Page:Memoirs of the United States Secret Service.djvu/152

Rh Old Sam looked into the cold, stolid face of the Chief, who addressed but a few chosen words to him, when the latter "squealed," and "freed his mind." He then informed Col. Whitley that he procured his counterfeit money of Wal' Crosby, the coney dealer, and owned up to having carried on the business of "shoving the queer" himself for many years in New York and vicinity, in New Jersey, Maryland, and other places.

Lame Sam pleaded guilty upon being arraigned before the U. S. Court in New Jersey, and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment at King's County Penitentiary, where he is now serving out his time.

Thus one more dangerous coney man was disposed of, whose habit had been, according to his own acknowledgment to Col. Whitley, to palm off large sums of worthless counterfeits upon the unsuspecting public, every year: and he had done this continuously for nearly a quarter of a century more or less.

Good-bye, "Lame Sam." May you live to repent, reform, and be happy! And if you should ever chance to meet with this reference to your eccentric history, let us commend to your careful consideration this truthful axiom; that "honesty is not only the deepest policy, but the highest wisdom; since, however difficult it may be for integrity to get on, it is a thousand times more difficult in the end, for knavery to get off."