The Green Forest tribune., 1912-10-04
PHIL HEINRIcH's STORY.

'1t Is my firm belief" said Phil Heinrich, "that there Is more philos- ophy among crooks than in any other class of people. They take what comes In their way in a moral sense as well as In physical sense, with out complaint. I have seen the work of years go in second without murmur. I know a gang of crooks who spent four years laying an outfit for bank and then got dumped in the end, and I never heard whimper from any of them.
 q had 8 bit of this sort Of luck my self and know how it feels. I found that I took disappointment as well as the best of them and did not want anybody's sympathy. I was at that time running a counterfeiting layout in partnership with Sam Ellis. We had put up some very fine work in Philadelphia We ran out an edition of twos, fives and tens In government notes which were beauties in every way. I tell you the work was so good that we could have passed the bills on ourselves without knowing it.
 
 in two years, 1t was nearly four be- fore we got the plates just right and got a good imitation paper to use for printing We ran off big wad of money, and put it in circulation as rapidly as possible. Just when we got things running beautifully, and it poased like million year, bloom ingl fire hit our house, and all the plates, paper and presses were de- stroyed as well as the mute servant
 We did not carry any insurance, and we had to write up total loss. We managed to get most of the plates out of the ruins in order to put them out of the way to avoid arousing sus- picion, but everything was not clean ed up, and the secret service men began to get suspicious. Some of the money that we had put out got to Washington, and 1t made terrific muss, but they did not get near to us, although there was a lot of talk about the game being worked In Philadel- phia.
 Tt was useless, for time, to think about putting another counterfeting layout to work in this country, so Sam and I went up to Buffalo and got a few samples of Canada money to experiment with. The best bill that I saw for our purpose was the $10 Canadian bank note. It was pretty bill, not nearly as cleverly put up as one of Uncle Sam's $10 notes, and we decided to give it test. We got a new set of tools, and laid out for a two years job. We worked with the greatest care so as to avoid injuring a plate if possible and we had mag nificent luck. I never did such good work in my life, and I never saw Sam in quite such fine trim
 Tn just eighteen months we turned out a plate which, I'll bet, would have been accepted by the government of flcialj of Canada as the genuine arti- cle. There appeared to be great wad of dust in this layout for us, but before single bill was laid down the pair of us got the collar. It all came through an inquisftive and gabby plumber, who was sent to our house to repair a broken pipe. He saw lot of things during our absence which he did not know anything about, and got to firing off his mouth in bar rooms In Buffalo.
 His talk In some way reached the ears of the Treasury agents, and Sam and I were caught red-handed. It was the greatest throw-down I ever got, but when we got a chance Sam and shook hands and smiled at our bad luck He had not word of com plaint to make, nor had l. I'll bet that there never were two men who lost fortune so easily and kept more even tempers.
 Tt looked a good deal like working for the state for about twenty years, but did not lose heart. When I got into the Erie county jail I studied the situation of affairs very carefully, and I saw that I had more than an even chance of getting a peep of sunshine again. I set up communication with a friend of mine. When I was taken Athe court to plead my friend shook me heartily by the hand. Incidentally he slipped up my sleeve in front of the bright-eyed coppers some very small tools which would be of great service to me. I took the precaution of putting them away in case I should be searched on entering the jail I got through all right, and divided my tools with Sam, who had cell on the same tier with me, about twenty-five feet away. My tools consisted of a vet of the finest steel band saws and ! little box of acid to soften the iron