The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1906-02-17
ODD BANKING ERRORS.
Remediable Mistakes And Some
That Went Unrectified.
From the New Yerk Pres

4 well known customer of bank stepp-
cd 10 the desk and wrote n check, talking
meanwhile with the teller, with whom he
was on intimate terms. When he had
finished he threw over the check, and the
teller counted him out 81, 800, When
the check passed to the bookkeeper he dis
covered it vas not signed.
That WAS a remediable mistake, but the
one that happened at the Girard bank in
Philadelphia did not have 50 trifing an
ending. 4 customer asked the teller to
balance his book. 1t was found that he
had credit for SO, 500
Il will draw that, Give me sight ex-
change on London, be said
When the bank balanced its books il
was 81 500 short, the sum for which the
clerk had written the exchange and which
the cashier himself had signed Mean
tine the buyer Of the exchange had gone
on a fishing trip and had forwarded the
bin Of exchange to his correspondents in
London, but until the bank could locate
their customer they could not ascertain the
NuGftAbRuAc VI luE uIuil- All thai
could be done was to notify their CORES
pondents in London not to pay its face.
The exchange was presented in London
for the full amount and protested. When
It's purchaser showed up he was able to
make fresh start in the transaction that
Strengthened it out, but the bank sacrificed
the services of a clerk who had previously
been valued employee.
Mistakes Of this kind are not frequent
in financial institutions but one took place
in the defunct Globe National bank in Chi
eago that never did get Strengthened out.
4 customer drew a check for 81, 900, and
a confidential clerk was sent for the money.
1t was an overdraft of some $500, and the
paying teller demurred at paying it. The
clerk appealed to the cashier, who consent
ed to pay the full amount aud put his mi
tials on the check. There was a line of
people at the teller's window when the
clerk returned. He waited until the teller
was relieved, then wrote the check for
SO, 900 instead of 81, 900. The cashier s
initials were guarantee, and the check
was paid without question. The clerk had
been a trusted employee in a brokerage
house, bat the sudden chance to get a large
sum of money was too great a temptation.
The bank stood the loss.
The ease with which a mistake can be
made is illustrated by fraud in jest that
was played upon William NJ. Singerly of
Philadelphia, He was among other things,
president of the Chestnut Street National
bank, and among his particular friends
were Frank Moran, the old negro minstrel,
and Richard Lennon, politician and mer-
chant, all of them members of the Benev-
client and Protective Order of Elks and full
of practical jokes. \ man up in Erie had
issued fac-simile of certified check as
as an advertisement 1t was for $500,
drawn upon the Bank of Good WIZ
and Endorsed by the cashier of the INA
tional Bank of Good Fortune. 1t was
stamped and looked ike bona fide CONNER
cial paper. One of them reached the
hands of Moran and Lennon, who strayed
into the president Office just before banking
hours were over and asked him to cash it,
Mr. Singerly, with a glance at the amount,
appended his initials and, calling clerk,
directed him to bring him five 500 bills
for the check. The clerk took it to the
teller, who counted out the money and re
turned it to Singerly, who passed it to Len
non. Moran invited the president to meet
him at a road house on Wissahickon drive
in two hours and went away. Next morn