big bank, hoping to satisfy the institution, and is turned away, he
feels hurt. By the thumb-print method he might have his money in a
moment.

In the first place, even the signature of the cashier of the country
bank will be enough to satisfy its correspondent in the city of the
genuineness of the draft. Before the country purchaser of the draft
has left the bank issuing the paper he will be required to make the
ink thumb-print in a space for that purpose. Without this imprint the
draft will have no value. If the system should be in use, the cashier
signing the draft will not affix his signature to the paper until this
imprint has been made in his presence.

Then, with his attested finger-print on the face of the draft, the
stranger in the city may go to the city bank, appearing at the window
of the newest teller, if need be. This teller will have at hand his
inked pad, faced with a sheet of smooth tin. He never may have seen
the customer before. He never may see him again. But under the
magnifying influences of an ordinary reading glass he may know past
the possibility of doubt that in the hands of the proper person named
in the draft the imprint which is made before him has been made by the
first purchaser of the draft.

In the more important and complicated transactions in bank paper one
bank may forward from the bank itself the finger-print proofs of
identity. The whole field of such necessities is open to adapted uses
of the method. Notes given by one bank to another in high figures may
be protected in every way by these imprints. Stock issues and
institution bonds would be worthy of the thumb-print precautions, as
would be every other form of paper which might tempt either the forger