Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1884 — The King of Counterfeiters. [ARTICLE]

The King of Counterfeiters.

Tom Ballard is beyond question the king of,, all counterfeiters. When the Canadian bankers were shown the notes which he had engraved for their banks they fairly trembled. There is no known means of these counterfeits. They were perfect. Tom was a great chemist, as well as being one of the most skillful engravers who ever lived. Besides this, he was the instigator of each new action, the designer and executor of each fresh counterfeit, and the means of producing it. Most of these engravers are useless in the other branches of the trade, but Tom was the expert leader in all things with his gang. He succeeded in making a counterfeit fibre paper (the machinery for and the secret of manufacturing which cost the Government $200,000) which experts declare defies detection. When Tom was captured he offered to disclose to the United States Government the secret of making a paper which it would be impossible for any one to counterfeit if it would repeal his sentence. He is a pleasant, polite and attractive man to meet, but is miserably morbid at times. Twiee since his imprisonment he has attempted suicide. Once, shortly after his incarceration, he disemboweled himself with some blunt-pointed weapon, but the doctor brought him out of it all right. Five years later, while working at the shoemaker's trade in prison, he ent his throat from ear to ear with a small knife. Both these attempts at self-de-struction were caused by morbid feelings. After the second attempt, a beautiful little bas-relief of his home, with its flowers about, its hanging vines, its green trees, and his wife and family walking down the pathway to meet him, was found on the wall of his cell. He had cut it out with a sharp stiek or some other equally primitive tool. He is an exceptionally talented man in a dozen different ways. Ho is very popular among the prison officials on account of his gentlemanly and considerate action and speech. These officials dare not show Tom any partiality, but they, together with a number of New York bankers aud other influential people are doingall they can to get his sentence commuted .—Chicago News.