bit Of a flirt, had formed |
the acquaintance of a white man whom
she knew only hy the name Of Little |
Jack. He had become confidential |
with her and had dropped a hint that
be would soon own part of the govern
ment printing office. The girl the next
dav reported to Osgood what she had
heard.
"Osgood. not being very friendly
with the secret service people on ac-
count of his dismissal thought over
the matter for a dav before reporting
the story When TIL, secret service on,
orators went to look for Little Jack,
ne mad 'fown the cooD'