The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1913-08-02
Expert Has Little Difficulty in
Stealing Fortune.
Operator Finds II Easy to Alter Fine
Writing, but Difficult With Gale
sraphy Of Isnorant-"Man-
uaI" Used by Crooks.

Chicago.-A Chicago crook sat In
COON Just off La Sale street four
years ago studying a check. 1t was
made out for $27, and was certified by
the state bank on which 1t was drawn.
The crooks specially was check rails
ing. He was preparing to steal for
tune with the little piece Of paper.
The president of a cement construc-
ton company had written the check.
He had taken what he thought proper
business precautions. He wrote
''twenty-seven." drew a horizontal line
through two short vertical lines. and
added "and O0-10O" before the word
dollars on the check.
/ The long horizontal line through the
two short vertical lines. often termed
q hickey" il q frequent device
against the INSCRIPTIONS. The man In
the back room Just on La Sale street
made three movements with his pen
and the hickey" became "th." Then
he wrote "ous," the word "and" COM
pleting thousands" Three ciphers
were added to the figures in the line
above. The certified check was then
deposited in a trust and savings bank.
and a withdrawal of $4,000 was i'm
mediately made against 1t.
A veteran thief catcher in Chicago
recently, In recounting this incident,
added that there exists among pro-
fessional check raisers what amounts
to q manual.
Write me a check" he urged a WIS.,
itor.
A check for 5000 was written. 1t
was passed over to the detective.
Within two minutes, without an eras-
ure being made, it called for $500.
by the manual the figure two is
always potential Of Ave." he explain
cd. "The aim is always to avoid the
interlining or the extending Of words.
Check raisers know all the characters
which lend themselves to changes that
cannot be detected. The capital T,
as most of US write 1t, can, for In
stance, be changed to the capital F.
without the slightest trouble.
Here are a few Of the changes that
can be made almost as fast as writ
ten:
Zone to eight
1.-TWO to Ave-
""ren' to fifty
-Four to forty
Twenty to seventy
Now, the figure T. for instance,
may be readily formed into any other
figure save g and 81
"The word hundred may be formed
easily from the ripping scroll that
many write after a sum. Almost any
movement Of lines that have any regu-
larity may be formed into words.
"The hardest check to raise or alter
is the one written by nearly Hitter
ate person." the expert continues.
THE gracefully flowing hand is the
easiest changed.
There Is. in fact, no comparison
between raising checks with a genu-
inc signature and forging the sigma
ture itself-so far as the ease Of exc
cution is concerned.
"Of course, banks and business
house, many Of them, at least, pro-
tect themselves nowadays with de-
vices that brand a limitation OF the
check indelibly into the very texture
OF the paper. In this field, too, many
devices at first thought absolute safe.
guards were soon outwitted by the
crooks.
Filling Perforated Checks.
Take a machine that perforated
the paper with the exact amount for
which the check was drawn. Really
all that was needed was a common
little punch and a bottle Of invisible
glue. Every crook knows where to
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