Eagle River Review

Expert Counterfeiting.

Perhaps the most surprising curiosities in the treasury scrap-book are proofs of certain plates which appear to have had their surfaces scratched and battered to the utmost possible extent. The plates were those of the famous 7.30 bonds, executed by Chas. H. Smith and printed by Chas. Brockway, which were the occasion of a great lawsuit against the Government. Such works of art were they that no question of their genuineness was raised until Jay Cooke & Co. forwarded $84,000 worth of them to the treasury here for redemption. Although Mr. Casilear declared them counterfeits, it was claimed that they must have been printed from the original plates made by the treasury, and on the strength of that assumption suit was brought by Jay Cooke & Co. against the Government. The cause was lost by the plaintiffs, however.

Smith was undoubtedly the most remarkable forger that ever lived. For twenty years, while leading a life of the utmost apparent respectability, he produced counterfeit after counterfeit of the most marvelous character, both of notes and bonds, from $50 to $1,000. Probably not less than $1,000,000 of imitation money of his manufacture found its way into circulation. It was only through the discovery of his association with the notorious plate printer, Brockway, himself a marvelous expert in his line, that Smith was arrested in 1881 at No. 42 Herkimer street, Brooklyn. Thus was broken up one of the most dangerous combinations against the national finances that have ever existed. Smith and Brockway did all they could to give evidence against one another, each for the sake of securing his own immunity from punishment, after the manner of counterfeiters, who invariably, when they are caught, turn traitors to their comrades.—Washington Letter.