The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1906-02-17

ing in making up checks for the clearing
house the ''phony'' one was detected and
referred to Mr.. Singerly, who simply said:
II thought Frank was spending lot of
money last night. He gave us a mighty
good supper. But the lodge of Elks had
fun over that check at many subsequent
session.
1t not infrequently happens that man
writing a check enters one sum in figures
and another sum in writing out in full
This is, of course, mere inadvertence, and
if the check reaches the bank on which it
is drawn the lesser amount is the one that
is paid
The other day grocer in New York
cashed such check for a customer for
$50 the amount that was written out and
the amount the customer asked for, but
the figures were for S. The grocer took
only cursory glance at the paper and the
next day sent it with other checks to his
bank, where it was accepted for S. In a
Ike way Of carelessness persons often forget
to date their checks. Usually the bank
will supply the da;e on small checks on
current account. but on important sums
they will be thrown out.
Paymaster E. n Whitehouse of the
navy, attached to the European squadron,
once drew at Plymouth for $50, 900 on j.
s. Morgan & Co., London, and presented
the draft to the Plymouth branch of the
Bank of England. The money was to be
used by the crew of the cruiser Boston,
who were to have shore leave at Plymouth.
1t was Endorsed by the commander of the
ship and the United States consul at Ply
mouth, and the consul went to the bank
with the paymaster for the money. The
manager declined to pay the draft until it
was accepted by J. S. Morgan & Co., be-
cause he did not know the officers. The
draft must be drawn in triplicate, he ex-
planned, and they should be dated as ema-
mating from the ship, and altogether he
was very surly to the visitors. A dispatch
from Morgan brought satisfactory accept
ance, and the manager of the Plymouth
bank counted forth the money in Bank of
England notes, one of which Mr.. White
house took up and read aloud, cat sight
the Bank of England will pay to bearer
''This is a note Of hand, he said. cit
is not accepted l will take gold. don't
know anything about this paper. 1t is not
legal tender
The bank manager had nothing to do
but to get together 3, 900 gold sovereigns,
which he did with bad grace, and White
house and the consul left congratulating
themselves that they were even with the
Plymouth branch of the Bank of England.
A few days after that the paymaster re-
ceived letter from j. S. Morgan Il Co.
asking authority to supply the date to his
drafts made at Plymouth, which had car
ried the month on which drawn, but not
the day. After all the haggling over them
they had gone through undated
The failure to date exchange resulted in
the discovery of the greatest scheme of
forgery ever successfully carried out and
in the arrest Of Mcdonald, the Bidwell
brothers and Ogle, the Bank of England
forgers. The forgers had running ac-
count at the west end branch of the Bank
of England, in London, and presented their
accepted exchange at six months, drawn
on Rothschilds in the city. The first bills
were good, the second ones fraudulent In
cleaning up this last project they presented
forged paper for $500, 900, but carelessly
left out the date of acceptance. The mes
senger of the Bank of England branch was
instructed to drop into Rothschilds' and
have them supply the missing date. He
did so and in a moment was surrounded by
the bank officers. In ten minutes the news
of the forgery was in every bank in En-
gland. The forgers escaped to America,
were arrested, extradited and sentenced to
life imprisonment So mistakes of this
kind sometimes work for good as well as i'll.
A case which partook something of the
nature of both good and i'll is related Of a
broker in New York who found himself
pressed for money at time when he had
to pay great many customers large sum
in the aggregate What he needed was
about four days time to realize on his as
sets. Without that time he must fail. So
he faced settling day with calm front and
coolly sent out checks to all his creditors
unsigned. In four days they all were back
again By that time he had made his
bank balance good and sent out checks
signed this time, with an apology for the
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