the camera.  Safe breakers are often called upon by forgers and asked to secure a sheet of checks out of a checkbook.  When this is accomplished a few canceled checks are taken at the same time.  These are given to the forger and he fills them up for large amounts, after tracing or copying the signature.  The safe burglars receive a percentage on the amount realized.  If your safe vault or desk is broken open, where your check-book is kept, carefully count the leaves in your check-book, also your canceled checks.  If any are missing, notify the banks, and begin using a different style of check immediately.  The sneak thief, while plying his trade, often secures unsigned bonds of some corporation which has put the signed bonds in circulation, leaving the rest unsigned until the next meeting of the directors.

Frequently unsigned bonds are left in the bank vault for safe keeping.  These are stolen and sent to the penman or “scratcher.”  Then a genuine signed bond is purchased, from which the signatures are copied and then forged.  The same trick has been played on unsigned bank notes, but on the bank notes almost any name will do, as no person looks at the signature, as long as the note appears genuine.

The ingenuity of a countless army of sharpers is constantly at work in this country, devising plans to obtain funds dishonestly, without work, but, in fact, they often expend more time, skill, and labor in carrying out their nefarious schemes than would serve to earn the sum they finally secure, by honest labor.  Every banker must, therefore, be on his guard, and should acquaint himself with the most approved means of detecting and avoiding the most common swindlers.  This is just as necessary as it is to lock his books and cash in his safe before going home.

Next to the counterfeiter, the forger is the most dangerous criminal in business life.  Transactions involving the largest sums of money are completed on the faith in the genuineness of a signature.  Hence every effort should be made to acquire the art of detecting an imitation at a glance.  This can be done only by considerable practice.  It is asserted that every signature has character about it which cannot be perfectly copied, and which can always be detected by an experienced eye.  This is problematical, but certainly a skilful bank teller can hardly be deceived by the forgery of a name of a well-known depositor.

A banker should accustom himself to scrutinize closely the signatures of those with whom he deals.  He should cut off their names from the backs of checks and notes, and paste them in alphabetical order in an autograph book devoted to that purpose, and compare any suspicious signature with the genuine one.

In consequence of the numerous frauds committed by forged checks, some of the European bankers have adopted the custom of sending with their letter of advice a photograph of the person in whose favor the credit has been issued, and to stop the payment when the person who presents himself at the bank does not resemble the picture.  If this practice were to become universal, the object of preventing frauds could be well attained.