The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 18, 1902, Page 13

RY ALFRED DEZENDORF. e he at the head of the United States Secret Service is something like run- 4 b of a city editor, only en ' saye John E. Wilkie, chief of the United s Secret Service t five years has clever work in that capacity and af- 1 n Fran- isco looking at the finish aids’ in the case of Walter N. Dim" fe has had good training men in finding out wrong- he was & newspaper man of twenty years' experience when he left a icago journa! and entered the service he Government nce then he has visited many cities, to bear and sometimes to give testimony in many celebrated cases. Lately he per- formed a distinguished duty in acting as rince Henry of Prussia. have been floating around in regard to German de- es ving been sent over to this country to travel with the Prince to pre- vent him becoming the victim of an an- of the matter is, that after correspondence between the Ger- end American governme: t was decided to leave the responsibility for ths 1 in the hands of ong for that tectives, everywhere, for e precautions of aborate. e Prince was per- c and the nearest bearing and all keen semse of rth fr ¥ in A Boston Mr e sat There was a on and on un- it that like Tenny- he would go on ted afresh at had imagined ! stop, the Prince i made 2 quiet ges- nder the breast Ro Highness knew hi rect evening coat Wil- pidable revolver, slung his little secret ser- sake, Wi~ 200t him. s Royal High- ble Prince, and says he attention he re- to tell of 4 e Prince, in his preferring 1o let some others— 1 instance—have a chance r reminiscences first service chief went on to say ness resembled that of a city the city editor of a men wit! truc- the story or dle,” but the cret service must use me he reverse of open to secure 1et be a story that So, if such the secret service # task of the two. n of the Secret is the protection of the c ates—to suppress but the depart upon to work on efts from quarter- s in the Navy sappearances of d States mints, ided into thirty dis- ict under the superin- a regular “operat charge Each operative has a nber of rhom are often sent cte, as the exigen- ands. Each assist- ant is required to make a daily report to hig oper; v also In his turn sends & dally report to Mr. Wilkle at Washington headquerters. S0 the chief is kept well in- ASKED TO BE S HROWN CTAMELS HAIR, et CASHMEERE [AWLS . > formed on the status of the work in gen- rger scale oy Sometimes happenings or facts in one district having no particular significance 1o the operative in seem vastly more important when knowns by the cplef in Washington, for from an- other district he may have news that will cause him to put two and two together. Counterfeiters often make money in ore district and dispose of it in another, und news from two districts sometimes leads to one round-up. Just how charge there may men there are in the employ of the secrat service the Govern- THE SUNDAY OALL. TAY LOR, A BEDE-LL CTOUMTERVEITING L EM UATL, ment prefers to keep to itself, for good and various rasons. The secret service man {8 required to work exclusively for Uncle 8am, the year any place at any minute during that time. Tt is seldom that he has to be sent to foreign countries, but once in a while that bappens. The amount of counterfeiting done varies in quantity and location from year to year, Cqining, which is a comparative- ly easy matter, is pretty general and con- fined to no particular section. The coun- terfeiting of hank notes, which is the real- ly important and most dangerous branch 7 ) of the counterfeiters’ art, is rarely done outside of the large cities. It used to be When a man started to counterfeit a note that it would take him three years to per- fect {t—rjow, by photo- etching methods it can be ne in three months, or if done on ginc only as long as it would take to make the plate for a newspaper {llustra- tion. The modern method is simply the making of reproductions and the actual making of counterfeit notes is on the de- crease. Only three or four dangerous ones have besn made during the past four years. Upon the discovery of a new counterfeit note a descriptive circular is issued, point- ing out the defects and variations in the note, nd a cbpy of this circular is given to the press associations and to all banks, which puts them on the alert. The case of one Brockway, arrested ten ¥ ago, charged with counterfeiting a ill, 1s memorable as being the only $1000 case in which the Government extended anything fender. like a compromise to the of- Brockway was caught but the lates for engraving the bills could not e found. He produced them on condition that his sentence be made lighter. As the pldves were more dangerous than he it left at large, the compromise was made. A warning was sent out concerning ope of these i bills, engraved for Brock- SUSPECTED COUNTER — JumPiNG" THE- SECRET SERVICE FEITERS ASQE-M T way by a man named Smith. A few days after this a richly dressed woman drove to one of the principal dry goods stores:in Boston. BShe asked to be shown camel's hair or cashmere shawls and selected one worth $300. In payment she tendered the salesman a $1000 bill with an ink stain on it. The cashier was rather suspiclous of $1000 notes about that time and he sent & messenger with the bill to @ near by ¥ank to inquire about it. The woman In the meantime was wondering why she ‘was kept waiting so long for her change and by the time the boy returned with the word that the bill was all right she was apparently fulous. She refused to take the shawl, demanded and was, given her money back and flounced out of the store. In & few Hours the woman returned, apologized for her show\of temper, sald that the shawl was the' only one she had seen in the city which really pleased her, and that she thought she would purchase it after all. She tendered ap- parently the samo $1000 bill' with the ink spot on it, received the §700 in change 4 went away, taking the shawl with her. When the last bill was sent to the bank for degosit it was discovered to be o counterfeit. The game was worked by one of the women accomplices of tire man rockway. « cage with some of the nerviest and most interesting phases that Mr. Wilkie can recall was the famous Philadelphia- Lancaster conspiracy of a few years since, of which Jacobs and Kendig were at the head, and three other men associated with thei It was a case of ‘makin cigar stamps. for maki elr own adl'fi L of”flli‘;flln ?f culation, idel. inted and circulated at the L " are was one bl of this case which has never ed in point of sheer narv.dlnd The c‘l‘:e center, 18 What Happens When the United States Secret Service Takes the Trail amensing Prison while awaiting sentence. While in a cell 8x13 in size, under con- stant guard, these two counterfeiters en- graved the face and back of a Hamilton head $20 note, and also printed over 200 of these notes and put them In circula- tion. This was probably the first time that notes were ever made and printed in a prison cell. the reason for their manufacture was this: After their arrest their attor- vey asked them if they had given up all their plates and outfit. They had done s0.' He sald they should have kept at least one set of plates, as through them he might be able to make things easier for them. They sald they would make one. All their “family contributed the materials, which were at different times mmg,lod through the small aperture in the door used for passing them their meals. They had no paper, but th:y bleached good $1 bills. ey made a small press, in shape lcmethlnxh like a washboard, and print- ed with that. The range of the guards’ vision from the Ip.n“‘f: in the door of the cell was carefully measured, and in & corner be- ond that the counterfeiters worked un- ler & dark hood. At night the materials were put into a small grip. Perhaps be- cause the “devil takes care of his own, they finished gheir work without discov- ery, and the fiotes were circulated. The idea in making the note was so that in case one of them was found to be bad and the lawyer was approached on the subject he could say that those notes had been In passage before their arrest and nothing had n done about it. He thought they 'mlid fare as Brockway had. beving the tes. But the potes ‘had been in circulation only a week when the brother of one of HAN A TDEAL FOR 1O© TOorNs OF Two_weeks later, with the assistance of the United States Marshal, he bagged the whole crowd and mage a good case for the Government. Some of the men of the secret service Brow expert as character artists in the facility with which they assume the char- acteristics of different classes of men from bank clerks to farmers. For in- stance, may be cited the capture of a countryman in Illinois who was amusirg himself in his lonely house In an out of the way county by making counterfeil five-dollar notes. The location was such, combined with other circumstances, that there was no chance for the secret serv- ice men to watch the man on whom their suspicions rested. It was necessary to go to the house and locate the man. For two of them to have gone would have created suspicion against them in his mind, so one of the secret service men dressed as a farming man went to the suspected man’s home ostensibly for the purpose of buying hay. The counterfeiter was at home and was «&lad when his visitor made a bargain with him to purchase one hundred tons of 1 hay. The visitor sald he would have - ask the farmer to go with him to the n.urest place, a distance dW half a mile or so, where he could get a draft cashed and pay the first deposit on the consignment of hay. At the end of their journey the farmer found he had walked Into the arms of the law, for an other secret service man took care of him while the first one went back to search his house. There was found a counter- feiting outfit which he had worked alone, and the farmer is now serving fifteen years in the penitentiary. An exciting capture was one in which the means resorted to was strikingly novel. A counterfeiter against whom all WITEL THE FARMER COUNTER = ' p the makers was arrested fo g ot the counterfeits. Bou'r r?:”n: ::: q layyer were prosecuted. still unfinished as regards "g:el‘t‘:'-;:r‘ . Much troubie has been giv: service men in recent ye-r{ b‘ynb‘e't’:a X:egr:t: make counterfeit money from real silve: They make pennies nnx dimes of cop r_nd german ‘silver. dollars and haif rfi:l ars of 90 fineness, and their five-dollar 80ld pleces ha $2 10 worth of gold in them. It is a remarkable thing that a man who once enters the counterfeiting business remains in it, or if he leaves it always goes back into it. There have been cases of the same individual being con- Vvicted eight or twelve times of the same gn!:;n:yhcnunterftldn‘ United States There is now before Con prospect of Success. . bl Kngwn o the Tet Service Bureau the “habitual eriminal bill.™ It prov that on a sec- ond conviction of a person under any statutes relating to counterfeiting the gxdn may impose the maximum sen- n On the third conviction the of- may get the maximum penalty, On the fourth conviction he 2 4 entenced to lflrl-cm for twenty- five years. If this b oes through it will reduce the ranks of counterfeiters by 20 per cent, for the reason that 30 per cent of the cases handled each year are lh&le r;:'uhabltlml counterfeiters, T, kie disabuses the public mi: n‘ a iowhr impression whl;:\ he -"nd that t] en of the secret service are not always trotting around clad in theat- rical make-ups and di: On contrary, very little of that sort of is done among them. No wigs or beards are used. It is found that the best dis- {.m"-:u g: u!; :.dopt t:‘- dress lndh of the o among w! u may happen to n"wm It ooen#- llly hlgfltlll that a crowd of counter- feiters will rrow susplcious of a man and Shice 01 astions they Ferard aa scepibion or actions €] as with the Government. Two years lfo Mr. Wilkie sent a man, one of his assistants, out to a Ohlo town. Susplcion was directed to- ward a group of twelve men representing ,:mut‘c'ulnu _:'l‘:mlyo nt of the town as coun- town er:d in the blue shirt a I~ u: arments of a rail e lung around the saloon where these men spent I::o:t .n'r‘thn!r mtnn. bt‘nld 'h:l -u':{nv( el w to ‘hale w%“ met” with mm. " it trom some slight or fancled hap- pening hg. d one :“."h d searched. theré al but £ Ings an ré also, but Tothing. This showed the Wisdom. of any rule of the service, which is that when Wi under cover a man carr'es noth- ing that nnpolnimy identity him at the © etterheads or anything of the sort. Finding nothing, the men concluded that thelr suspiclons were Incorrect and apologized to their new frien Ore of the prn izt fetes RiavahIay ump him and then went to his lodg- n necessary evidence had been secured was tracked so far and no farther in a heavy snow. The footsteps ceased at & sma:l alleyway between two houses. The secret service men pretended to dis- perse, but two of them secreted them- selves at a low second story window over- looking this alley. They had a long rope. with the use of which one of them was an expert. After two or three hours’ wait the man they were looking for crawied out from under the second house from them, and sneaked along the alley toward the street. When he was directly below them there was a skillful fling of the rope, in which a large noose had been made. It caught the astonished man beneath the . shoulders, tightened, and he was literally é-awn up into the hands of justice. I*.1s not dlways counterfeiting that the secret service men are called upon to fer- ret out. The case of the cunning negroe: who looted & Government bonded ware- /house In the East is one that gave them some extr: work. One of the largest liquor house" in the country had in this warehouse & consigument of tmported liquor that retailed for $12 per gallon. They would take it out as they used it. One day on removing a barrel of whisky. it was found to contain perhaps as much as would furnish drinks for two. All sorts of wondering investigations were made by the liquor men, and then a second barrel was found in the some condition. After the customs officers had Investigated with no results, the matter was turned over to the secret service men. After looking Into it for a while they concluded the workmen in the wareho: knew somn{un‘t of ti-tt.hu\d ‘t:oy lpml o= jave up trying to lom e mystery e 5 time. Then they dropped in one day upon the workmen up stairs at the lunch hour. Three of the negroes were missing, and they were found down stairs and the mystery of the empty casks was explain- ed. At lunch time these negroes had been in the habit of going down and tapping these casks with the tin ement known to liquor dealers and inspectors as the “thiet,” and filling ten or twelve.quart bottles with the liquor. They would put them out under a covered window in a re- mote spot, then carry them off at night. In another part of the city, they had opened a saloon among their eounu'{- 0 They were put in lucky to get water. u‘flitr: 'lg‘(hptu: l" G. Sage whils ce o gom These two gentlemen met _under circumstances. our secret a force to contend with the forces, who had uarters at Montreal. The Spanish sent one down to Washington to out move- ments of colliers or any other informa- tion of use to them. Downing left Toronto Wilkie's agents wired thelr chief, and when Down. ing at Washington dropped a letter in the postoffice, it was secured by the secret formation was before ent and a military arrest of Down- Ing w.i decided upon. ptain Sage, then of t ighth United States Artillery, and Chief of the Secret Service Wilkie wers detailed to make the arrest. They went the evening to Downing's boarding place nn-d‘dfoun‘;l that he h“-. N:!.tlnwl hn: came uns T My | There he was nailed snd & ain Sage. e b ul Safinction of Derne spy arrested during the war with l‘sl& @ was put In a prison cell at the vacks, and the next day committed an ?.’:.3‘“3';‘:5; ecid” have taes & orable death as & spy. ° \ i »