Part 49

"Why Mr. ----, I remember all about it now. I tore the letter to get a piece to wrap up the two ten dollar gold pieces in;" and I saw it was just the fit size as folded. So we had traced the gold pieces into the roofer's vest pocket; and all the rest was clear now. He was the thief. But how should we prove the vest to be his, if he should deny it? I did not wish to leave any loose place in the evidence, and I knew well enough that the roofer was "sharp," and I began to conceive that he would not be easily caught. It would not do to speak to anybody in the house to inquire if he had been seen to wear that vest, for he might be innocent, and the widow did not wish any of her boarders to know that another one was suspected; but fortunately on the inside of the neck of the vest was a little piece of silk, on which, in imitation of needlework, was stamped the maker's name, "H. Schneider, Merchant Tailor, 565 Sixth Avenue, N. Y.," as I made it out with some difficulty. I rolled up the vest in a paper, bade the widow good afternoon, and informing her when she would probably see me next, left.

The next day found me at Mr. Schneider's, the merchant tailor's. He recognized the vest as having been made by him a year and a half before or so, and thought he could, after a while, think for whom he made it. He turned over his books of measurements or orders, to help revive his memory; meanwhile some of his "jours," doing work at home, came in to return and take work, and he inquired of each of them if he made this. One of them remembered the work, and described the man for whom it was made, he having been put to the trouble of making an extra inside pocket. He described the man, and Mr. Schneider was at last able to remember his name, which was that of the roofer; and turning to his index found the name, and the order for the identical vest among other things.

I considered the evidence complete enough; and going to Newark next day, and providing myself with a local officer, then betook myself to the widow's house, and there awaited the return of the young roofer. He came at an unusually late hour that night; and we called him into the parlor,--the madame, the officer, and I,--and I asked him first if that was his vest, showing it him.

"Yes," he replied at once, "that's my vest; but I haven't seen it before in a good while; where did you get it?"

"Among your clothes in the closet, yesterday," I replied; "and it's of no use for us to make words about it. We are here to arrest you for stealing the madame's money. We've traced out all necessary evidence, traced the gold pieces into your pocket, and got the tell-tale piece of paper in our possession which you foolishly overlooked, but left in your vest pocket. We want to settle the matter now, as the madame needs the money more, perhaps, than the law needs you."

The roofer looked at me with blank astonishment, and declared his innocence in a way which would have convinced all ordinary people. None but an old experienced officer could well have refused to believe the man innocent. But I told him it was of no use; that he would be arrested and tried if he did not settle; "and, you see," I added, "that even if you were innocent you could not withstand the evidence we have against you, unless you could prove an absolute _alibi_ on the day the money was taken; but, unfortunately for you on that head, we can show that you were here more hours than usual that day."

He still persisted in declaring his innocence, and acted for all the world like the most innocent of men. I told him he was a capital actor already, and that, perhaps, it would prove the best thing which could possibly happen to him to be caught thus early in his career of crime. He grew apparently indignant; admitted that he gambled a good deal more than he ought to, but declared that he had never been guilty of crime of any sort, and never intended to be; and, said he,--

"I would not have the stigma of the suspicion fixed upon me for all the wealth of New York. It would kill my mother if she came to hear of it, and my father would disinherit me; and I am expecting a good fortune from him some day. I've got into bad habits enough; but I don't drink at all, and I am guilty of no crimes."

I reminded him of the cloves and spices we found in the vest pocket. He made strange of this, and said somebody else must have worn the vest; "that he had no occasion to disguise his breath; that he neither drank liquors, had a foul stomach, or decayed teeth;" and I confess his mouth did look wondrously clean and wholesome.

But of course I was not to be caught with the chaff of protested innocence; and, finally seeing his situation, he thought best not to stand trial, but to settle up, and pay the widow ("under protest, however," he said) for what she had lost, if we would agree to never mention his name in connection with the transaction, and if the widow would allow him to continue to board there for two or three months after she should report that she had finally found the money in another drawer. In that way the very fact of the theft would be concealed, and his reputation be uninjured.

We consented to all this; and as his money was in New York, he agreed to go home with me that night, and remain under arrest at my house, and raise the money the next day, I to accompany him to the bank.

He had some fifteen hundred dollars on deposit in the Chemical Bank, as it seemed, when we went there; that was his balance, and he had had some three or four thousand there as his original deposit. He paid over to me the eight hundred and forty dollars; and on my reminding him that the widow had had a great deal of trouble, and would have a large bill to pay for services, he petulently asked, "How much?" and I said, "Suppose you make it nine hundred in all." He handed me sixty dollars more, with an angry, nervous look; and said it was "a hard thing for an entirely innocent man to be obliged to do; but the evidence looks very bad against me, or I would fight the case till I die." I smiled at him, as I was wont to smile at the guilty, who think to cheat one with words of protested innocence, and bade him good morning, and wended my way speedily to Newark, to report to the widow, and "settle up."

She insisted upon my taking just twice the sum I charged her, and was overjoyed at getting back her money, which she took care to put immediately in bank, and said she should never have any more money by her again than necessary for current expenses. She dreaded to have the roofer come back to board; but said she would abide by the bargain, and she did. He returned as usual that night. Everything went on as before. Madame announced, as was agreed, that the money had been found in another drawer (where, by the way, she, woman-like, insisted that it should be first put by me, in order that she might tell a "white lie" instead of a black one about it); and after the boarders had gratulated her upon her good fortune in finding the money, nothing more was said about the matter. The young roofer continued to board with her, according to the agreement, for some two months, and then left for quarters in New York.

His conduct at the house was perfectly exemplary; and when I saw the widow, on an occasion about a year after, she expressed her satisfaction at having taken no steps at law against him, for the theft, and said, that after all she sometimes would think, now and then, for a minute, that he was innocent; "but then, I think immediately, how absurd!" said she; "and I pity him; but I do believe he will be guilty never of such a crime again." She told me, too, that he had called on her two or three times during the year, and made her pleasant visits. Not a word passed between them about the money.

But the reader must not be over-surprised when I inform him, that about two years after the time I last spoke of above, I found in the examination of another case that the young roofer was, as he always had declared, entirely innocent of the theft, and that the Hungarian lawyer, one of the boarders, well knew that the roofer was innocent, and who was the guilty party, at the time he sent the widow to me. But this latter case has no special connection with the one I have here narrated, and I leave it for another time, stopping simply to say, that circumstantial evidence, while in its general character it is often more reliable than the oral testimony of living witnesses, who may be prejudiced or bribed, is nevertheless sometimes too strong, proves too much, and is liable to be misused. I have known several instances of this kind in my experience.

THE COUNTERFEIT MONEY SPECULATORS.

"MONEY"--THE COUNTERFEITERS' MORAL PHILOSOPHY--THE CUNNING OF BANK BILLS--NO VALID BANK BILLS ISSUED--A TRICK OF THE BANKS TO EVADE THE LAW--SWINDLING UNDER "COLOR OF LAW," AND IN DEFIANCE THEREOF; A VAST DISTINCTION--COUNTERFEITERS AS "PUBLIC BENEFACTORS"--THE REGULAR COUNTERFEITERS EMBARRASSED BY THE BOGUS ONES--MR. "FERGUSON'S" MARVELLOUS LETTER--COUNTLESS COMPLAINTS--THE "HONEST FARMER" OF VERMONT, AND HIS SPECULATION WITH THE COUNTERFEIT MONEY MEN--WHAT HE SENT FOR, AND WHAT HE GOT--A SECURELY DONE-UP PACKAGE--A "DOWN-CELLAR" SCENE--THE "HONEST FARMER'S" CONFUSION--A BIT OF LOCAL HISTORY RELATING TO THOMASTON, CONN.--THE HONEST OYSTER DEALER THERE, AND THE NINETY DOLLARS "C. O. D."--A QUESTION UNSETTLED--HOW THE "HONEST FARMER" OF VERMONT CHEATED ME AT LAST.

So long as a false "representative of value" is made a "medium of exchange," whether we call it "money," or what not; or whether it be made of gold, silver, or paper, or any other material, so long, probably, will it, in all its degrees of professed value, be counterfeited; and shrewd men, men who possess logical discrimination enough to see that one humbug is no worse in principle (though worse, perhaps, in the degree of bad principle) than another, will always be devising "illegal" plans of making money, as subtle and keen, almost, as the regular banking business.

It is probable, I think, that nothing more clever in the way of cheating or robbery will ever be invented than the issuing of paper money by private banks; for the business is so adroitly managed that it is highly respectable,--which cannot exactly be said of some other modes of cheating. A bank president and the cashier command much respect in the city or the country village, and conduct their business openly, too. Indeed, they are usually magnates in the community in which they reside, and are intrusted, to large extent, with other people's money, while the unfortunate fellow who cannot procure a proper bank charter, and so has to content himself with running illicitly a humble faro bank, is apt to be frowned upon by the community. Perhaps a more pertinent example of the inability of the masses to discriminate in moral affairs, could not well be suggested.

The country is flooded with counterfeit money, especially of the "fractional currency" kind. Everybody takes it, and nearly everybody who has a ten cent, or twenty-five cent, or fifty cent "representative of value," of the spurious kind, lets it pass on, if it will. The public conscience is not disturbed by these little things; and there are a great many persons who let the one dollar and five dollar counterfeit bills which they chance to receive, "go on doing their accustomed good," into the hands of others. This course is illegal, and therefore "immoral," and not right; and in another sense it is immoral, because it is unjust and thievish in its character. But then, as some simple people may be surprised to learn, nearly all the issues of private banks are also thievish and unjust. Bank bills are not generally issued according to the requirements of the law, and are, therefore, not even legal money, and are of no more real worth than a counterfeit bill, so long as the latter passes. It is in their negotiability, or the passing thereof, that bank bills are valuable or useful as a means of exchange. The counterfeit bill is just as convenient so long as it does the work of "passing."

I do not know what is the fact regarding the private banks of Connecticut, for example, nowadays; but a few years ago an eminent lawyer of that State told me that he presumed there was not a single bill legally issued by any of the Connecticut banks, the circulation of which amounted in the aggregate at that time to millions of dollars. The law of the State of Connecticut limited the issue of bills by any bank to not over ten times as much in representative amount as the "specie or bullion" which the given bank had constantly in its vaults. If the bank's capital was, for example, $200,000, but invested in real estate, then the bank could not properly issue a single dollar, unless by some means it possessed itself of specie to hold in its vaults; even then evading the spirit of the law. But my friend, the lawyer referred to, informed me that none of the banks complied with the rule of keeping the requisite specie in its vaults. Suppose a bank's issues amounted to $300,000; to respect the law it would have to keep $30,000 specie on hand. Is it reasonable even to suppose it would do so when it could readily loan the $30,000 to parties in New York at seven per cent. interest, and thus make them "earn" $2,100 a year? Not at all; and the banks did not heed the law.

But there were Bank Commissioners, whose duty it was (and there are the same still, I suppose) to see to this matter, together with others relating to banks. They visited the banks once or twice a year. When about to make a visit, they sent word to the bank officers when to expect them, and the officers of a given bank in Hartford or New Haven, for example, went to other banks and borrowed from several, for the time being, specie enough in the aggregate to make a "show" with. As the commissioners, after visiting one bank, and making an examination, were about to leave it and go to another, the specie found in the bank examined, was sent off to the other bank, and there did service again; and so on through the series of the city banks. The isolated country banks, like that at Litchfield, had notice of the advent of the Bank Commissioners, and sent to the city banks for a temporary loan of the required specie.

Thus it was that the banks conducted their business illicitly, and it is probable that at no time was a single dollar of their issues properly predicated, and every dollar was therefore illegally issued. But the bills passed,--passed as well as undiscovered counterfeit bills,--and were, in reality, just as fictitious and illegal. But the banks being more sharp, and having more facilities for covering up their iniquity than have the counterfeiters, succeed in swindling the people, year after year, without detection, while the poor counterfeiters are frequently caught and punished, and their "capital" (dies for "making" the money, paper, etc.) is destroyed; and thus their business is interrupted, very much to the detriment of its profits, and their laboriously-earned skill, as "business men," made as nought, and all their valuable time in perfecting themselves in their business also lost. It is sad to reflect upon this; but the picture would be sadder, perhaps, if added to these irregular swindlers, were the regular bank swindlers of the land.

So when one comes to analyze matters, no great moral distinction is found between two persons, one of whom swindles under "color of law," while the other swindles in defiance of law. The latter is perhaps the braver (though less sagacious) man of the two. It is, after all, only a question of taste or expediency; and so is it that the great counterfeiters think. Officers arresting these men, frequently find them ready to defend their cause "on principle." They always avow themselves "as good men as the bankers," and they frequently declare themselves public benefactors, in that they make money plenty, and relieve the stringency of the money market!

"The only good of paper money," once said a great counterfeiter to me, "is to pass; a counterfeit bill is just as good for passing as a genuine bill; and if you folks would let us "private bankers" alone long enough to give us time to perfect our business, we should be able to produce "goods" so perfect that nobody would find any fault with them, and all would feel grateful to us. But it costs us a great deal to get well started in business; and just as we are beginning to thrive, you step in and break us up!"

The man to whom I allude was _serious_ in what he said. Of course he was lacking in moral perceptions, and was, in one sense, demented, or a "great fool;" for he could not see the moral difference between one kind of robbery and another one just like it in principle. I pitied the man's moral obliquity, while I handed him over to the jail-keeper to await trial. (I am sorry to say that the fellow, for some reason, was never brought to trial. The District Attorney "_nolled_" the case, although the evidence was clear enough against the "private banker." I half suspect that the attorney admired the fellow's reasoning, and sympathized with him.)

Under the circumstances, it is not then strange that a large number of persons of excellent talent, are engaged in counterfeiting, or in the distribution (or "shoving," to use the technical phrase), of counterfeit money in this country, and the distributors are to be found in all classes. I have in my mind's eye, as I write, an "honest farmer," in a certain town in the State of Vermont, who manifested, in the goodly "year of our Lord," 1870, an excellent disposition to help the counterfeiters distribute their goods, but who was sadly "disappointed" in his enterprising spirit.

Almost every business has its counterfeiters. As surely as a man conceives of some practical, easy, business way of making money, so sure is he to find a host of competitors springing up about him, and injuring his business. This has been the fate, to considerable extent, of the regular counterfeiters,--the men, who, by their great talent as engravers, have added so much to the mechanical skill of the country. There is a plenty of scamps in such a place as New York, for instance, who always stand ready to profit by other people's labors. (I should not like to be called upon for a classification of these scamps, for fear that the various species of the genus "who profit by other people's labors" might include some reader's most respectable friends.)

The regular counterfeiters have been greatly embarrassed, within the last two or three years, by a lot of unscrupulous villains, who pretend to deal in counterfeit money, and who send their advertising circulars into every town and hamlet in the land. The regular counterfeiters can only thrive when they are able to make their wares pass; and these unscrupulous villains, to whom I allude above, are likely to injure the business, and thus reduce the brave, bold, ingenious counterfeiters to the condition, perhaps, of "private bankers," whose course is that only of cowardly, false pretences, under "color" or shield of the law. This is a state of things which is not a little deplorable--for the counterfeiters.

The business of these unscrupulous villains, whom we will call, if the reader please, counterfeit money speculators (for "speculators" is a name which one should not fail to honor as often as he can), is very extensive. To give the uninitiated reader a little insight into the business of these men, one of their circulars is copied below. It is a fair sample, in regard to its substance, of all that are issued by these "speculators." The one before me, and which I copy here, is a lithographed manuscript letter.

(To explain, for the benefit of youthful readers:--The "speculator" first writes a letter, in neat style of penmanship, and then gets it copied by an engraver on stone, and from the plate thus obtained is able to strike off a large number a day. Probably one third of those who receive these letters do not know that they are, in fact, "printed," and each ignorant receiver feels flattered as he reads the letter that the "speculator" has taken the pains to write to him so extendedly, and is led to "think over" the matter, and finally to "invest," when he would have taken no notice of a "printed" document.)

The letter alluded to runs thus:--