Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1909-01-07
BANK USES OLD
WORLD SYSTEM
Thumb Marks Adapted to Mod
ern Day Banking in
Wyoming.

Cheyenne, Wyo The old Chinese
system of Identification by thunlb
marks has been adapted to modern
banking, and the method made famous
by Mark Twain in ''Puddin Head Will
SON is now in practical use in the
First National bank of this city as II
means of Identifying the signatures of
many foreigners who carry deposits. In
fact, the thumb mark has become as
necessary on checks drawn by that
class of the BANKS dcpositors as is
the written signature of the drawer of
the check itself. The system has been
in use in the First National for more
than a year and in that time the bank
has had not the least trouble with it's
foreign depositors. but. instead, has
found the arrangement working to
perfection.
There are probably more nationals
ties represented in and around cheS-
enne than i'm almost amy other part of
the country. The great mining camps
of the state have drawn every ma
tionality of Europe to themselves.
while the Union Pacific and Burling-
| ton railroads have brought hundreds of
railroad laborers from the Asiatic
countries Korean 'ditchcrs, Jap sec
ton men. Chinese workmcn. Mexicans.
Indians, Iitlluanians czechs. Poles.
Hunglrians. Bohemians. Welchmen,
lrshmen. Greeks. Italians and about
every other nationality can he found
around Cheyenne in the course of n
days search. MANY of these deposit
their savings in the First National
Bank of Cheyenne. and very few
of them, comparatively. cam write
their names, especially In letters which
can be read by IN ordinary American
business man.
An additional source of trouble Il"
the bankers WAS that so many OF the
f,t- "a
OF the same nationality that idcntiii-5
cation was almost impossible in many
cases. To the average American, every
Jap resembles every other Jap, while
Cinnamon are as much alike as peas.
Upon opening AN account with -
bank. il is always customary To have
the depositor file his signature HE
more readily To detec, a forgery.
should ono be attempted. But the
First National people We're up against
II when many of their depositore
placed signatures on file which were.
altogether past being decipherable
one day Assistant Cashier a -
thought himself of the .iallS Twain
story of l'uddn Head Wilson. and i'm
nediatclN he put the scheme in OPP
GRAFTON in the bank
AS II result each foreign patron of
The bank when ne deposits money
with the First Nationhl, u required 10
place his thumb on an linked pad and
then make AN impression on a card
which. with his ordinary signature and
his name as written by the bank
cashier. is deposited in the records ~
the bank. Whenever a check is pre-
sentcd drawn by this patron. his thumb
signature must appear ON the check
and must correspond With that on the
card in the record. If Ii does not so
correspond, the check is thrown out AZ
| 4 forgery.
A. ID. Johnson. the assistant cashier.
| who has charge of this branch of the
| bank work. has become SO proficient
in reading thumb signatures that he
can recognize the prints OF a great
many of the banks patrons without
| reference to the records.
The tidal rise and fall on the Pacific
| side OF the Isthmus of Panama is about
| ten times as much as on the Atlantic