had to get out of the bank in a hurry and leave the check or draft, as
the paying teller was suspicious.

A "presenter" caught at this trick is sometimes sent into a bank to
present a forged check where the bank has been previously warned of
his coming by an anonymous letter. This is done as a punishment for
his dishonesty and as a warning to others against treachery.

That the professional forger eventually profits but little by his
ill-gotten gains is well illustrated by the fate of the most of them,
who end their days in prison.

In the case of a forgery there are a dozen methods for detecting
it--in the quality of the ink, in the quality of paper, in microscopic
examination of the irregularities in penmanship, in "labored" tracings
that show exaggerated tracings, in composite photography, and by a
dozen little common-sense observations that scarcely can be
controverted.

Some forgeries have been detected by the mere water-mark in the paper.
Sittl of Munich is quoted as having had referred to him a possible
forgery of a document dated 1868. Holding the paper to the light, he
found as a water-mark in it the figure of the eagle of the German
Empire--a symbol which had not been adopted at all until after the
French war of 1870.

The magnifying glass is depended upon for many disclosures of
forgeries. The unduly serrated edges of the ink lines are quickly
marked in a forgery, though under certain circumstances a situation
may be such as to force a person into this laborious writing; he may