A BANK NOTE WITH A STORY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2030, 7 January 1889, Page 3

A BANK NOTE WITH A STORY.

Not lenz ago a well-known collector of cariosities ia Pada, who had devoted considerable rami of money to the gathering together of bank notes of all countries and all values, beoame the possessor of a Bank of England five pound note to which an aonsmlly strange story was attached. Ibis note was paid into a Liverpool merchant's office In the ordinary way of basinets 61 yeare ago, and its recipient, tfceeaahler of the firm, while holding it op to th« light to teit Its genuineness, noticed some fal&t red marks upon It which, on dour examloatlon, proved to be semi' efftoad worda scrawled m blood between the printed Hoe* and upon the blank margin of the note. Extraordinary palm were token to decipher these parti j-obllt«rated characters, and eventually the following words jrere made ont : — ... " If this note should fall Into the hands ©I Jofcn Dean, of Carlisle, he will learn hereby that bis brother Is languishing a prboner In Algiers." Mr Dean was promptly communicated - frith by the holder gf the note, and he appealed to tbe Government of the day foe assistance In his endeavor to obtain his brother's release from captivity. The prisoner, who, it subsequently appeared, bad traced the above sentence on the note with a splinter of wood dipped m his own fljod, had been a slave to tbe Dey of Algiers for 11 years when this etraoge missive first attracted attention m • a Liverpool ooun ting-house. His family and friends tai long believed him dead. Eventually his brother, with the aid of the British authorities, succeeded m ransoming him from the Dey, and brought him home to England, where, however, he did not survive bis release, hit conetl.tatlon having been Irreparably Id jared by «xposare, privations, and forced labor In ihe Day's galleys.