The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-12-10

- t.snta. where good many OF our best
l. racral offenders go sojourning for the
u,,,e, vt.h and then a stayover for a Summer
,ro U- Ben was famous money maker. He
us.srnicn printing press.
r,- couple of decades, BLY, and his several
-,,.s NJ .ouutcrfeiers had been the bane of Luke
vqaa.. professional existence. Luke was in the
-.,srt. ont Police. Treasury Department, Secret
.,rtce with a rowing assignment His business it
,ss,os.u3 the men who uttered and showed" the
.,,-l currency into safekeeping
Alud dollar. like good one, has no home 1t
.asey 20 spring up anywhere In truth, it springs
~o.. likely where it would be least expected
naturally. Nobody has yet put up a counterfeting
liant on the public square. like peanut stand
There q certain amount of seCretiveness about
,As operation which only in part be. ascribed
the Characteristic difdence OF artists like Big
Ben BY.
By could have made handsome living as an
ugrayer He one of the most accomplished
neehaod etchers that ever had come to annoy the
Department. lie could make bill with pen and
ink that would pass a sober teller, and he could do
& backward on copper plate so that its own
father Frank White, whose autograph appears On
all the Federal Reserve coupons, wouldn't disowr it.
Big Bon's weakness was big currency. He had
figured it out that, since it is as easy to forge
crooked fifty it is to turn out queer ace" the
ratio Of probabilities made it automatically more
profitable to print up the big boys That the
bgher denominations underwent more penetrating
scrutiny was a minor consideration; Bly, took a
certain esoteric pride and academic qualification in
r.ng over the top of the higher hurdles.
The man was irrepressible and when the agents
throughout the land were notified that he was again
at large, none doubted that he was again at It; it,
indeed he had not put in his leisure violating gov
eminent hospitality at the prison by perfecting "a
de for future release. Word was sent along that
he had taken a train for the north. ticketed to
Philadelphia. The deduction was therefore quite
ear he would turn up shortly in New York-or
ChCago-or SeattIe-or Boston-or Kansas City
.r somewhere.
The first scent came from Cincinnati, three
months later, when hundred-dollar yellowback,
deposited by leading hotel, came up couple Of
pleas off in stacking, and went Democratic under
The microscope. The treasury boys whstled and
whispered "Bly."
Luke ONIalley left Washington for Cincinnati
hat night. He quizzed the clerk, belhops and
cashier at the hotel. Currency, usually, may be
said to have no identity; each bill has an indi-
ydual running number but who ever reads it
and no one, not even banks, ever records one
except on a grand note" $4,000 bilD or ten
gand" But a century comes pretty near to
having character.
Even in the marts OF the money changers, any
one Offering hundred-dollar baby will get a glance
through the grated window or over the marble
counter. Anything above a ten is respectfully
taken out of the "bl' class and may be referred
oas William.
The history of the hundred that had turned sour
was simple and clear from the main dning-room,
where it had bobbed up, to the bank, where it had
been turned down. It had been passed by tall,
slender with dark curly hair, who had paid
a dinner check with it. The waiter remembered
him well, for the had remembered the waiter
WE'LL OAIaIey wet his lips a bit-from the de-
srIDon it appeared that Big Ben Bly, had done
the pushing in person. contrary to his usual
sestem Of having confcderates to handle the stuff
while he remained in the background, content to
create
There had been a young woman with Bly-f 1t
really had been Bly,, himself.
This was an altogether wrinkle.
II there is bowhole in the most astute the
no2t alright the most hermetic scheme to cheat
The law, woman is that.
And Bly, had always thereunto ducked that most
obvious Of pitfalls If he was sentimental, 1t had
boon manifested only in his love of art. His
only known sweetheart was the Pocahontas on the
back of the 2B series. What this stuff-Ben
BY with a peaches-and-cream blonde as described
by the waiter?
Luke OMalley trailed about such hangouts as
he thought might lure BLY,. He had never dealt
with the man in that town before, and knew no
specific points that he would be likely to make
such as every man may be regarded as likely to
make he he cOunterfeiter or merchant preacher
oacr. That is the mortal element that makes
everyone trackabe: man may be a crook or he
~li be a professor, but he must be human. And
humans have the inalenable urge for company
.ey want to live where others live eat where
yo'Ts eat, play and pray and work and Turk and
''06 and think and gamble and ramble where
"sTe are others of their kind.
IN Chicago or in New York it would have been
a hours work for O'Malley to dig UP Ben BLY,;
might have taken weeks to get at his hideaway
01l TO find the man himself would have been made
Sample through covering half & dozen spots. But
" N@cy 1t became Job to tackle by elimination,
'"' " Naley went at it methodically.
lily 3 known Weaknesses were few. He was not