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Show ' J- - b y , y , The R ich County News t j. . ? Published Weekly. RANDOLPH UTAH : This is fine growing coal bills. , Napoleons hair weather ' Secret Service for - Is for sale. De. Men Hunt facers of Gold Pieces. Which color do you prefer? Acids Used to Remove Small Quantities of Metal from Colne- - Probe for the Lincoln Penny Jewelry Fad. ; ,, . In this ageffie water wagon ought to be an automobile, Avoid meeting the crime wave on cold night. Or at any other time... a New York. Federal secret service igents under orders from Chief John E. Wilkie, have been making a canvass f jewelers and electroplating shops in the Maiden lane district In an effort to run down persons suspected of stripping coins that Is, removing small quantities of gold or silver from Unless you are a pyromanlac do not kitchen flee with gasoline. fight the An earthquake Is reported In DelaNaturally, it was a. little one Dr. Osier's Indorsement of the sour milk diet doesn't make It any the more palatable. - ware. the surfaces of coins by a chemical process. Inquiries also were made as to several new kinds of coin jewelry, Including articles made from Lincoln pennies. The Inquiry as to coin stripping was started after many circulating coins. Including $20 gold pieces, were found to be short of the prescribed weight. The loss seemed to be more than is usual when coins are worn off from frequent handling. They are suspicious that coins have been reduced In weight by the stripping process. In which they are dipped for an hour or two In aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, Into which an electric current Is turned. When the electric power and the strength of the acids are fixed in the proper relation to the weight of the coins treated. It Is believed, the metal Is "sweated" off the surface of the coins so smoothly that they aie not changed in appearance. Valuable quantities of the precious metals have been obtained criminally. It is suspected, through the stripping of many coins. The detached metal clings to a receiving plate, from which It Is readily collected by the strippers, who have no difficulty in selling it for cash to Jewelers or even to the government, since there is no suspicion of the method by which it was ob- - At Inst it has been 'discovered that the way to suppress highwaymen Is to suppress them. Meanwhile other parts of the counweather just as try are exhibiting startling as ours. Lowering a height record and raising a low record Is one and the same to French aeroplanists. When railroad trains collide the rich man has no better chance of escape than his poor fellow-travele- What, a long time the world will have to wait to find out whether any really great men were born in 1909! However, any other w infer resort Is as much entitled to advertise an exclusive view of the cornet as is .For the last time, will the gentleman who assured us we would have an open winter kindly send In his While the per capita circulation of is large enough, frequently ft is difficult to make it connect with the Individual. money That first carload of spring vegetables whlh has left the gulf region will he luctyr If It does not bump into a cold wave. I Chicago woifld like to have the International balloon races next rail, but it cannot agree to remove the lake for the occasion. If, as the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen, we have somestrenuous weather due us during the .next 60 days. The man hver 40 .iho doe an 4 pwn a farm fiiay- lay bis lack to ill tuck, but generally he will find the cause in bis own make-up- . talked into a phonograph, but as he did not ask any questions the record will always be open to suspicion. Z Minister Wu has The days have begun to lengthen, but it all in the afternoon when it doesn't make getting up early In the morning any easier.' . i dispatch from Georgia says the not has been peach crop yet injured Before we begin to cheer IusUly, let ns hear from Delaware. A - French aviator Is reported to have fallen from his aeroplane into a tree and escaped Injury. Sounds like the A twentieth century Munchausen. it is denied that Mars has canals. Perhaps, in the general smashing of Received beliefs, it will even be denied that there ever was a north pole. Now Halleys comet, as telescope a few days have only a stub of it is the fashion to comets this year. seen through a ago, appeared to a tail. Possibly clip the tails of Whenever It happens that 'there Is no great question demanding immedi ate solution It is always possible to renew the discussion as to the existence of canais on Mars. A school is to be opened on Long Island to train girls to be good wives Now a correspondand housekeepers. ing school should follow to train young men to be good husbands and hours after getting a divorce Nevada the woman in the case married again, and the Judge granting the divorce was highly Incensed at what he termed making a farce of the courts, says the Baltimore American But then, interested citizens can hard ly be expected to take better care of the dignity of the courts than the Two In Judges themselves. Cleveland theatrical reform In the matter of preventing people from disturbing the auditors by straggling in during the first act looks like a reaction to primitive principles, says the . fittsburg Dispatch. Presently some backwoods city will be advancing the Idea that theaters and operas are not conducted for the purpose of holding conversaziones in the boxes. An airship expedition is to be sent to discover the north pole under the Failauspices of the kaiser himself ure to locate that locality will therefore, be in the nature of lese majeste. While one astronomer declares that there are no canals on Mars, another asserts the planet has 600 and that the Martians are still digging.. There being no way to decide, the lay world can take whichever view it pleases In the meantime, all present energy on the subject is needed in the perfecting of the one canal we have here. a. v, knoff 1 asTte-- Bucktail regtment, of which I was a private as , a was detailed of .Pjjeslbodyguard dent Lincoln and continued lx that' capacity until bis assassination in the spring of 1865. During the thVee years of my stay in Washington, the most critical period of the nations history, I saw and heard many things that have never found their way into the public prints. Some of the bodyguard were -constantly with the president and hia family, whether at fashionable levees, receptions to foreign legations or private interviews. . At all such functions we were silent spectators of all that took place. We were always treated with the highest respect by the Lincoln family, who regarded us as a' part of the household. Every private of the guard received the same attentions of courtesy as the most famous statesman or diplomat at the capital. We all formed a strong personal 'attachment for the president and when the grand old man laid down his life In behalf of the cause that had been his life work we felt as If we had lost the dearest friend we ever had. During the first two years of our term of service the most rigid discipline was enforced. Sometimes we would be ordered to use extraordinary vigilance and to let no one enter the grounds of the White House without the proper passes and to be very particular as to who approached the president.. Often the order would come for the guards on duty to be doubled. It .was seldom that he knew the direct cause of these extra precautions, but we supposed that ihe 'officers of the secret service were In possession of Information of some plot that brooded barm to the - -- Up toT864, owing to our vigilance and' the protecting hand of Providence', our beloved chief had escaped the hand of violence. The back of the confederacy was broken, a good feeling pervaded all Washington and consequently the strict watchfulness that had prevailed grew Into laxity. This was the fatal period, for It was at this time that conspiracies were hatched and confederates overran the city, comparatively unmolested. The" president and family spent the summer pt the sol diers home, situated about three miles north of the city, and thither the bodyguard always accompanied them. It was in the summer of 1864, while we were up at the home, that an Incident happened that came very near culminating in Just such an awful tragedy as followed only a few months later at Ford's theater. It was the custom of the president to remain late at the war department when anything of great importance was happening In the army, consulting with the secretary of war and transmitting and receiving dispatches, and after his work was finished he would ride out to-tsoldiers home. That summer he had persistently refused an escort, imagining himself perfectly secure. One night about the middle of August 1 was doing sentry duty at the large gate entrance was had Into the through The place is situated home. at the grounds about a quarter of a mile off the Bladensburg road and Is reached by. a devious driveway. About one oclock I heard a rifle shot In the direction of the city and shortly afterward could hear approaching boofbeats. In two or three minutes the horse came near enough so that th the dim moonlight I recognized the rider as the belated president The horse, a . , John E. Wllkli. ' , talned. The coins ar passed into circulation at their face' value. Coins also have been stripped, it is suspected, by using them for short Inter vals In electroplating tanks. ' ' ' spirited one, belonging to Lamon, the marshal of the District of Columbia, was Mr. Lincolns favorite saddle animal and when he was In the White House stables be always chose him. As horse and rider approached the gate I noticed that the president was bareheaded. After I had assslted him In checking his steed the president said to me: He came pietty near getting away with me. didnt he? He took the bit In his teeth before I could draw the reins.' I then asked him where his hat was and he replied that somebody had- fired a gun off down at the foot of the hill, which scared his horse, and the lurch of the animal toppled his hat off. I led the horse to the cottage where the president and his family was staying. There he dismounted and went in. Thinking the proceeding a little strange, a corporal and I started In the direction from which the report of the gun had been heard, to When we came to the place where Investigate the driveway meets the main road we found the presidents hat a plain silk hat and on examining It found a bullet hole through the corner of the crown. The shot had been fired upward and it was evident that the person who had fired it had secreted himself close to the roadside. We listened and searched the locality thoroughly, but to no avail The next day I gave M, Lincoln his hat and called his attention to the bullet hole. He unconcernedly remarked that It was put there by some foolish gunner and was not Intended for him. He said, however, that he wanted the matter kept quiet and admonished us to say nothing about It. The next fall, after we bad taken up our winter quarters at the White House, a conspiracy to kidnap the president was unknowingly frustrated by us. Had the truth of the affair leaked out at the time it doubtless would have created great excitement Our quarters were Immediately In front of the south porch of the Executive Mansion, a position which placed us at about equal distance from the treasury building on the east and the war and navy building on the west. For reasons at the time unknown to us we were ordered to move our guard tent and place it at the west end of the gravel walk, directly In the rear Of the war department. While we stayed there nothing occurred to arouse suspicion. Shortly afterward we learned, however, that on the very night after we had moved the tent the confederates bad a plan laid to capture the president. The conspirators were to hide- - In the shrubbery and when the president came along very the walk they were to seize, gag and carry him across the river into Virginia. Thence he was to be taken to Richmond or some other confederate stronghold, where he was to be held as The members of the bodyguard a hostage. always supposed that the conspirators were frightened away when they saw our guard tent and abandoned the plan of kidnapping. Not long after the attempted kidnapping another episode took place, which afterward was found to have been planned by a band of assassins who made their headquarters In the city. Bourke, the veteran coachman, who had served at the White House through Pierces and Buchanans administrations and thus far into Lincolns, was taken sick and compelled to be oft duty. Immediately a stranger, who represented1 himself as an experienced coachman from Baltimore, applied at the White House and was employed as coachman. From the first he was domineering and after a few weeks became so Important that he was discharged and Bourke reinstated One night shortly afterward, Just about dusk, the discharged coachman was seen sneaking around the stables by some of the guard. The stables had been locked for the night and it was not supposed that he could do any damage and consequently the men who saw him did not go to the stables. Presently the whole Interior of the barns was found to be on fire. The guard was called out and by dint of great exertion we saved the presidents coach and team, but Tad Lincoln's ponies and Col. Hays carriage team perished In the flames. The plan was to have this man fire the stables and thus to distract our attention. During the excitement some of the conspirators were ready to rush into the White House and murder the president, but instead of remaining in the house Mr. Lincoln ran out among us and thus in all probability frustrated another attempt .at assassination. What makes this appear more likely now Is the fact that, after the Incendiary was arrested he produced several witnesses, who later found employment at Ford's theater, to testify that he was down in the city during the whole of the evening. These were the persons who doubtless planned the final conspiracy that brought the great benefactor to the grave. Many coins that have been offered for deposit at banks recently have the designs brought out more sharply than Is natural. It is supposed that these coins have been stripped and were left in the acid bath too long. But even in these coins the untrained eye would see no sign of mutilation. One said that of .the largest electroplaters ' strippers could take as much as a pennyweight of gold, worth more than a dollar,1 from a $20 gold piece without maktng any easily perceptible There Is no risk of loss In change. damaging gold coins, because if the acid should eat too much or roughen the surface the entire coin may be melted up and the metal sold for an amount , equal to the value of the coin. A special 'difficulty in getting evidence against the stripper Is that even if he be caught with the coins In solution nothing is proved, as he can say that he Id tends to use the coins, instead of bullion, for plating, and will not try to pass them as money. There is no law against dissolving or melting coins, provided they are destroyed as currency, and many jewelers fuse gold coins Instead of go lng to the trouble of getting bullion for the purpose. None of the established eloctroplaters is suspected ol being engaged fn the illegitimate pracIt Is supposed that temporary tice. plants are put up by strippers In secluded lofts of factory buildings, as little equipment is required. The fad for Lincoln pennies In Jewelry received attention because a gold plated penny might be mistaken for a gold piece. It was re nickel called that when the flve-cewere first used they did not, have the word cent" on them. Many such coins were plated with gold and passed on Ignorant Immigrants a gold pieces. The secret service men who inquired here as to the use of the gold plated pennies made no objection to such plating. Jewelers have made Inquiries of the authorities here and In Washington, and have been Informed that the law as to mutilation of coins applies only to gold find sliver coins. Besides, pennies are made more valuable by gold plating. In certain western cities, it is reported, the federal authorities have prohibited manufacturers of jewelry from plaiting Lincoln pennies with gold. That is held to account for an Increased demand on the manufacturers here who make the pennies into scarf pins, brooc&es and other five-doll- five-doll- v |