DARING EXPEDIENTS OF FORGERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2051, 15 June 1893, Page 41

DARING EXPEDIENTS OF FORGERS.

Not very long sinca a peculiar case of forgery came ucder the notice of the manager oE a certain London bank. A cheque was presented for payment which was detected as an attempted fraud. It was not for a large amount, but the matter was placed in the hands of the police.

Inquiries were made, at first without result. Nothing pointed to the identity of the forger ; but the detective who had the case in hand formed a theory, which he put to the test.

Employed in the office of the drawer whose signature had been imitated was a boy — a sharp lad, not long from school. There was no reason to suppose that this little fellow had access to his master's cheque book, or that he knew how to fill up a cheque. However, the detective thought he had been the guilty party, and taxed him with it— not once, but repeatedly. Finally the lad of 12 confessed to having Btolen a blank cheque. The question was, What did he want money for ? It was answered in a singular way. Search was made of bis desk, and in it were found a number of business letters which had passed between some patent agents and a "Mr Blank " respecting the obtaining of a protection for a new inven* tiOD.

" Mr Blank," it was difficult to realise, was none other than the office boy, for the correspondence had been conducted in the most serious fashion, *and the invention which "Mr Blatk" wished to patent was styled " The Eoom-de-ay Beit." In a drawer was also discovered the draft of a prospectus, drawn up in detail, of the "Boom-de-ay Belt Company," which " Mr Blank " proposed to float forthwith. The promotion money was got by tho forged cheque I When this story was told to the manager of the bank upon which the draft was drawn, he was so tickled by the amazing precocity of the boy that he sent for his employer and said:

" This lad has the makings of a city matt in him. He must not be sent to prison. Now, if you retain him, and give an eye to his welfare, we will not prosecute. Is it a bargain 1 " The employer consented, and _so the matter never came under the notice of a magistrate. In another case of forgery the ingenuity displayed was of a different kind. " Cheque raisirjg " was then common. It was done in this way. A gang of expert forgers, who were adepts in the art of erasing ink by chemicals, and altering the figures, were frequently heard of in country towns in consequence of their successful exploit?. Their plan was to buy goods, sheep, cattle, or anything which they could sell again to well-to-do tradesmen who were accustomed to pay by cheque. These details were ascertained in advance by a member of the gang, who then disappeared from the scene.

On oce occasion a cheque was cbtaired frr a small sum, and it was banded to the "chemist" of the party to "laise"— ie., to alter the writing and the figures in euch a way as to make the value of the cheque

much larger. Usually it was an ea3y job, but in this instance the chemist noticed that a peculiar kind of ink bad been used, and without some of the same sorb he did not dare to " raise" the cheque. 11 What is to be done ? " he asked. "Give the cheqae to me," said another member of the gang who had not previously figured in the business in that town. " I'll make it all square. Just show ms what alterations to make." The man, having bean instructed in these details, went at once to the shop of. the drawer of the cheque. It was a butcher's. The rogue bsught a chop, paid for it, and then coolly said : • l Can I take a dip of ink 1 I want to address a letter." " Oh, certainly," answered the unsuspecting butcher. " There's the bottla at the desk — help yourself." The forger did bo, and, right under the eyes of the man whom he intended to defraud, altered the bulcher'sown cheque with the ink which the tradesman was accustomed to use. The whole thing was done so coolly that the butcher never suspected anything wrong until his cheque, drawn for a small amount, was presented at his bankers, who were asked to pay 10 times the original figure. In another instance a forger, hard pressed by the detectives, retreated from town to town, exhausting hia resource?. At one placi he fell in with a Canadiau officer of police, with whom he chu tamed. All the while the detectives were on hi 3 track, and perhaps he hoped to disarm them by posing as the friend of a colonial colleague of theii*3. However, just in time he learned that they were close on the scent. He was without funds, and money was imperatively nseded to make his escape. Upon the mantelpiece his police friend had left his watch. He seized it, and with the money raised upon it was off to another Some while afterwards the detectives had occasion to send the forger's photograph to Canada, and the police officer who had bean robbed sent it back with the clear identification—"That is the man who took my watch "; and then it was the English police knew how it was the arcf ul rogue had discovered the mean 3to give them the slip just when they had made sure ol his capture. A year or two ago an exciting scone occurred in a London bank, due in the first instance to the over- elaboration of his plans on the part of a forger, who was, however, a novice at the business. A lad handed to the proper clerk a written application for a new cheque book, purporting to be signed by one ot the customers of the bank. The cheque book was duly handed to the boy, who took it away with him. Soon afterwards it was discovered that a request in writing had bsen added to the requisition form — "Please place under cover" — which by inadvertence had not beea complied with. A clerk was at ones sent to the firm to apologise for the mistake, and ha received the answer that something must certaiuly be wrong, as no cheque book had been sent for. Obviously a thieft had been committed, and the bank, being forewarned, was forearmed. A couple of hours afterwards two cheques were presented for payment. The cashier at once identified them as having been torn from the purloined cheqae book, and the signature to them ia other circumstances might have passed as that of the firm in whose name the cheque had been issued. As the amount of the cheque was large the clerk was requested to see the manager in his room, He went in there at once, without a sign of alarm ; but as in the meantime the police had been sent for the man's suspicions were aroused by the delay, and he suddenly made a bolt for the window. The cashier, who had followed the man into the room, closed with him, and when the clerks rushed in they found the cashier and the forger locked in a deadly struggle in the fireplace ; and the former might.have had the worst of it, for the thief 4 had in his pocket a loaded revolver. _^ THE HUNTING OP THE WREN. Perhaps the most curious of the prehistoric customs of the Isle of Man is that of " hunting the wren," founded on a popular tale, how at a former period a fairy of uncommon beauty exercised suoh an. influence on the male population that ab various timß3 she induced numbers of gallants to follow her footsteps until they were led into the sea and drowned. This practice continued for a while, until the island threatened to be exhausted of its defender?, when a knight discovered so powerful a means of counteracting her charms that she^escapad only by taking the form of a wren. In this way she evaded instant destruction, but a spell was laid on her by which she was condemned on every successive New Year's day to reanimate the form of the bird, and in the end to perish by human hands. Accordingly, on the morniug of the fated day every man and boy who has not risen above this superstition turns out to search for her, and woe betide the hapless wren which they come across, for it is inBtantly doomed to die as the enemy of the human race, the fairy possib'y inhabiting the particular bird seen hopping about. Every individual of the species is pursued, pelted at, fired at, and destroyed without mercy, and its feathers preserved with religious ■cara, it being an article of belief that any ■one of the relics gathered in this laudable pursuit is an effectual preservative against shipwreck for one year, and that the fisherman who should venture to sea without such a safeguard would be extremely foolhardy. At one time the wren was hunted on the 21th December ; afterwards ths date was changed to St. Stephen's Day, and when Mrs Bullock wrote, the new year seems to have been the proper psriod for this improving pursuit. After having carried one of the dead birds around th 3 village or countryside, and collected all the money they could, the corpse was at that period solemnly buried in the parish churchyard, while the company sang a dirge in the Manx language, and subsequently danced to mu3ic which they h >.d provided for the occasion. At present there is no particular day fixed for its interment. In Iceland, though the same ceremonies are nob followed, it is in many places customary, on tha anniversary of St. Stephen, to carry about a holly bush with many wrens hung to its branches, tha "wren-boys" meantime chanting a curious song proper to the oo<?a-

sion. Various attempts have been made to explain the custom, and it has even been traced among the Magyars and other people. But none of them are sufficiently satisfactory to be worthy of record.— From Cassell's " Peoples of ths World."