Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-09-17
HOW BANKS ARE swINDLED.
The Trick by which a bankrupt
Merchant stole Fifteen Thousand
Dollars.

49, a a. ~N@F
Banks arc constantly being impos-
ed upon, said the csshier,of one Of the
largest national banks IN this city the
other day, land the public know
nothing about it. Why, if | was TO
tell you that the son of one of the
largest dry goods merchants ia Ne
York had presented two forged checks
to tins bank within the past mouth,
got money on both, and escapey arrest
and publicity, you would hardly be-
lieve it; but it is so. His father made
good the amount. Almost every week
someone manages TO defrsud us some
way, and it is Only once in six months
that we ever report the case 10 the
authorities. In the first place, it hurts
a banks reputation to get caught too
often; but the principal reason for
our silence is, II wouldn't pay us to
complain. In nearly every case the
culprit is q friend or relative of some
influential customer. That is the way
he manages to secure his credit, and
the customer nearly always talks
turkey when we go TO him about the
matter.
use as much precaution as we can,
we have 10 trust some people. or
course we can, as 8 rule, protect our
selvc9 against professional sharpers
and strangers by requiring identidcat-
ion, but there is no way of preventing
our customers from ~defrauding us by
a too close scrutiny of their cheeks.
That might drive away good business,
and we have TO take our chances as L
the paper being all right.
Some years ago." c0ntlnned the
cashier, 81 was the paying teller of a
bank in 4 large western city. Among
our customers was a wholesale mer>
chant named Henderson, who did a
very large business with bank
He was IN the habit of dra wing large
sums to meet his bills, which were
heavy, and all these passed through
my hands. Among Mr.. Henderson's
business associates was a man named
Hirtz, VINO had lately come to that
city from the east. He was "a commits
sion broker, and sold Mr.. Henderson
a great many goods, for which he res
ceived Mr.. Henderson's check on our
bank.
Zone day Nj. Hirtz brought to the
bank a check for $15, 600. 1t was the
largest check he had ever presented.
l he>ltated about paying it. 1t was
evidently Mr.. Henderson's signature,
and there was no question about the
bearer being Mr.. Hirtz. / asked the
bookkeeper how much money Mr..
Henderson had to his credit. He had
SIS, 900. So / paidit Mr., Hirtz took
thirty $500 bills, and left the building
with the money carefully concealed
in his inside vest pocket. This was
on Saturday, just before the bank
closed. Monday afternoon Mr.. Hem
derson sent q check for Sc, 600 to the
bank. | sent back word that the ac-
count was not large enough to cover
that amount. la u few minutes Mr..
Henderson appeared at the bank. He
was very angry.
"'N hat do you mean, said he, by
sending such word to mef
az mean said !, that you only
have So, 600 to your credit
"'That is not So said he; Il have
SIS, 900 here, and il those figures are
not correct l shall make tRis bank
some trouble
"'You did have SIS, 900 last Satur,
day, but Mr.. Hirtz dew out $15, 600
MIR. Hirtz did nothing of the
sort, interrupted the merchant hotly.
Mr.. Hirtz did not draw one cent on
Saturday,
els that your writingG' 1 asked,
producing the check Mr.. Hirtz had
given me.
'Mr. Henderson was amazed | laid
down the paper before him.
""That certainly does look like my
check he said. 1T certainly does.
But it is a forgery
"Now il was my turn to be amazed.
If | had paid a forged check Of that
size | could count my chances of hold
ing nay position with a cipher. We
took the check to the cashier and ex-
amined 1t together, aud then we com
pared it with his other signature. It
was so nearly alike that we could
hardly tell them apart. The only diff
ference was that it was not written In
the ink Mr.. Henderson usually wrote
with. We sent down to Mr.. Hirtz's
office but it was closed, and his clerk
did not know where he had gone, hut
believed be left for New YorR. He
had made his escape. This strength
ened Mr.. henderson's statement. and
after a few days we made good the
amount and my resignation was de-
manded. | told our president that |
thought there was some mystery about
the matter, and | had the check litho-
graphed for my own use. A month
later Mr.. Henderson surprised the
business community by falling, and
after the settlement with bis creditors
he came out a bankrupt, determin-
ed to ferret out the mystery, and for
considerable time l searched the
country for any news of Mr.. Hirtz,
bu all 10 no avail. Finally / came
to New York and secured employment
Ia the bank whore / ana now.
About a year ago, while | was sit
ting in my private Office, l was sur
prised to see Mr.. Hirtz. l recognized
him before he did me.