them in an instant.

More remarkable still was the fact that he recognized with equal
facility the signatures of those customers whose checks only came in
once or twice a year. But he made an art of his work, and I afterward
discovered that most of his evenings were spent in studying and
learning the signatures of the customers, for he was a wonderful hand
at copying writing, and whenever a new signature would come in, one
with which he was not acquainted, he would at once facsimile it in his
pocket-book, and by the next morning would be able to recognize it
among 10,000.

Signature clerks are not, as a rule, supposed to make copies of
customers' autographs, but many of them do, and some men are clever
enough at the work to even deceive themselves.

Of course, it is understood that when the signature clerks are not
examining checks they are studying the autograph books in order to
familiarize themselves with the calligraphy of every customer. Each
check, you must understand, passes through the hands of each clerk in
turn, so that if one should pass a forgery or a "raised" draft it is
very unlikely that the entire staff would do so. All these checks, of
course, come through the clearing house, and if we should pass a
forged draft and not find out our mistake before three o 'clock in the
afternoon our bank would be held responsible. One of the commonest
dodges adopted by the modern check-forger is to get a customer of some
small country bank to introduce him to that institution as a likely
depositor. On the recommendation of the friend (who is probably quite
unaware that the acquaintance he made some few months ago is a
"wrong'un") there is no difficulty in accepting their new client's