The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-12-07
BLAcKsToNEs CRIMES.
He Adds Forgery to That of Embez-
Element.
The Methods by Which Ne Obtained
Money.
The amount of His Robbery StlII un.
discovered.

Ever since the 18th ult., when Howard T.
Blackstone, the former discount clerk of the
Canal National Bank, wrote to his wife that
he had pilfered the institution of $25, OOO the
committee Of directors have been hard at
work trying to ascertain his methods and
the amount taken. The books have been
thoroughly searched, the cash accounts fig
ured again and again, the notes scfutinized
with great vigilance, and the correspondents
accounts gone over with the greatest care
At last as we learn from undoubted authori-
ty, the committee have discovered the meth
DDS by which the frauds were committed,
and Furthermore that for gerry wos added to
the crime of embezzlement.
The ordinary routine of discounting notes
is for the notes to be handed to the direc-
tors to pass upon them. After the directors
have decided whether they will accept them
they are handed to the discount clerk who
lists them, or. in other words, puts them on
the list They are then passed to the cashier
who puts his initials and the OATS on them
In order to show when they passed through
his hands, and that he has looked them over.
Then they are handed back to the discount
clerk to remain in his keeping.
1t will be easy to see how ingenious Mr.
Blackstone's method was. He made notes
of his own. say one for $500, for instance.
forging somebody's name as maker or en-
dorser. This note he passed through the
usual forms without its going to the cashier
or directors. In order to do this he took the
opportunity when he was acting as paying tel
leri in the absence Of Mr.. Peters, and would
pay the discount slips to himself Let us
say the $500 note was in the name of per-
son who was not a regular customer of the
bank 1t would not be credited to him, but
when he came in and asked if his note was
discounted the discount clerk would give him
a slip of paper with the amount on it to be
passed to the paying teller. These slips he
made out and as paying teller, he paid the
money to himself and when the notes ma
tured he paid them by discounting another
note in the same way.
The notes were not left behind by Mr..
Blackstone but only the figures on the books
to show how the rascality was accomplished.
1t was most ingenious system and proba-
bly, could not have been ACCOMPLISHED but
for the opportunity afforded by filling the
paying tellers position so often, and last
summer for so long time. Another proof
OF the peridy of Blackstone rests in the fact
that the paying teller, whose office he
abused, was the very man who had been his
kindest friend and who had always taken in
his protege the greatest pride. In fact the
slips Blackstone gave out as paying teller he
made to counterfeit Mr.. Peters's style as
much as possible.
The great question that now agitates the
mind of the directors is how he managed to
elude the National Bank Examiner, Mr..
Wiswell, when that gentleman made his
annual examinations. The only way they
can think of is by forged notes.
The full amount of the banks loss is not
yet known. The directors are hard at work
and it will probably soon be ascertained.
1t is now rumored that the amount of the
defalcation will be nearer $4,000 than $685.
O00