The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-02-09
DEFAULrEas' DODGEs.
The way by which sn,pioyes Rob Their
Employers.
Chicago Tribune. !

Chicago Tribune
Defs-cstloD ~ persons occupying positionf
OF trust, which bids fair to deserve the name
of the american system" has become so
common that the number of xpert account
ants who undertake to ferret out the mystery
OF default has been rapidly swelled within
the last few years. The life of an expert is
both wearisome and exciting. q litting his
home at midnight he Is driven rapidly TO the
house where the suspected cashier or BIO 1k-
keeper is employed and buries himself in
figures until the dawn of day. Nd one must
surmise his employment, least of all the
man whose methods are to be sifted. Everv
book must be replaced precisely as IL was left
at the close of business, and not trace of the
midnight intruder must remain. Sometimes,
too. the detective himself becomes an object
OF suspicion, and few who have been long
engaged in this nocturnal employment have
escaped arrest at some time or other. Rob-
berries have often been perpetrated by per-
soDs protesting to be employed about the
premises at night, aud the police have grown
so suspicious of this pretense that the loud
est protesiations of an honest detective &C
countant have sometimes been unavailing
to save him from arrest.
A resident of Chicago, whose long expert
eDce in the examination of irregular &C.
counts gives his opinion some value, ex-
prestes his conviction that there is hardly a
large establishment in the city in which
remarkable difference, he says. between
conservative business concerns of England
and Scotland and the dashing, goIucky
houses OF America. In the steady business
OF Great Britain. where the son succeeds TIE
father and is trained in the counting house
from his early years, ell the details Of mis-
Office are carefully elaborated, and no one
can steal five cents without being found
ont. But here shrewd business man estab
fishes an enormous business without giving
any part of his attention TO the routine of
the flee, and as his employees usually re
ceive q beggarlv allowance, it is scarcely to
be wor dered that they add to their salary
by theft
much as should deprecats any attempt
to excuse the thief" said this man. Il feel
no COMMUNICATION whatsoever for the mer-
chsut or ban ker who looks for honesty in q
clerk or cashier WIN is paid $50 month
for har ding 500 600 a year, without any
check or safeguard imposed upon him. An
employer who expects fidelity should re-
ward his servants according to the response
bility of place. The loose and inadequate
systems of some firms sre amusing do not
believe there is a large establishment in Chi
cago where, if employed in a position OF
trust, / could not steal thousands of dollars
every year.
There are several different kinds of de-
faicatiops which We often have to deal with.
First I'll ere is the blunderer, who takes ad
vantsge OF mistake to pocket the odd cash.
Suppose he has the pay roll to make out In
q house where fifty men are employed. That
duty Is generally considered so purely me-
cbauical that some subordinate employe is
delegated to draw up the pay roll. He credits
each man with his proper salary. but By
mistake makes the footings $500 instead of
500 The proprietor LOOKS over the ROLL
Observes the correctness of each item
taxes the footing for granted, and draws his
check for $500. The young man pot, the
weekly stipend of each person in an en-
vtlope fiDds surplus OF $l5, and, discover.
ing bis error, pockets thst amount. Then he
reflects what fool he has been to live on
$50 month when by careful bllnder
every week he might easily double his in
come. The suggestion of accident is turned
into system, and he becomes regular de-
ought, of course, to be imperative, but az
matter of fact he quietly destroys the evil
dence of his crime, which is never sus pected
until the drain is felt by the firm or his own
style of living betrays him. Even after he
knows himself 10 be suspected he will n OF
stophis thieving: Having acquired certain
habits and associated himself with certain
companions he will not reduce his expenses,
but sets himself to invent some new mode Of
cheating. Fearing to betray himself by in.
correct footings, he begins TO insert in the
payroll the names of dead men," or those
no longer employed In the mouse. By TINS
ruse he succeeds in deferring the day of
judgment
The blunderer is harder to detect than
the systematic defsulter. A bookkeeper will
sometimes enter all items correctly in his
cash-boek, bat when he comes to post his so
counts will doctor the footings. He will
enter debit tor general expenses, with some
hieroglyphics intended to psrticularizs the
items of expenditure. Instead of the cor
rect footing of S3lS 81 he will write SilS 81
get the voucher, and pocket 500. After q
month or so, when the items are forgotten,
be will turn back and prefix the figure l to
some one of them. making the footing ap-
parently correct. No one can explain his
abbreviated notes bat himself. aud so he
feels that he has covered up the tracks OF
his dishonesty. He takes his chances of not
being called on to answer for his accounts
during the month past
THE expert will readily detect the deceit
1t is impossible for q man, sfter the lapse of
q mon tn. to change the 6g1res 81 80 to Isl. 90
without enabling pracIicsd eye to recog-
nize the inserted digit Generally the in.
truding figure Is dried with q blotter, Will