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ALIAS "BIG BILL, THE QUEERSMAN."

In the month of August 1870, there suddenly appeared in the eastern cities an admirably executed counterfeit $20 note on the National Shoe and Leather Bank, of New York. The intelligence of this discovery was telegraphed all over the country to business men, bankers, and others interested, putting the public upon their guard against this dangerous and well contrived imposition.

Col. Whitley, of the U. S. S. Service, arranged directly a plan to reach a probable source, in his estimation, of the issue of this counterfeit. He despatched one of his Detectives to communicate with a notable "koniacker," known to him, surmising that this party knew something about it. The dealer he suspected was an "old settler" in the traffic, however, and it was no easy task directly to approach him, without exciting suspicion.

Yet it was highly desirable that steps should be taken to stop the continuance of the issue of this counterfeit—which was being largely circulated in other places, and which was soon heard from as having been imposed upon the community in other cities. The Chief looked about him, and 78