Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1905-06-25

our business. said II bank official to Il
writer in London Tit Fits. Is that OF
signature expert the man who has to-
examine daily every draft that comes
In through the clearing house and
voucli for its gcnuincncss. our bank.
one of the largest In the city. employs
six clerks who io nothing All day long
but examine checks. ana when | tell
YOU that il is no uncommon thing for
10000 drafts 10 come in during II sin
gle day you will understand that the
job liz not altogether the snccurc II Is
popularity supposed to be-
These clerks have not only to scruti-
nizc the signatures Of both drawer and
drawcc, but also examine the "nlling
ill.," the latter being inst Ms important.
perhaps more So from Il monetary
point of view, rs the signatures. As II
matter Of fnct. the commoncst forgery
with which we have TO deal is the
'raising" Of checks, and Il forger OF
this nature generally chooses II check
herring genuine signature. hut hav
ing very little "tllling in
For Instance, he knows that II would
not DO difficult to raise Il check from
r3 to f3,0OO. for all he has to do is to
erase the word pounds" Insert the
word Thousand" and then add the
crnsc,l word again. ! have seen plenty
OF this Kind of work during the time
| have been examining checks.
Ono OF the most impudcnt pieces OF
forgery, however, that ever camo
across WIS check raised from Is to
$500. The forEer had evidently relied
on colossal impudencc carrying him
through, for he had simply added Il
couple of ciphcrs and then between the
words five" and pounds had placed
nm omission mark ana written the
word hundred" above. adding the in
itIals OF the drawer Of the check Just
to give the thing look Of careless gen
uncncsS.
It was so astounding piece Of cool
nudacty that we had bets on the
check, two of my assistants declaring
1t to be o. r., while the other three
and myself declared 1t to he forgery.
Further Inquiries of course, proved
that the opinion of the majority was
the correct one.
II Is marvellous what vast number
of signatures some clerks will carry In
their minds eye. as II were and thus
he able to piss checks by the thousand
without once having to refer to the sig
nature books. We had clcrk here Il
few years ago who was little less than
wonder He knew perfectly the sig
natures Of at least 5000 customers and
could detect the alteration of Il stroke
In any one of them in mn instant.
More remarkable still was the fact
that lie recognized with equal facility
the signatures OF those customers
whose checks only came III once or
twice year. But he made IN art OF
his work, and aftcrward discovered
that most of his evenings wcrc spent in
studying and learning the signatures OF
the customers, for he was II wonderful
hnnd Mt copying writing. and when
ever new signature would come I'm,
one with which he wis not acquainted
he would at once facsimile it In his
DOckcthoOk and by the next morning
would be able to recognize II among
10000
supposed to make copies Of customers
autographs, but many of them do. and
some men are clever enough Mt the
work to even deceive themselves
OF course, 1T is understood that when
the signature clerks 'arc not examining
checks they are studying the autograph
books In order to familiarZc them
selves with the caligraphy OF every
customer. Each check. You must un-
derstand. passes through tho hands of
each clerk In. turn. so that If ono should
pass forgery or raised" draft ii is
very unlikely that the entire staff
would do so. All these checks, of
course, come through the clearing
house, and if we should pass n forged
draft and not find out our mistake be.
fore 3 o'clock in the afternoon our
bank would be held responsible. One
of the commoncst lodges adopted by
the modern check forgcr is to get Il
customer of some small country bank
to introduce him to that institution us
q likely deposition. On the recomincn-
dalton OF the friend (who Is probably
quite unaware that the acquaintance
he made some few months ago Is Il
wrong 'un'o there Is 10 difficulty In
accepting their now clients check for
f2,G00, and the following day when tho
same customer calls and withdraws
f100 to 600, rs the case may be, he is
politely handed the cash. and then. or