The Confederate Counterfeiters
A local drifter finds himself behind bars after attempting to pass a reassembled Confederate bank note at a city saloon.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
S. J. Carney, a professional 'vag' who has been in the Tacoma jail several times, was arrested this morning by Officer Brady after he had cashed a Confederate bank note for $10. The note was composed of two bills from the Merchants and Planters' Bank of Savannah, one number being 2247 and the other 2850, pasted tightly together. The man cashed the check in a saloon and immediately got intoxicated. The saloon man noticed the two numbers on the note. Carney was too drunk to tell where he obtained the bill. The charge will be that of obtaining money under false pretenses, which is a penitentiary offense.
“The note was composed of two bills... pasted tightly together.”
Confederate currency was essentially worthless paper by 1909, making it a strange choice for a get-rich-quick scheme. It speaks to the desperation and poverty of Tacoma's transient population during the period, who often found themselves caught between petty crime and the severe vagrancy laws of the time.
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