Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-27

the suppression OF smuggling. bank
ruptcy frauds. bucket shops. mail frauds
and night riders outrages. The most
cent additional task OF large importance
crusade against the white slavers. over
assigned this secret service force is the
.tN of whom have already been sent 10
the penitentary.
But the methods by which these law
breakers work are generally we'll known
TO the public. as well as to the detectives.
The story of cashier OF the ASSAY Of
flee at Seattle is one of these. For many
months miners from Alaska who depos-
tied their gold dust with the assay OF
fee to have its fineness determined were
surprised at the low grade of gold which
the assay revealed. He. meantime. wax
ed exceeding prosperous - far more so
than his modest Salary as cashier would
seem to warrant. Al last the double
mystery was solved: he used 10 slip back
to the assay Office In the dead OF night.
take out the miners ..pokes. or gold
bags. from the government strong boxes.
steal a part of the gold and make good
the deficit by weighing in counter
balancing amount of black sand. IL was
fraud which might have gone on yet
had he not gotten too greedy. for the
gold brought 10 the assay office was
never pure and a little mcf0 - less
alloy could not be detected. Ills only
mistake lay in taking SO much OF the
good metal that the adulteration soon
became palpable. He is now serving
five years.
81
Another unique piece of rHscaiity was
detected in the patent office. An inventor
filed number of applications relating to
metallic flaments for electro lamps. His
early applications were filed in December.
1904. and January. 1905. Two years later.
and after the fling by others of numer-
Gus applications covering their inventions
-, ho fold resistant examiner
removed the specifications from two of
the inventors applications apd substitute
ed forged papers ascribing to him many
of the discoveries of the other inventors
Upon these forged papers three patents
were granted to the inventor The dis
covery of these facts led TO the conv.c-
ton of the examiner and of the inven-
tors attorney. He himself was acauit-
ted. The patents. of course. were can
celed.
nugatory a remarkable attempt fraudu-
enormous value. This is said to be the
only attempt of it's kind ever made in the
history of the patent office.
Some of the most interesting crime
stories of all. however, We're uneartheo
by WriSley Brown, assistant to the At.
torney General. who has charge OF prose
cutions of bank frauds and who. in CO.
operation with the controller of the
currency, has done much to tighten vi
the national bank law.
1t is estimated roughly that perhaps 2
per cent of the banking law violations
implicate the leading men of the com.
munity in which the institution is located
the president, possibly. or powerful
director who becomes over-extended and
involves his bank in his operations.
One spectacular case with which
Brown has had to deal attracted
all the more attention at the Depart
ment of Justice by reason of the fact
that colossal defalcationS were commit
ted not by those directing the bank $
affairs. but by humble bookkeeper. wha
did not even have access to the cash.
The bookkeeper's scheme was as simple
as it was unique. He would fill out
his personal check on the bank in which
he worked for, say. $4,000. making II
which was the nearest city maintaining
a clearing house The latter would get
cash for the check and turn the pro-
ceeds over to the bookkeeper.
In course of time the clearing house
would return the check to the bank on
which it was drawn. where the book
keeper would destroy 1t. Then he would
charge the amount Of it off TO various
large inactive accounts. Meanwhile the
cashier, who handled only the aggregate
amount of the checks. had drawn his
cashiers check on the banks Boston de-
pository in satisfaction of the clearing
house balance. This balance. of course.
would include the bookkeeper's destroyed
check. Thus the bookkeeper got the real
money. the banks creditors i'm Boston
were paid, and the banks books at home
balanced.
1t was a year before any shortage was
discovered; and in this time the default
ing boOkkeeper got away with more
than 100000. most of which was lost in
gambling. When brought to account he
was sentenced to fifteen years, while his