The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1918-06-20
BY WILLIAM ATHERTON DU PUY



y. G. Chapman
draw checks against the bank and that
the bookkeeper charge them tenn
porarily to other accounts. The de-
positor would cash the checks at other
banks and, when they came in, the
teller would merely turn them over to
the bookkeeper. probably asking If
there was money to meet them. In
this way depositor who nAver had
thousand dollars in the bank event
ually checked out $4,000"
There was teller Sloan volun-
teered, who worked in a bank here
who entered the deposits in the books
of the people making them and put
the money in his pocket There was
no record of it except in the pass
books. He got nearly all the money
that came in for two months before he
was found out"
There are lot of ways in which a
bookkeeper may hide the facts with
relation to bank" continued the spe-
cial agent. ut is pretty safe to charge
anything to the inactive account of an
estate or an endowed institution
accounts balance for the examiner. I'll
bet there isn't one bank in a dozen
that doesn't fool the examiner"
ITS the easiest thing in the
world" volunteered Sloan, ito take
the necessary number of leaves out Of
the loose-leaf ledger to counter-balance
it if the cash is short, and hide the
leaves until the examiner is gone"
Did you ever know that to be
done?" abruptly asked the special
agent.
The bookkeeper colored to his tenn
pies and was noticeably confused at
the question. Then he said he had
heard of its being done. The sleuth
would have sworn he had led the book
keeper into a confession.
Nothing was more natural than that
these two bank bookkeepers should re-
cur occasionally to the possibility of
SO arranging accounts that were in
questionable condition that they would
be passed by the examiner. Gard
would lead to this in such a way that
begun these discussions. Then he
would talk freely. He would tell SO
many stories that the timid Sloan
would want to relate few in furnish
ing his part of the entertainment. But
Gard knew that the bookkeeper was a
man without imagination and that he
could relate only what had happened
in his experience. So, he was all ears
when Sloan one night gave his opin-
ions on the subject of kiting.
"Of course" he said, "all banks have
depositors who kite their checks and
thereby get hold of money which they
may use for a week before they have
to make good. A depositor may turn
in a check for a thousand dollars,
drawn on a New York bank where he
has no money. At the same time he
sends the New York bank a check for
the same amount, drawn on you. This
causes the New York bank to honor
the check drawn against it. The check
drawn on you has to find it's way
through the clearing house and 1t will
be a week before it gets back. In the
meantime the depositor has had the
use of thousand dollars"
"But when it comes to real kiting,"
continued the bookkeeper, ut Is the
banks themselves that do it. If bank
has a sudden call for 100000 and
hasn't the money, all it has to do is to
send messenger with check to
friendly bank around the corner. The
messenger gets the whole amount in
cash. 1t appears as an asset of the
bank. 1t will be two or three days be-
fore the check will come back through
the clearing house and appear as
liability, or the friendly bank may hold
it up for day or two. The banks may
be swapping this sort of favors. The
bank examiner does not know of the
outstanding check. He is out of town
before it appears"
Special Agent Billy Gard was again
practically certain he had here been
told chapter out of the experiences
of the Second National. He began to
see his way clear to a denouement.
That same night events were tran
spring of which he was to know a
week later but which as yet were held
in confidence among the directors of
the Second National. They took place
at meeting of these same directors,
called by minority which was dis
satisfied with certain features of its
management Director Hinton,
sprightly and quick-tempered little
man, was the leader of the revolt. Sen
ator Bothdoldt was present as sup
porter of the management of the bank
as represented by the suave, forceful
cashier, Bayard Alexander, whose
hand sometimes shook at breakfast.
81 want to protest" Hinton began
by launching directly into the heart of
the matter in hand, against this new
loan to the McGrath Construction COM
pany. 1t has been three years now
that we have been pouring out our
money to these people. We have $780,
900 of their paper and want to be