The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1907-07-11

49,
N Paying TeiIerS
Vi1dfcoffon.

[Original.l

years old his father died insolyent, and
Ned suddenly found the burden of car
Ing for his mother and two sisters
thrown upon his young shoulders. An
old friend of the family took him to
the president of the Twelfth National
hank. the stock Of which he was the
largest owner, and said:
"This is Ned Barnicoat l would
like you to make position for him Al
the bottom round of the ladder and al
vance him as rapidly as he shows fl
ness for advancement
Ned showed such carefulness, integ-
rity and other faculties required by
one handling a great deal Of moleJe
that in short time he was advanced
to the position Of receiving teller Wieh
salary that enabled him to take fair
~ good care of his mother and sisters
Then something happened that for
time made it questionable whether he
would go up higher in the scale or be
turned out of his position altogether.
One day an Office boy from the firm
of Peter Bushnell & Co. came to Ned':s
window with a deposit. Peter Bush
nell was a director of the bank and
one of its largest depositors. At least
he had held large account there, but
after a heavy slump In stocks it had
been overdrawn There were eighteen
checks for deposit, one for $4,000 1t.
was drawn by William Copeland to Pc
ter Bushnell's order and had, of course,
been Endorsed by Bushnell. There was.
a slight roughness apparent to Ned's
eve. practiced on such matters, on the
paper where the figures denoting the
amount to be paid were written Ned
passed his thumb over the place and
thought he felt the roughness. He
turned from his cage and asked two OF
his fellow clerks if they noticed what
he thought he noticed. Neither of them
could see or feel anything unusual.
Ned felt in his innermost conscious
ness that the check had been raised.
If it had been originally drawn for
$1,000, there was room in the written
amount between two" and thou
sand" to make the o an e and fill in
the letters "nty' There seemed to
Ned to be the same roughness on the
written as on the figure portion-that
is, Ned thought there was roughness
on both, though the clerks not detect,
ing it made him doubt his discovery.
To charge Peter Bushnell with rails
ing a check would be to create an en-
envy who had the power to end the
teller's connection with the bank. 1t
was here that Ned displayed qualities
of daring mingled with caution. He
resolved to refuse to pay the check, but
leave some mark upon it by which he
should know 1t again. He picked a
pin hole in every cipher on the check,
none Of which could be detected until
it was looked for. But even this did
not satisfy him. He knew that in
criminal proceeding involving a swim
die Of $4,000 many devices were pos
sible to make the transaction appear
perfectly straight" Keeping the mes
senger waiting, he took the check to
one of his chums among the clerks
who had Photographic implements and
got him to take an enlarged picture
of it. Then he went back to his cage,
gave credit for the other checks and
sent back the suspected one with the
rightly written.
No reply was returned, but few
weeks after the occurrence Ned was
discharged at the request of Peter
Bushnell, ostensibly to make way for
Bushnell's nephew. Ned knew the
battle was on. He went to the presi
dent and told his story.
The president had no choice but to
investigate, and there was the evi-
dence of the paying teller and two
clerks that a check for $4,000 in
dorsed by Bushnell had been present
ed, refused and nothing since heard of
it. Ned swore that it had been raised,
and Bushnell was charged with having
raised it. Bushnell stormed and swore
that he would not rest till he had pat
Ned behind bars for a malicious and
false statement
On the day of the trial Ned kissed
his mother, wEo feared the worst for
the result of a tussle with one of the
directors of the bank, and went to
court. He was the first witness called,
and he told of the check having been
presented. His statement was backed
by the two clerks 20 whom he had
shown it. This threw the ether side on
the defensive. Bushnell's lawyer pro-
duced check identical with the one
that had been presented, except that
the amount was $1,000 instead of 500
600. The check was given to Ned for
inspection. He at once declared that
it was not the original check.
"How do you know? asked the at
torney for the defense.
Because in the original l pricked
pin hole In every cipher"
Are there witnesses who saw the
pin holesY'
81 can show the pin holes them
selves"
Ned pulled from his pocket q photo
graph Of the original check which
plainly showed the pin holes.
Bushnell turned pale.
The trial was simply question be-
tween Ned and the accused man. The