The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1916-12-14
TRACING SPURIOUS
MONEY HARD TASK
Work Furnishes Exciting Employ
ment to Uncle Sans Secret
Service Men.
SHREWD OPERATIVES NEEDED
Protection Of Currency Depends in
Large Measure Upon Persisteney
and Efficiency of Government .
Experts.

Experts.
The tracing of counterfeit bills back
to the persons responsible for their is
sue is a curious and exciting employ
ment. The experts assigned by the
government to this work are among
the most skilIful members Of the Sc
cret service. The protection of the
currency depends in large measure
upon their efficiency and the pains
they take are almost infinite. The fol-
lowing case is one illustrating the diff
ficulties which the secret service peO-
pie meet and overcome:
A bank clerk in Cleveland had de-
tected a counterfeit 500 bill in the de-
posit of a small retail grocer. An ex-
pert was sent for and undertook the
case.
He found that the grocer had re-
ceived the bill from shoe dealer, who
had it from dentist, who had it from
somebody else, and so on, until the Sc
cret-service men finally traced the
note to an invalid woman who had
used it to pay her physician. When
questioned, this woman said that the
money had been sent her by her broth
er, who lived In New Orleans.
The sleuth looked up the brothers
antecedents, and soon became con-
vinced that he was the man wanted.
The brother, however, soon proved to
the satisfaction of the secret service
man that his suspicious were unfound-
ed. Indeed, it appeared that the
money had been received by the New
Orleans man in part payment of rent
of a house he owned in Pittsburgh.
While the sleuth was a bit discOur-
aged, he couldn't give over the case
when he had gone so far, so he took
the next train for Pittsburgh.
Back to Starting.
The tenant of the house in Pitts
burgh proved to be travelling Oculist,
who spent most of his time in the mid
die West. The secret service man had
the good fortune, however, to catch
him just as he had returned from a
trip; and the man at once recognized
the bad bill as one that had been CIV
en- him by a patient in Cleveland, the
very point where the sleuth had
started.
The patient was boss carpenter.
The carpenter, an honest old fellow,
said that he had received the bill from
a certain Perkins. The said Perkins
was the small grocer in whose bank
deposit the counterfeit had turned up.
The expert few to the grOcer's as
quickly as the taxi would take him,
and found it closed. The grocer had
left town.
Afterward it was shown beyond
question that the grocer was the agent
of an organized band Of counterfeit
ers. His shop was a mere blind. That
the bill which he gave the carpenter
should get back into his own funds
after travelling all over the country
was one of those miracles of chance
for which there is no explanation.
Another interesting case is that
which pertains to bills that turned up
in Philadelphia. A teller in a bank
had noticed that certain 5000 Monroe
head silver certificates had seals that
were ''off color" He did not think
for an instant that the notes were
counterfeit, for they looked absolutely
perfect. He merely thought that the
red ink used on the seals was bad, and
took the notes to Washingtons and
showed them to the officials.
The counterfeit notes were exam
ined by experts. They found that the
die-wOrk must have taken about six
months. This led the detectives back
to the fall of 1897. The experts also
said that the notes showed the work
of two men, pOrtrait-engraver and a
square-letter man. The problem was
to find two engravers capable Of do
ing this quality of work, who during
the latter six months of 1897 were
probably absent from their customary
employment.
Take Up Trail.
Philadelphia, in proportion to It's
population, is known to contain more
expert engravers than any other city
In the country. Moreover, the coun-
terfeits had turned up in that city. So
the chief and the assistant chief went
there.
The chief disguised himself by let
ting his beard grow. The two
chummed with the engravers Of the
city, particularly with the gossips
among them. Soon they heard that
Taylor and Bredell had been in busi-
ness for themselves since about the
middle of the year 1897. They had
left their regular work and had opened
up a shop Of their own, but charged
such high prices that they got no
business. Yet they were wearing dia-
monds and taking trips in special cars
to Florida.
1t was a moral, but not yet legal,
certainty that these were the men
wanted.
A complication was introduced by a
cigar manufacturer who was using
counterfeit internal revenue stamps.
Twelve persons WBre finally implicat-
ed, including prominent lawyers in
Philadelphia. When the gang was
rounded up, every member went to
prison, and the work of the secret serv-
ice was justified.