Heads and Dates

1895

"It makes no difference where the date may be placed on one of our coins," remarked the director of the mint, "in settling a dispute about whether it is head or tail for matching purposes. As a matter of fact, it is heads wherever the head may be, regardless of the date. Take the Columbian half dollar, for instance, which contains two dates, 1492 and 1893, respectively. Neither cuts the slightest figure in determining where the head of Columbus shall be placed any more than was the case in the old time shield on the obverse of nickels or 5 cent pieces turned out by the United States mint. It is head wherever a head appears, and the reverse of the coin is tails." — Chicago Tribune.


Work and Play

Work when you work; but, when the measure of one's duty is done, then relax thoroughly. There is as much virtue in refreshing soul and body by yielding up all responsibility and care as there is in the courageous meeting of active obligations.

Flooded With Bogus Money

New York, 1895

Local storekeepers and saloon men at Hicksville are much exercised over the flooding of the town with counterfeit coin. The coin is of the denominations of dollars, half dollars and quarters. Nearly every business man in town has been imposed upon.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 4.

A Counterfeiter Arrested

New York, 1895

A gang of counterfeiters swooped down upon College Point Sunday afternoon and made an attempt to flood the place with counterfeit coins. One of the gang, Stanislaus Brijinski, who claims to have his residence in Hitchcock park, Flushing, was arrested while in the act of passing counterfeit money in the saloon of John Dorn. Brijinski had three accomplices, all of whom escaped.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.

Sweating Gold Coins

1899

This Trick of Swindling is Easily Performed

Sweating a coin is merely robbing it of a portion of its legal weight without in any manner altering its appearance. Manifestly gold coins alone would hardly appeal to the sweater, for silver would hardly pay for the trouble. In countries where paper money in employed, sweating has taken no root. Also in countries like England, where the largest gold coin is a sovereign, the practice would hardly become epidemic.

On the Pacific slope at one time the nefarious business assumed such proportions that the government found it necessary to pass measures against coin sweating, but even then the manifest injustice of arresting a person for merely "passing" such a coin, such person being almost certainly quite innocent, appealed to legislators to such an extent that the law was made only to affect the actual manipulator of the unlawful process. The consequence of this has been that the authorities have had the greatest difficulty in securing convictions against the malefactors, who have debased no end of coins.

The process of robbing a coin of a part of its metal is simple. The goldpiece is merely immersed, or suspended, in aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, which attacks the metal at once. The manipulator keeps the piece in the bottle only a short time, for a few minutes suffice for the mixture to absorb and hold in solution as much as a dollar's worth of the gold from a $20 piece. The coin is then washed in water and polished with whiting, as otherwise its surface would betray the ordeal through which it had been passed, showing "pockmarks" in great variety.

The process is continued with other coins until the acid is "saturated," when it will absorb no more of the metal. The coins are exchanged for silver or other currency, as only an expert could detect the small subtraction in weight, and the silver is then re-exchanged for more gold, upon which the operator performs his little game in due course. It is only necessary for the villain to boil down his acid to complete evaporation, when the residue in the kettle will be found in the shape of a gleaming button of pure gold, varying in size according to the amount of acid and the charge it carries in solution.

In San Francisco the government secret agents have waged a long and bitter war with sweaters. They have captured many who were guilty enough in all conscience, but against whom no conviction could be obtained for lack of evidence, and they have placed others beyond all worldly temptation for various terms of years.

One of the lone kings of this nefarious business, who finally was obliged to sojourn for a rest in the penitentiary at San Quentin, was named Goodrich. He was an exceedingly modest and retiring man. He occupied an ordinary dwelling and conducted his operations on the roof. After many long weeks of vigil on the part of government detectives he was taken into custody, not redhanded, but at least black fingered by the acid. His apparatus was found most cleverly concealed behind movable bricks in the chimney on top of his house. At the time of his capture a small bottle of greenish fluid was found, and this, upon being carefully reduced in fumes, yielded up a button worth fully $10. A few coins were discovered in the man's pockets and also in his residence. These, to all appearances, were honest coins. Under the microscope they were found to be fairly cross hatched with tiny lines, which had been produced by the process of polishing to remove the traces where the acid had eaten away the metal.

Insidious as this acid thieving may appear, it might be regarded as crude by those who are acquainted with the "tricks that are vain" exercised by the "heathen Chinee." John Chinaman is numerous in California. He gets his long hands on many a golden disk, and with great reluctance does he ever relinquish his grip, He has never learned the "art" of sweating the coins with acid, but he accomplishes his purpose in his characteristically patient manner. He simply places many coins together in a buckskin bag and then proceeds to shake and toss and otherwise agitate that receptacle by the hour or by the week until he has worn off by abrasion $10 or $20 worth of fine dust of gold. The coins wear one another. They present the appearance when at length they emerge from the sack of having been regularly abraded by pocket to pocket circulation, and therefore to all intents and purposes nothing illegal has been done. As a matter of fact, no Chinese has ever been apprehended or put on trial for this work. It is doubtful if the authorities have ever taken cognizance of the practice. Only a few people ever realized what the sly Celestials were at when witnessing the hourly agitation of the coins. It is of course unlawful to bore a hole through a gold coin or to perform any other mutilation, but Mr. Chinaman cannot be said to mutilate the money he wears out so artfully, and therefore he pursues his course serene and unmolested.

There have been clever rogues from time to time who employ a slender tool with which to "gut" a coin. Their method is to make a small incision in the edge of a coin and then patiently dig out the inside, after which they refill the hollow space with baser metal. "High art" like this has become almost obsolete, for the acid business has frequently proved safer and less difficult of performance. Laws will multiply and detectives will wax more and more like Sherlock Holmes, but the makers and administrators of penal regulations will be obliged to arise early in the morning to prevent for all time the effort of man to accumulate his "pile" for "nothing."

Gold Is Shaken From Coins

1910

New York Detectives Unearth a Clever Swindle In the Maiden Lane Jewelry District

New York. — Secret service agents who have been at work in the Maiden Lane jewelry district, have discovered coin stripping by which gold is obtained and sold, the coins being put back into circulation apparently as good as ever. The new process consists in placing the coins in a burlap bag, which is shaken vigorously.

Thus tiny flakes of metal are knocked off the coins and cling to the bag, which is then burned, the gold melting into wee ingots.

The treasury department at Washington has been getting back of late large quantities of gold coins, which seemed more scratched and battered than ordinary.

Under the microscope it became evident that these coins had been handled with strange violence. Special agents were sent here to investigate and soon uncovered the industry of shaking the coins in burlap bags.

Ancient Coin Recalls Old Rome

1919

2,000 Years Old — Surpassing Historic Interest

A coin 2,000 years old, which may have reposed in the treasure box of a Roman senator, passed from hand to hand in the dice games of members of the Roman imperial guard, been tossed to the rubble by a patrician as he passed through the streets on his way to the baths, or thrown to a victorious gladiator by one of the vestal virgins, now is in the possession of Arthur S. Hibler, United States immigrant inspector at New Orleans. On its way to Mexico, where it was obtained by its present owner, the coin may have been carried as a keepsake by one of the Spanish conquerors and exchanged for the gold and jewels of the Aztecs. Two thousand years afford ample time to pass through a few adventures.

The coin is valued by Mr. Hibler, not only for its age, but for the queer history attached to his gaining possession of it. While he claims he is not superstitious, he admits he regards the coin as a good luck talisman. The piece was sold to him by a Mexican, who wished to cross the border at Brownsville, Tex., and had not enough money for his toll. To pay his way across the international bridge he offered the coin with several others to Mr. Hibler, asserting that it had a strange significance and a blessing attached to it. It had been given him, he said, by the mother of a member of Villa's band, who had been murdered in a cafe brawl. As he lay dying, he had begged the man to take a handkerchief, stained with his life blood, to his mother. The Mexican had sworn to fulfill the trust, and delivered the handkerchief to the old woman. She opened the corner of the handkerchief, which was knotted tightly, and took out several coins. Then she retired into an inner room and, returned, placed a small silvery disk in the messenger's hand, saying it was a talisman that would mean much to its possessor.

The coin is small and white, resembling a modern United States dime in size and color. On its front is a relief of a Roman emperor, with the inscription: "Domitian VIII, Imp. Caesar," and several other characters which are indistinguishable. On the reverse side is what seems to be a reproduction of the temple erected in Jerusalem by Solomon. It is worn thin by the touch of the millions of hands in which it must have rested.

"I have no doubt that it is genuine," Mr. Hibler said. "But how did it come into the possession of the Villista bandit? Well — quien sabe?"

The Lafayette Dollars

1900

Readers of The Companion have not forgotten the American monument to the Marquis de Lafayette, which is to be erected in the city of Paris by the aid of subscriptions raised by the school children of the United States. By an act of the last Congress, the United States mint was authorized to strike off fifty thousand silver dollars with a special design commemorating the setting up of this monument, and to turn the coins over to the association which has in charge the erection of the monument in Paris.

By this association the dollars will be sold for two dollars apiece. The sum of one hundred thousand dollars thus realized will be added to the fund for the monument.

On December 27, 1899, the director of the mint, Mr. Roberts, presented to President McKinley the first of these dollars which came from the mint, and Mr. McKinley announced his intention of presenting it in turn to the President of the French Republic, Monsieur Loubet. This, in fact, was done on the third of March.

On one side of the coin are the heads of Washington and Lafayette, and on the other is a reproduction of the proposed monument. Across the face of the monument is this inscription: "Erected in the Name of the School Children of the United States, Paris, 1900." — Youth's Companion.

Uncle Sam Makes a Profit Minting Pennies

1896

Little Copper Coin Has New Lease on Life

The long despised copper cent has entered upon a new era of usefulness according to the authorities of the Mint at Philadelphia. The Mint has been turning out pennies lately at an astonishing rate, says the New York Journal. Ever since September 1 three presses have been working eight hours a day stamping Uncle Sam's design upon little disks of bright new copper. The average daily output has been 150,000 cents. This represents a profit to the Government per diem of a trifle over $130.

There is money in minting cents from the Government's point of view. The copper "blanks" are not made by the Treasury, but are bought under contract. They are turned out by a firm in Waterbury, Conn., and they cost Uncle Sam only $7300 per million. In other words, for seven and three-tenths cents he obtains material which by a simple process of stamping is transformed into the worth of $1. The profit on each 1,000,000 cents issued is $870.

Until within the last few years the blanks for cents and nickels were made at the Philadelphia Mint, but it was found to be more convenient and about as cheap to purchase them from private parties. The contract for producing them is awarded annually to the lowest bidder, and on this account their cost varies somewhat from year to year. These coins are considered merely as tokens, and their intrinsic value is of no consequence whatever. They are neither counted nor tested by assaying at the Mint, being weighed in bulk only.

One pound avoirdupois of the blanks for cents costs the Government twenty cents, and makes $1.40 worth of pennies when coined. In other words, there are 146 blanks to the pound. The blanks are shipped to the Mint in strong wooden boxes. They are extremely pretty, looking like so much gold when bright and new. In fact, visitors to the Mint frequently mistake the contents of boxes that stand open for gold, and it is a common thing for them to say that they wished they could be permitted to take away all that they can carry. This oft-repeated remark always excites a smile, inasmuch as the strongest man could not carry $100 worth of the blanks without great difficulty.

All of the United States cents are made at the Philadelphia Mint. During the last fiscal year 26,044,277 of them were minted. The production of cents rose three years ago to nearly 100,000,000 for a twelve-month. A steady stream of these little coins flow from Philadelphia to most parts of the country, though in some localities they are not circulated at all. But it often happens, as at present, that the demand exceeds the supply.

The odd prices fixed by dry goods firms nowadays have something to do with the unusual demand, inasmuch as they require the making of small change on nearly every purchase. Such prices seem to have an attraction for the public, and particularly for women, who are apt to buy an article for $1.98 when they would not pay $2. Then, again, the slot machines absorb an immense number of pennies. But after all the movement in favor of cheaper newspapers has done more to place the little old red cent on a plane of respectability than any other agency.

Very few pennies come back to the Mint for remelting. The stream of coppers flows out continually, but its history is like that of many rivers in Western deserts, which are lost finally in the sand. Nobody knows what becomes of the millions on millions of cents that are minted annually; they simply vanish out of sight and are gone forever. The phenomenon seems a strange one, but it is easily accounted for. Pennies are subject to more accidents than any other coins; they change hands ten times as often as dimes, it is reckoned, and being of small value, they are not cared for. People say: "What becomes of all the pins?" The answer is the same in both cases.

A Quarter That Returned Seven Times in 29 Years

1900

Interesting Travels of a Mutilated Coin

"Have you ever discovered what a small world this is?" said A. J. Flyshaker, the other day to a New York Telegraph reporter. "I have, and I have found that it is impossible to get away from one's self in it.

"You don't think so? Well, I will give you just one instance of it which you would not believe if I could not prove it to you. You see this quarter," and here the speaker displayed a much worn silver piece upon which were stamped the letters "F. L. Y." "Well, this is the story of how even a quarter can't get lost. It was in March, 1871, I stamped those letters on that coin. It was at the time when there was a general howl over the mutilation of money, and the street car lines in Louisville, where I then lived, had instructed their conductors not to receive anything of the sort. Being young, and eager for trouble, I deliberately stamped the word 'Fly,' which was then as now my nickname, upon this quarter, and after a long row forced the conductor to take it and give me change.

"That was twenty-nine years ago, and during that time the coin has returned to me seven different times, the last being in March last, in this city. The last occasion of its return to me was in San Francisco, three years after I had returned from a tour of the world, which wound up with a long stay in Australia. Before that I had seen it in Detroit, New York, Galveston and Denver. How it traveled around I don't know, but I am sure the story of its wanderings would be full of human interest.

"What I want to tell you about, however, is how I came to get it this last time. I had been in the habit of stopping in at McCoy's saloon occasionally for a drink, and I was usually served by John Kennedy, the head bartender. He comes from Troy, and last March, on his 29th birthday, he visited his home there. Before returning he got a bill changed, and among the coin was this quarter. He kept it in his pocket for two or three days after getting back, and thought nothing more about it until I happened in.

"Then he told me he had a coin with 'Fly' on it. He showed it to me, and I recognized it as the one I had stamped in Louisville, just twenty- nine years before. The coin itself was minted in 1857, so it was fourteen years old when I stamped it. By comparing notes with Mr. Kennedy it further developed that I had stamped it in Louisville on the day he was born in Troy. After the coin had been traveling all over the United States for twenty-nine years, it falls into his hands in his native town on his 29th birthday, and he, a casual acquaintance, brings it to New York and returns it to me."

Some Good About All Races

1900

"The Bright Side of Humanity," a new book by Dr. Edward Leigh Pell, is said to be the first serious attempt that has ever been made to present the characteristic noble traits of all races. In the preparation of his book Dr. Pell examined one thousand works of travel and although all of them set forth with considerable detail the vices and disagreeable traits of the people which they profess to describe, only two hundred dwelt at any length on their virtues. To supply the compensatory high lights in these dark pictures was a happy thought and must have been a pleasant task.


A Little of Everything

A Chicago tobacconist hands every cigarette purchaser a neighboring undertaker's card.

In the Black forest district of Germany are 1,400 master clockmakers and 6,000 workmen.

A church bell has an empty head and a long tongue, but it is discreet enough not to speak until tolled.

The sultan has forbidden the Turkish war department to use balloons or carrier-pigeons for army purposes.

A French naturalist asserts that nightingales devour the drones of a beehive, and never attack the workers.

A mint is to be established in Canada for the coinage of gold. Heretofore the coining of the metallic currency has been done in England.

An official map of Vesuvius on a scale of one in ten thousand has just been issued, being the first since 1876. A new plan in relief of the cone has also been made.

Old Ladies Say Ballet Posters Too Risque

1910

Members of Home Resent Billboard Pictures of Women Scantily Dressed

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. — Opposite the Old Ladies' home in this city is a dead wall, which is used to advertise attractions at some of the local theaters. A bill poster put up a number of posters of ballet dancers clad in gaudy and scant attire. The inmates of the house, who saw them from their windows, were indignant.

They held a consultation and then resolved on action. They procured a number of newspapers, and with paste and pot made their way to the opposite side of the street and covered the lower limbs of the dancers, and were much pleased with their work. One of them remarked: "There now! I guess decency will not be outraged."


Lord's Prayer on Coin

New York. — A curious specimen of the fine work of a famous old American engraver, A. W. Overbaugh, has come to light in a little Staten Island town. The relic is an ancient gold dollar, in the center of which, in a circle one-sixth of an inch in diameter, Overbaugh engraved the Lord's prayer. The inscription cannot be seen with the naked eye, but is distinct with the aid of glasses. The engraving was done on a wager.

Hungry Lad Is Shot While Seeking Food

Feb. 1920

Restaurant Owner's Bullets Halts Attempted Burglary

TOPEKA, Kansas — Hungry, cold and unable to sleep, John Ross, 10-year-old lad, who recently escaped from the Topeka Boys' Industrial school, got a bullet wound when at 2 o'clock a.m. he attempted to steal something to eat from a local restaurant.

The proprietor, hearing the noise, shot, and the boy made his escape. Making his way to the Rock Island roundhouse, before telling that he was shot, he asked the men to help him get something to eat.

Young Ross, who says his real name is John Guinness, beat his way to Topeka some time ago from Philadelphia. He says his home is in West Virginia, and that he ran away because he could not get along with his stepfather.

Physicians called to the lad's aid were unable to determine the seriousness of his wound.


Boy Swallows 50-Cent Coin

Nature Removes It After Hospital Surgeons Had Their Try

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Old Mother Nature proved herself to be the best physician after all in the removing of the 50-cent piece swallowed by Francis Quinn, 14 years old.

The coin at first lodged itself behind the larnyx. An X-ray photograph was taken to determine how best to operate for its removal, but upon the development of the plate no trace of the coin was seen and physicians decided it had slipped down into the digestive tract.

The boy left the hospital with the silver half dollar tucked away in his deepest pocket.

Are We To Have Half-Pennies?

1900

Department Stores Want Them to Make Exact Chance With

A movement is on foot to put a one-half cent coin in general use in the United States. Several suggestions have been made to the government, and last week a document was presented, signed by the heads of the big department stores of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh showing the need for this money in making change where articles are sold at 3½, 7½, 12½¢ and at similar prices.

The half-cent coin has been in use in Chicago for the last two years, and last week one of the New York stores ordered 500,000 one-half cent coins. These coins are to be made of copper, size one-half inch in diameter, or just two-thirds of the size of the regular one-cent piece. Stamped in heavy raised figures and letters on one side will be "½ cent," and on the reverse side will appear the name and address of the firm issuing the coins.

Besides, being a convenient change maker, this new coin is considered an advantage from an advertising standpoint, as it carries the name and address of the merchant and would be carried in the purse sometimes for weeks, until the customer receiving it returns to the store where it can be used in making purchases. So far the United States government has nothing to do with issuing this new money. It is put out by individual firms and is only recognized at the store from which it is issued. The proprietors of the big stores are anxious, however, to have the government make and recognize the half-cent coin. — New York Herald.

Legal Tender — Guidelines for U.S. Money

1907

You Might Think Gold Certificates Are, but They Are Not

"Gold certificates, silver certificates and national bank notes are not legal tender, but both classes of certificates are receivable for all public dues, while national bank notes are receivable for all public dues except on imports and may be paid out by the government for all salaries and other debts and demands owing by the United States to individuals, corporations and associations within the United States," says the treasury department.

"Gold coin is legal tender at its nominal face value for all debts.

"Standard or silver dollars are legal tender at their nominal or face value for all debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.

"Subsidiary silver is legal tender for amounts not exceeding $10 in any one payment.

"Treasury notes of the act of July 14, 1890, are legal tender for all debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.

"United States notes (also called greenbacks) are legal tender for all debts, public and private, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt.

"The minor coins of nickel and copper are legal tender to the extent of 25 cents." — Bulls and Bears.

The Dollar Sign

1909

A Theory as to the Origin of This Monetary Symbol

The origin of the dollar mark is one of the curios of our financial history.

In the early days of the nation, there was utter confusion in the circulating medium. Several of the colonies had authorized coins of different denominations, and, besides these, there were English pence, shillings, crowns and half crowns; French coins brought from Europe and Canada; Spanish coins of half a dozen denominations, especially reals and doubloons; Mexican coins; in Pennsylvania Dutch and German pieces, and along the coast Portuguese and even Italian money was often seen, brought by seamen.

The United States mint was established in 1791, and the United States coinage became, of course, the legal tender. The mixed coinage, however, was not at once displaced, but continued in local use, so that it became necessary for merchants in keeping accounts to designate that a bill was to be paid in United States currency, or, if in miscellaneous coins, these were received at a discount. So before the sum total of the bills the merchant was accustomed to write the letters "U. S.," signifying United States money. In the hurry of writing the "S" was often written over the "U;" then the connecting line at the bottom easily dropped off, and to the present day most people unconsciously commemorate the original practice by making the two down strokes first, then adding the "S."

Busy Stork Brings Fourteen More to Virginia

1909

Busy Stork Brings 14

DANVILLE, Virginia — Two sets of triplets, three pairs of twins and two single babies, born to seven families in the same neighborhood on the same day, is the unprecedented record of Schoolfield, a suburb of Danville, in one day.

Mrs. John W. Yancy gave birth to triplets, two of which are living; Mrs. Jacob C. Brown, triplets, two of which are living; Mrs. J. W. Barber, twins, girl and boy; Mrs. Jane Anderson, twins, both boys; Mrs. P. P. Gridder, twins, boy and girl, and two other women, daughters.


99 Candles on a Cake

WHITTIER, California — Ninety-nine candles, indicating the age of a charming Quaker, Mrs. Lydia Sharpless, blazed on the birthday cake which graced the center of a large table set in the dining room of the Friends' Church. Seventy-five of her descendants were present to offer congratulations to the lady, who clings to dress, manner and speech of the Friends of other days, but keeps informed as to events and movements of the present. She was born in Middletown, Ohio, but have lived in this city for many years.


Please, Mr. Comet, Don't You Kill Us

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — Frank E. Seagrave, a Providence astronomer, whose calculations relative to Halley's comet have attracted widespread attention, announces that the correction of a slight error in the calculations of the comet has developed the discovery that on May 19, 1910, the comet will reach the same plane as the earth in its orbit. It is thereby determined that the tail of the comet will sweep across the plane instead of clearing it. The earth and comet will meet on the same plane, but not in the same path. There will be a distance at the nearest point of 13,000,000 miles between the two.


16,000,000 Cents Coined

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With a total value of $929,269, there were 16,91,875 pieces of coin executed at the mints of the United States during September. Almost 16,000,000 1-cent pieces were turned out.


If a man is honest, you can always tell it by the way he doesn't talk about it.

After Hours, Railway Mean Checking For Dropped Coins

New York, 1893

Nickel Hunters

Anyone who chances to take a stroll just before sunrise along the line of any of the surface railways in New York, will be sure to see from two to a dozen men walking near the tracks with hands in pockets and heads bent down. He may also observe that the conductors and drivers on the infrequent horse cars of that early hour also have their eyes turned earthward. They are all hunting for money.

During the night, and particularly when the after theater homeward rush is on, the conductors are very busy collecting fares and making change by the dim light of the car lamps. In the process both they and the passengers allow more or less small coin to slip through their fingers, and it is for the dimes and nickels that have rolled to the pavement that search is made at dawn. The change that falls beneath the floor slats of the closed cars belongs to the cleaners at the stables.

"Annie Laurie's" Kin to Wed Englishman

1920

Friends Pray for Happier Romance Than Famous Song Tells

LONDON, England. — Mrs. Emma Curtler-Ferguson, a direct descendant of "Annie Laurie," is to marry this spring. Her husband to be is Maj. Vivian Eyr, late of the royal air forces. Her family home is Craigdarroch, Dumfrieshine, and her friends are hoping she will have a happier romance than the bonnie Annie who married Alick Ferguson of Craighdarroch, after jilting a lover who actually did "lie down and die."


Melted Gold Coins, Get Jail Sentences

Six Englishmen Heavy Losers in Illegal Transactions

LONDON, England. — Six months' imprisonment was the sentence pronounced upon the six men who have been on trial charged with melting gold coin.

The gold they had in their possession, amounting to more than 110,000 sovereigns, was ordered forfeited. Included in the group are Harry Lewis, a barrister, and Shure & Chamberlaid, diamond merchants.

It was brought out in the trial that the accused withdrew from the Bank of England during 1919 gold weighing eighteen hundredweight. During December alone, it was charged, they disposed of bar gold worth 9,400 pounds sterling.

Likes Jail So Much, Now a Career in Law Enforcement

New Jersey, 1917

LIKES JAIL SO MUCH HE'S GOING TO STAY

Hackensack, N. J. — Ten months ago George Wilkins of Englewood started a term in the Bergen county jail for embezzlement of funds from the Englewood Golf club.

During the ten months George has achieved things, to wit: Won admiration by songs, helped tabulate election votes, conducted Christmas reception, captivated reformers by his "sweet manners." Widespread was George's fame and plots were hatched to wean him away from Sheriff Caurter, but George liked his surroundings so much he refused to leave. And now that his term is up he is going to remain where he is — as the sheriff's confidential clerk.

—New Oxford Item, New Oxford, PA, Aug. 23, 1917.


Making 'Em Bite.

A street car passenger stooped to pick up something from the floor.
"Who has lost a dime?" he asked.
At once half a dozen passengers began fumbling in their pockets, until one of them held out his hand and declared that he had dropped the coin.
"Does it bear the date — 1860?" inquired the finder.
"Yes, certainly."
"Is one side rather worn?"
"Just so."
"Here you are, then," said the finder and handed him a trousers button."


In the Rear.

Stella—Was Jack wounded at the front, then?
Maud—No; he came home on leave and sat on a wasp's nest.

Archie Weaver Used Kitchen Stove As Safe

Decatur, IL, 1913

USED KITCHEN STOVE AS SAFE

Archie Weaver's Pile Looked Like Iron Money.

If you use the kitchen stove as a safety deposit vault or a burglar proof safe, don't leave the making of the fire in the morning to your wife. Archie Weaver, who conducts a grocery in the 2100 block North Main, having no safe in his place of business Friday night, carried home his money in a canvas bag and tossed it in the kitchen stove as the most unlikely place for burglars to look for it. It was an unlikely place for anybody to look for it and next morning a fire was kindled in the stove just as usual. After awhile Mr. Weaver thought of his cash and the fire was hastily drawn. The bag was gone and the money bore but slight resemblance to coin of the realm.

Fortunately there was nothing but coin in the bag and the heat required to reduce a beefsteak and boil coffee is not sufficient to fuse silver. The coin looked like iron money, but it was not mutilated and after Mr. Weaver had properly explained its unusual appearance it passed at par. After this Mr. Weaver will hide his money in the clock, bury it in the backyard or build the fire himself.

—The Daily Review, Decatur, IL, Oct. 26, 1913, p. 3.