50. Vignete, American Eagle on Rock. Counters, black, with "50;" below Vignette "50" between two oblong checks in green. "50" and "L" repeated many times around margin. Counters, upper corners, black, with "C" lower corners, green, with "100." Large ornamental "C," in green, on each side of Vignette. 100. Vignette, Portrait of Scott. 500. Vignette, Portrait of Washington. Counters, black, with "500," Left end, Justice, with sword and scales, seated on chest. Right end, Ceres, with cornucopia, wheel, and censer. Green check 1000. Vignette, Portrait of Chase, at bottom. Counters, at top black, with 1000;" below, on each side of Vignette, green, with "1000," at bottom. 5000. Vignette, Indian girl, with bow leaning on shield, eagle near by. Left end, Justice. Counters, on left, green, with "5000," on right, green border with black centre, with 5000," In the foregoing account of the various pro- | terfeited by making an engraved imitation of the cesses in the manufacture of a Bank Note, we plate; and to guard against this, the most elabhave, in effect, described those employed by this orate lathe-work has been lavished upon these Company in the production of the United States backs. We repeat that our representations of Treasury Notes. The imitations which we have the Treasury Notes are only imitations; they given of one denomination of each kind, with are not, and could not be made fac-similes of the brief descriptions appended of the other de- the genuine notes. It may not be uninteresting nominations, will show their general character. to compare them with the following perfect facEach combines all the safeguards against fraud simile of one of the Massachusetts Bills of 1690 now known. In speaking of the indestructible the first American paper money. green ink used by the Company, we should have mentioned that it is used only on the face of the notes, its special use being, as has been explained, to guard against photographic counterfeits, by using in conjunction two inks of different colors, one of which can not be removed without removing the other. The photographic counterfeiter has nothing to gain by removing the check on the back. If he photographs it, the copy will appear in black. It can only be coun The Treasury "Demand Notes" have already become an important part of our currency. Being payable on presentation at the specified Branch Treasuries of the United States, they are equivalent to specie. The "Interest Notes" are due at the end of three years from date, with interest payable semi-annually. This interest, being at the rate of 7 per cent., amounts to just one cent a day upon every fifty dollars. To facilitate the payment of the interest, each ts N° (919) 20 Le Comitce Tim Thornton THE FIRST AMERICAN PAPER MONEY. 65 Pay Bearer $30 Feb 191863 3 StrMonths Interest on fo $100. US Treas Note N NUT athe Pay Bearer $30 Aug131863 for StrMonths Interest on 100 $100. US Treas Note N Treas of the U Pay Bearer&3100 Feb 191864for 5th StrMonths Interest on $100 US TreasNote N COUPONS. of these notes has attached to it five little tickets, called " coupons," numbered in red to correspond with the note itself, and dated at intervals of six months. To collect the interest it is only necessary to cut off the coupon, and present it, when due, at any branch office of the Treasury. There are but five coupons for the three years, because the last installment, as specified on the note, is made payable with the note itself. It was fortunate for the country that there was in existence an Association capable of executing these notes with the rapidity which was absolutely necessary. It would have taken months for the Government to have organized an establishment for this purpose. Machinery would have to be built, and hundreds of skilled workmen found; and then, after the expiration of a few months, the work would have been done, and the establishment must be disbanded. The "American Bank Note Company" was ready, at a week's notice, to put all the facilities which it had been accumulating for years at the disposal of the Government. Besides the main establishment in New York, which we have described, the Company has branches at Boston and Philadelphia, where the same operations are carried on. It had a similar branch at New Orleans at the time when our troubles broke out. This, for the present, is wholly lost. The entire organization is managed by a Board of Trustees, the President of which is the executive officer of the Company. Each Department is under the immediate direction of a competent superintendent; but all of them are directly accountable to the President, whose decision is final in all cases. Perfect harmony of action is thus secured in every branch of the organization. All the various appliances which we have described are brought into play for the purpose of protecting the public from loss by spurious paper money. We will devote a few paragraphs to a description of the different kinds of spurious paper, and the precautions which are or may be used against them. 1. Counterfeits.-By these we mean direct imitations of some genuine bill. To produce an even tolerable counterfeit demands an amount of artistic and mechanical talent which is rarely at the command of rogues. There is something in the artistic faculty which in most cases protects its possessor from temptations to fraud. It is only rarely that a good engraver turns out a rogue; moreover he can always do better by the honest exercise of his skill than by its fraudulent use. Now and then, indeed, a "danger. ous" counterfeit is produced, and we wonder how and by whom it was made. But only a small part of the spurious money in circulation probably not one dollar in twenty-is of this class. The security against counterfeits is found in the artistic execution of the genuine notes.Of Photographic Counterfeits, and the precautions against them, we have spoken elsewhere. 2. Raised Notes.-These are genuine notes raised from a lower to a higher denominationsay from a "1" to a "10"-by altering the principal figures. This is sometimes done by removing the true figure, by means which we have described, and printing in its place the larger one. More frequently, however, the altered figure is printed on thin paper and pasted over the true one. To guard against this, the denominational letters and figures should be so often repeated on each note as to render their erasure or concealment equivalent to making a new note. The general appearance of each denomination should also be wholly different. Some banks have the leading vignette repeated on all their notes. This is intended to guard against "Altered Notes," of which we shall next speak. But we think the practice unwise. Vignettes, portraits, checks, and lettering should differ for every denomination. such, they should be in the custody of persons appointed by the State; and whenever a bank fails or retires from business the plates should be destroyed by the proper authority. This is done with the plates of banks under the New All these plates 3. Altered Notes.-These consist of the notes of some "bad" bank altered so as to represent those of a good one. Thus notes of the fraudu-York General Banking Law. lent" Bank of the Republic, Washington, D.C.," are in the custody of the Banking Department are altered so as to read "Bank of the Repub- of the State. As it would be inconvenient and lic, New York." These alterations are either unsafe to send plates for this purpose to distant made by erasure and pasting on the notes them- States, it would be far better for these States to selves, or by altering parts of the plate itself and make the Bank Note Company its sworn custoso printing them entirely new. Formerly too dian for all plates. It has abundant means of little care was taken of the plates. When a guarding every plate; and its interest, as well as bank failed its assets, including the plates, were conscience, would impel it to the most perfect often sold at auction. These might fall into discharge of this duty. Indeed the Company fraudulent hands, and be so altered as to repre- now does all it can in this direction. Except in sent notes of sound banks. The plates might the case of banks of known and established charhave been executed in good faith by the best en-acter, it will not suffer the plates to leave its posgravers, and there would be nothing in their general appearance to designate them as spurions. This class of frauds is the most usual and the most dangerous. To guard against these, every one whose business requires that he should have a "Counterfeit Detector," should also have the "Bank Note Descriptive List," containing brief descriptions of the character and posi-pany would decline to furnish the plates. tions of the principal parts of every genuine note. Whenever a note is offered with which he is not acquainted he should compare it with these descriptions. If it is an altered note they will differ essentially. Bank Plates, moreover, should be kept with the utmost care. In fact, they should be considered as public property, the banks having only the right to their exclusive use for such number of impressions as they may legally issue. As session unless they are delivered to the authorities of States where there is a General Banking Law, similar to that of New York. If a bank at a distance should wish to stipulate for the delivery of its plates, it would, in ordinary cases, be considered as an indication that some improper use of them was intended, and the Com If the precautions which we have enumerated are carefully observed by the public, the danger of loss from spurious money will be so reduced that it need not be taken into the account in estimating the risks of business. The risk arising from broken banks belongs to a different category, and is to be guarded against only by wise and considerate action on the part of the public authorities by which these institutions are chartered. ORLEY FARM. BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE—ILLUSTRATED BY J. E. MILLAIS. CHAPTER XXXVII. PEREGRINE'S ELOQUENCE. as though they could never tell their mothers any thing-as though they were harder than flint, and as little in want of a woman's counsel the last chapter Peregrine Orme called at and a woman's help as a colonel of horse on the Farm discussing with morning a But the rigid virility Lucius Mason the conduct of their respective progenitors; and, as will be remembered, the young men agreed in a general way that their progenitors were about to make fools of themselves. Poor Peregrine, however, had other troubles on his mind. Not only had his grandfather been successful in love, but he had been unsuccessful. As he had journeyed home from Noningsby to The Cleeve in a high-wheeled vehicle which he called his trap, he had determined, being then in a frame of mind somewhat softer than was usual with him, to tell all his troubles to his mother. It sounds as though it were lackadaisical-such a resolve as this on the part of a dashing young man, who had been given to the pursuit of rats, and was now a leader among the sons of Nimrod in the pursuit of foxes. Young men of the present day, when got up for the eyes of the world, look and talk his outward accoutrements does in no way alter the man of flesh and blood who wears them; the young hero, so stern to the eye, is, I believe, as often tempted by stress of sentiment to lay bare the sorrow of his heart as is his sister. On this occasion Peregrine said to himself that he would lay bare the sorrow of his heart. He would find out what others thought of that marriage which he had proposed to himself; and then, if his mother encouraged him, and his grandfather approved, he would make another attack, beginning on the side of the judge, or perhaps on that of Lady Staveley. But he found that others, as well as he, were laboring under a stress of sentiment; and when about to tell his own tale, he had learned that a tale was to be told to him. He had dined with Lady Mason, his mother, and his grandfather, and the dinner had been very silent. Three of the party were in love, and the fourth was burdened with the telling of the tale. The baronet himself said nothing on the subject as he and his grandson sat over their wine; but later in the evening Peregrine was summoned to his mother's room, and she, with considerable hesitation and much diffidence, informed him of the coming nuptials. Marry Lady Mason!" he had said. "Good-morning, Peregrine." And then there was silence for a moment or two. "Did you see your mother last night?" "Yes; I did see her." "And she told you what it is that I propose to do?" "Yes, Sir; she told me." “I hope you understand, my boy, that it will not in any way affect your own interests inju Yes, Peregrine. Why should he not do so riously." if they both wish it ?" Peregrine thought that there were many causes and impediments sufficiently just why no such marriage should take place, but he had not his arguments ready at his fingers' ends. He was so stunned by the intelligence that he could say but little about it on that occasion. By the few words that he did say, and by the darkness of his countenance, he showed plainly enough that he disapproved. And then his mother said all that she could in the baronet's favor, pointing out that in a pecuniary way Peregrine would receive benefit rather than injury. "I'm not thinking of the money, mother." "No, my dear; but it is right that I should tell you how considerate your grandfather is." "All the same, I wish he would not marry this woman." "Woman, Peregrine! You should not speak in that way of a friend whom I dearly love." "She is a woman all the same." And then he sat sulkily looking at the fire. His own stress of sentiment did not admit of free discussion at the present moment, and was necessarily postponed. On that other affair he was told that his grandfather would be glad to see him on the following morning, and then he left his mother. "Your grandfather, Peregrine, asked for my assent," said Mrs. Orme, "and I thought it right to give it." This she said to make him understand that it was no longer in her power to oppose the match. And she was thoroughly glad that this was so, for she would have lacked the courage to oppose Sir Peregrine in any thing. On the next morning Peregrine saw his grandfather before breakfast. His mother came to his room door while he was dressing to whisper a word of caution to him. "Pray, be courteous to him," she said. "Remember how good he is to you to us both! Say that you congratulate him." "But I don't," said Peregrine. "Ah, but, Peregrine-" "I'll tell you what I'll do, mother. I'll leave the house altogether and go away, if you wish it." "Oh, Peregrine ! How can you speak in that way? But he's waiting now. Pray, pray, be kind in your manner to him.” He descended with the same sort of feeling which had oppressed him on his return home after his encounter with Carroty Bob in Smithfield. Since then he had been on enduring good terms with his grandfather; but now again all the discomforts of war were imminent. "Good-morning, Sir," he said, on going into his grandfather's dressing-room. "I don't care about that, Sir-one way or the other." "But I do, Peregrine. Having seen to that, I think that I have a right to please myself in this matter." "Oh yes, Sir; I know you have the right." "Especially as I can benefit others. Are you aware that your mother has cordially given her consent to the marriage?" "She told me that you had asked her, and that she had agreed to it. She would agree to any thing." "Peregrine, that is not the way in which you should speak of your mother." And then the young man stood silent, as though there was nothing more to be said. Indeed, he had nothing more to say. He did not dare to bring forward in words all the arguments against the marriage which were now crowding themselves into his memory, but he could not induce himself to wish the old man joy, or to say any of those civil things which are customary on such occasions. The baronet sat for a while, silent also, and a cloud of anger was coming across his brow; but he checked that before he spoke. "Well, my boy," he said, and his voice was almost more than usually kind, "] can understand your thoughts, and we will say nothing of them at present. All I will ask of you is to treat Lady Mason in a manner befitting the position in which I intend to place her." "If you think it will be more comfortable, Sir, I will leave The Cleeve for a time." "I hope that may not be necessary. Why should it? Or, at any rate, not as yet," he added, as a thought as to his wedding-day occurred to him. And then the interview was over, and in another half hour they met again at breakfast. In the breakfast-room Lady Mason was also present. Peregrine was the last to enter, and as he did so his grandfather was already standing in his usual place, with the book of Prayers in his hand, waiting that the servants should arrange themselves at their chairs before he knelt down. There was no time then for much greeting, but Peregrine did shake hands with her as he stepped across to his accustomed corner. He shook hands with her, and felt that her hand was very cold; but he did not look at her, nor did he hear any answer given to his few muttered words. When they all got up she remained close to Mrs. Orme, as though she might thus be protected from the anger which she feared from Sir Peregrine's other friends. |