By spreading the report that the Danish copper cent coins of the 1910 issue contained gold, a clever swindler has amassed a small fortune in Denmark. Before spreading the rumor the swindler acquired a large collection of the 1910 issue of coppers. Then it became noised about that through a mistake in the mint gold had been mixed with the copper.
The price of the cent pieces began to go up, some selling for as much as a dollar each. With the market at the highest, the collector distributed his cents ju[{69}]diciously among the clamorous bidders and escaped before it became generally known that the coins were worth only their face value.
Chained to Post in Public for Refusing to Pay Fines.
After being allowed to rest Sunday in the city jail, Ike McCammic and Benny Donner, two of the oldest residents of Wellsburg, W. Va., were fastened to ball and chain and by staples to two telephone poles in front of city hall.
They refuse to work out small fines imposed by the mayor, and the mayor is determined to exhibit them to the public every day during which other prisoners are cleaning the streets until 30 days have elapsed, and as the mayor does his duty with emphasis, it is expected the prisoners will be at their posts daily until their fines are met. The men are permitted to whittle.
For Not Cashing Vouchers Woman May Lose Savings.
A government regulation may make the bulk of the savings of 80-year-old Mrs. Kate Coombs so much wastepaper. The aged woman for thirty years has hoarded the monthly $10 voucher she received for her care of machine covers in the bureau of printing and engraving. To-day her trunk contains 360 of the warrants calling for $3,600 from the treasury. But a treasury law provides that such vouchers must be cashed within two years of the date of issue.
An investigation of the vouchers will be made and they may be paid out of the “outstanding liabilities fund.”
Illinois Central Railroad Has Decrease in Business.
Claude R. Prince, contracting freight agent of the Illinois Central Railroad, has received the annual report of the system for the year ending June 30, 1912.