By Steve Hathcock
Counterfeiters working in Harlingen:
Lead half-dollars are being passed in Harlingen and several places have reported receiving some of the counterfeit money. Three of the lead half dollars were given to Johnson’s Cafe during the past week and the manager of the café said that it was hard to tell them from the real half dollars.
The way the counterfeiters are distributing the money is by sliding the half dollar across the counter instead of dropping them so you cannot detect them by the sound. According to persons who have seen the counterfeit money the half dollars were made by a real counterfeiter, and it looks like the work of a professional. (Valley Morning Star Jan 27, 1931)
Flotsam From El Sud on Brazos Island:
Two half barrels of brandy from a wreck off Galveston find way to this coast:
A strange illustration of the freaks of the currents of the Mexican Gulf has come to notice recently, through the finding by the life-saving crew on Brazos Island of two half barrels of brandy from the cargo of the Southern Pacific steamship, El Sud, which was washed out of the ship when it collided with the Denver of the Mallory Line, off Galveston on April 20.
Captain Wallace Reid of the Brazos Island Station notified Captain Hutchings, of the life saving service of Galveston, of the find. The latter in turn notified the Southern Pacific steamship company. The result was an order from that company to Captain Hutchings to have the recovered brandy shipped to the company at Galveston.
The find consisted of two half barrels of brandy containing fifty-two and one-half gallons. These, the steamship company claims, were washed out of the El Sud when she collided with the Denver. It appears that some of the ship’s cargo was also washed ashore on Padre Island, which was not reported, it being learned that one barrel of the liquor was found on Tarpon Beach and “finished” by the finders-who probably thought they were entitled to salvage.
Just who the finders were does not appear. The two half barrels reclaimed by the Brazos Island lifesavers will be shipped to Galveston. (The Brownsville Herald May 25, 1912)
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