The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1897-01-16
WoTlMlze BANKS,
now Forging syhdlcntes Make Thousands
OF Dollars

OF Dollars,
The recent arrest OF the rlnglcaders
ot regular eheekraising and forging
Nndleates has been Q revelation 20 the
public, sgr mas made generally known
"A state Of affairs which bankers and
secret service men have been aware Of
Zoe many years
the Eoysrhmeat offered a reward
many years ago for a writing Ink
which would not be removed hN Nails or
other chemicals "Aerc were hundreds
" iAks offered, and not one Of them
net the requirements, Those that
actually were indelble were worth
less for writing and would not flow,
while the hest Of those Tint would how
were only indelible when allowed 20
lie u long time on a par',us Paper.
what " true as to ink is true as 20
the thousand and one mechanical de-
vices for protecting commercial paper
which have been put upon the markpt,
There are four er iltt hrns in New
York al6he which have made from
81 ,0oo,o 900 to 100000 each by the man
ufacture and sale OF articles of this
kind, not one of which but has been
beaten" scores o. tmeA ma not one
of which II 81 the slightest value cx-
ctpt MS against the efforts of the merest
tyros in the cheekraising industry.
So profitable has become the forg-
ing and chccli-raising industry that
capitalized syndirates stch "a the Val.
entine gang Or The Becker gang-have
deliberately engaged in it and have
stolen great sums in an incredibly
short time. The Becker gHng is esti-
mated to have obtained 100000 in this
way within ihree months, hhd were
only caught On one draft raised front
NJ to $4,000 and successfully cashed
in San Francisco.
Carelessness in making out checks is
OF course, fruitful Source OF crime, as
in many Instances the possibility Of
n sufe alteration Y Elaring-
ly bsfor1 the eye, This temptation
has brought many young man TO ruin
hut the losses from this source are
tritling compared with those of the
regular professional check-raisers.
These gentry have an equipment OF
tools aud chemicals as complete in
their way as the tools used by bur,
glars, and the manufacture of these
articles, especially for criminal pur
poses, is quite as extensive as is the
of burglars tools, re
outfit consists Of three Or four kinds OF
arida fot removing ink; all the various
cutting machines used for cutting out
figures in the body Of the check,
device at one time supposed 10 be in
vulnerable, but ene OF The easiest OF
all ia beats a complete supply of &c
different kinds of delicate brushes and
4 palette of artists eeldre.
These eoi0fs and brushes are used to |
restore the lines in tinted paper after
-he tint has been taken out by the acid
used in removing the ink Gfeat sums
IF money, by the way, have been spent
n the Manufacture of this tihtpi rtp3f |
money entirely thrown away, as the
haVes have processes which restore the
int whenever their operations may
nave destroyed it and restore il so per
'ectly as TO utterly defy detection;
The hippers are ',srd especially tn
beat the HgiteB out of the check OF
draft by the various machines made for
hat purpose. With the nippers, which
IRE curiously and delieetelS p5ihted,
he minutest particle of paper can be
picked UP and deity handled. The
width of the figure is measured, and
lien the expert knows, provided he does
act recognize it at q glance, which
machine cut It. With his own CORE
'pcnding machine he cuts the same fig.
Tres from the same kind of paper-for
stock of every variety OF paper used
s part of his equipment-and fills in
he cut-out figures by the aid of the
ippers and his materials for dressing
md hardening down the surface after
lis work is done.-N. Y. World.