Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1905-07-09

To guard against the payment of
forged checks the banks have adopted
oil OF the precautions and expetiients
known. Necessarily their chief reli.
ancc Is on the skill and care of the
tellers, whose duty it is to puss upon
the checks and scrutiniZe them before
payment. Generally this duty de-
wolves upon the pnying teller or on
one or more Of his assistants. TO n
NATURAL aptitude for the memorizing
of Il handwriting must he added a
vigilance which never flags and n
pninstakinB care which never wearies.
1t will probably be surprise to pco,
pie outside of the banking business to
learn That but small percentage of
the forged checks are presented ut the
paying tcllcr's window The large pro-
portion OF forged checks are cashed ut
stores. hotels. railroad offices or Mt
banks other than the bank OH which
the forged check Is drawn. The reason
for this is that to present the forged
checB ut the bnnk OH which II Is drawn
would be to run too great n risk OF i'm
mediate detection and arrest. An
Identification IS necessary to yet Il
large sum Of money from lnnh, an,l
the risk IL too great to undertake for
small sum.
All careful bankers refuse to pay
cash IN large amounts to strangers,
even though the check may be made
payable to bearer. So that in order to
minimize the danger of apprehension
the willy forger cushcs his checks any,
where else than at the lrnwce bank.
Hence the bulk Of forged checks come
to the bank on which thcy are drawn
through the clearing house. AS has
been suited before, the teller who pass
cs upon these checks Possesses natu-
raj talent for carrying IN his memory
the impression OF hundreds of sigma
lures. To this natural aptitude Is
added an education Of years in the OK
animation and comparison Of sigma
turcs. His ability to distinguish a
forgery becomes greater from constant
practice, so that In course of time he
becomes very expert TO him the sig
natures become pictures which are fix
cd in his memory. SO that while II
would seem to mn onlooller that the
teller was running over the checks too
rapidly TO insure safety and that II
would be impossible for him TO picl,
out forgery while working Mt the
speed with which he is compelled to
work. nevertheless 1t is remarkable
how unerringly lie will throw out a
check which is not genuine or which
nNhft1ftc oh -
condition.
This same characteristic Is shown BY
expert counters OF money. The opera
tors fingers fly through bundle of
bills OF various denominations, bills In
different stnges OF ncwneSS, but stop
Instantly when counterfeit Is reached
even though the counterfeit be one
which has for the first time made its
appearance and has not as yet been
described or seen by the secret service
men. He has no knowledge that such 1,
counterfeit is in existence, but he does
know the genuine bills, and any that
vary from the genuine must be eoun.
terfeit. In the same manner the teller
passes upon signatures. He knows the
genuine from constant experience and
Intimate association. The forgery,
skillful though 1t may be. is still but a
forgery and can be detected. A lnpi-
dairy can distinguish the paste from the
genuine dinmond, but the ordinary man
can see no difference between them.
so with counterfeit money. The expert
ran READILY separate the spurious from
The good, even though the work on tho
counterfeit bill Is equal If not supe-
rior to Tint on the genuine The Judge
of counterfeit money has always n uni
form standard for comparison, but the
expert on handwriting has no unvary-
Ing standard. Ms 1t Is seldom that a
man writes his signature twice exactly
alike.-Chicago Bankers Monthly.