The next day a plate was delivered to me at the Kirkwood House, which I immediately put under lock and key in my trunk. Subsequently I received a note, informing me that I would find a package under the cedar tree in the Smithsonian grounds, and that I had better go and get it as soon after dark as possible, for fear some of the workmen might pick it up.
The package, which, on examination, was found to contain fifty-five thousand dollars' worth of government paper, was waiting for me, covered with loose leaves to screen it from any casual passer-by, when 1 visited the designated spot.
Securing my booty, I returned to the hotel, rang the bell for my bill, and started for Philadelphia with all possible expedition.
The plate which I had in my trunk was for one hundred dollars' compound interest notes. Not very long after, I and my associates obtained another one for printing fractional currency.
On reaching Philadelphia, I commenced operations immediately in connection with certain brokers and others, and bought a large amount of bogus Confederate bonds. Having obtained these, I went to New York, where I took rooms in a private house on Greenwich Street, deeming a hotel rather too conspicuous; and communicating with my associates there, we went to work with energy to turn the money belonging to Uncle Sam, in our possession, over and over as rapidly as we could, making it pay us a handsome profit at each turn.
A Lively Trade in Bogus Securities.
Some of this cash was put into the bounty and substitute brokerage business, but a large part of it was invested in bogus Confederate and other securities, which were sold to brokers for the English market. One private banker took sixty-two thousand dollars' worth, and another twenty-one thousand dollars' worth, while smaller amounts were scattered about in various directions, we receiving English exchange and gold at market rates, which we turned into greenbacks.
This business finally grew to such an extent, that it was found to be convenient to communicate with London direct. Correspondence was therefore established with a banking-house on Regent Street, and until the close of the war a lively traffic in real and bogus Federal and Confederate securities was maintained.
