| OCR Text |
Show ii . . . mi i i immi n m SETTLING THE SILVER qUESTION. John Eckcrt and Jobn Kennedy Attempt a Solution of It, and Land in tbe Penitentiary. John jSckert and John Kennedy were arraigned for sentence before Judge Zane j this morning. Eckert was indicted by the Grand Jury on the 17th of October, 1885, for making counterfeit money. A plea of not guilty was entered by the defendant, which was changed to that of guilty in court to-day; Eckert stated that he was employed in" Pole Canyon, on the Rio Jrande, at the time of arrest. The scheme of manufacturing manufac-turing counterfeit dollars was DroDosed to him by John Gerber, and they made the necessary stamps out of plaster of Paris. Between twenty and twenty-five counterfeit silver dollars were made at the first trial, but they were so poor he was afraid to pass them, and so threw them away. They were in the semblance sem-blance of silver dollars which are now being coined and stamped at the mints of the United States as current coins. Mr. U. J. Wenner appeared in behalf of the guilty man, and asked the leniency of the COUrt. The .Tlldoro rmiKidprpri thn offense entitled to two years' imprisonment imprison-ment in the penitentiary, and Eckart was placed in the hands of a marshal. John Kennedy, the other would-be millionaire, presented a less aggravated case, anwas sentenced to the penitentiary peniten-tiary for one year on a plea of guilty. Kennedy was simply charged with passing pass-ing the spurious coin, which he claims was given him by a soldier when under the influence of liquor. Kennedy was found in possession of four abortive coins which, he tried to dispose dis-pose of to William M. Reese. The counterfeit coun-terfeit money was intended to represent the standard silver dollar, but the emblematic em-blematic bird looked more like a Salt Lake sea gull than the American eagle, and the design was very faulty. - The Court told the bungling forger that he didn't look very much like a counterfeiter, counter-feiter, and if he was, his success was not evident from general appearances. The Marshal took him to the reformatory reforma-tory on the Bench. |
