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Show VALUE OF A "GOLD BRICK." Commodity of Confidence Man Worth Anywhere From S25 to $150. (New York Commercial Advertiser.) One of Deputy Commissioner Thurston's Thurs-ton's visitors at police headquarters yesterday called attention to an oblong block of bronze, mounted on a mahogany case and resting on the ! marble mantelpiece in the deputy's ante-room. The bronze was badly tarnished, tar-nished, and streaks of green mould stained it in many places. Nine men in ten, it is safe to say, if they had looked at it at all, would have considered con-sidered the bronze in the nature of a rather ponderous bit of bric-a-brac, in keeping with the severly simply decorations decor-ations of the office. To the visitor, however, it obviously aroused the keenest interest. In the days of Byrnes he had been more or less actively identified with the machinery ma-chinery of the central offire. "And to think that old Cadigan's masterpiece has become a relic already,", al-ready,", he remarked, running his fingers fin-gers through the green mould and examining ex-amining the block with critical eyes. I "When they once get after you good and proper up here it don't take long ; to make relics of bricks or men, does it?" "What is. the thing, anyway?" inquired in-quired a man who had come in with the visitor, and whose knowledge of things criminal was somewhat primitive. primi-tive. . ... "What is itr the first speaker repeated, re-peated, with the fine scorn of a superior su-perior understanding. "Why. that's a gold brick, and what's more, it is prob-I prob-I ably the finest; specimen of the gold- brick industry that this or any other country ever had on exhibition. it would surprise most persons who have come to look upon the gold brick according ac-cording to the popular standard to learn that a good one is not necessarily so much of. a,', gqld vbrtck' 'after ail. Take that one. on' the' mantelpiece, for example; it's intrinsic value 'is surely not less than $100, and it would not surprise me if Cadigan and his gang : paid twice that amount for it they were out to have the best. ' j "The brick is of solid bronze, and j originally was not only heavily j washed with gold, but was generous- i ly salted with it as well. Cadigan ' made it himself out in a foundry on ; the Pacific coast. See those indents- ! tions that look as if someone had ; been digging into it -with a c-heeae ' scoop those are the places where the brick was "salted.' Numerous holes were drilled in the top and sides, and these cavities were filled with twenty- I four-karat gold. Cadigan was a man j of artistic temperament, and he took ' more pride in the shaping of his brick ! than some sculptors do in the model- j ing of Greek gods. And he turned out ! a. liaison., ixiu iyr a. gum uiicn. "When it came to selling this brick the smooth Mr. Cadigan suggested to his victims that it might be just as well to satisfy themselves that they were not dealing in the wares of the confidence man, and he bored artistically artis-tically haphazard holes in the block, and then told his victims to take the specimens around to a government as-sayer. as-sayer. The men did so and the chemist chem-ist told them the gold was good too good to be true and that's how Cadigan Cad-igan came to get caught. In his enthusiasm en-thusiasm he had overstepped himself; if he had only plugged the thing with fourteen-karat gold, instead of going the limit, it might now be holding some front door open, instead of posing on that mantelpiece as a trophy of the chase. "Cadigan's intended purchasers were a couple of young Englishmen, whom he had lured over here with the orthodox ortho-dox tale. His (Cadigan's)-partner had struck a rich vein in southern California Cali-fornia and had taken out enough gold to make into a forty-pound brick, when he was suddenly taken sick with J I a iaiai disease, just Derore ne passed i away he confided to Cadigan. of course, that he owed the father of the two Englishmen a large sum of money about half the value of the brick. The father was dead, but two sons survived him, and as a deathbed trust i the dying man commanded Cadigan to j see that his last wishes were carried out. The two boys were to receive the entire gold brick, but as they were only entitled to half its value, they were to pay Cadigan cash for the other half and take the whole thing. The i amount realized from the other half was to be given to a surviving sister i of the dead man. "The letters which Cadigan wrote to those young Englishmen were masterstrokes master-strokes in delicacy and diplomacy They brought the Britishers over on the first steamship bound for the States, and had it not been for the suspicions aroused by the government chemist, the young, fellows undoubtedly undoubted-ly would have been the more or less proud possessors of that bricV today. The cost of floating a. gold brick Is, I ! like its intrinsic value, much greater I than most persons imagine. Only 'g"n- i ! teel criminals' those with a richer veneer ve-neer of culture than the ordinary ; rogue possesses attempt to d;ai in I them. An elaborate setting is required1 for the comedy known as se ling a gold brick. The dealers, presumably j men of unlimited wealth miners who j have struck a rich vein have to live f up to their wealth and spend money before their intended dupes with pro- i digal lavishness. Sometimes thre ar- three or four men in thp conspiracy. jf The chief, who is the man intrusted j by hig dead partner or friend to deliver J the brick, the brother of the dead man and the assayer, who. weeks hefor. takes an office in the town where the comedy is to be played, and passes j UDOn thp nnxlitx- rf c-nlH Ko snhmit- ted to him by the gang's victim.'. Sometimes weeks are required before the deal can be put through, and in those cases the expenses run way up in the thousands. "Old Cadigan admitted to Byrnes that the gold brick, which is on the ; mantelpiece now, had cost him $2.00''. He stood to win $15,000, however, and j I as a business proposition $2,000 cannot ? j be looked upon as an excessive in- I vestment." |