e bank said to him: "Suppose the clerk had waited one
day longer and then drawn the money, you would have been the loser
just the same." The man admitted all this, but replied, nevertheless,
that he had not changed the date; that the bank ought to have seen the
alteration before paying, and as it did not it was negligent in that
regard, and the bank was obliged to lose.

When a person takes a cheque he naturally supposes that the bank on
which it is drawn owes the money to him because he can truly demand
it. _Suppose a bank refuses to pay, can the holder then sue the bank
for money?_ In six States--Illinois, South Carolina, Missouri,
Kentucky, Colorado, and Texas--the holder of such a cheque can sue the
bank and get his money. The courts in those States say that a cheque
is an assignment or transfer of the amount of money stated to the
holder of the cheque from the time that the cheque was given him. The
law in all of the other States is otherwise, and a bank for a good
reason can decline to pay a cheque, and, in any event, the holder
cannot sue the bank for the amount. If it will not pay he must look to
the maker and not the bank for payment. Of course, _a cheque must
always be drawn against a deposit, and it is a fraud on the part of a
person to draw a cheque on a bank when he has no money there_.
Sometimes mistakes are made by banks in their bookkeeping, and they
think they have not the money to pay when in truth they have. In such
cases they sometimes decline to pay, but even if they had the money
the law says that there is no contract between the holder of a cheque
and the bank on which it is drawn, and therefore the holder cannot
sue it should it refuse to pay. This rule, however, is rather losing
ground and the other is coming into more general favour--that a cheque
does operate to transfer the money of the maker to the holder and,
consequently, that he has a right to sue the bank for the money.

Cheques are made payable either to bearer or order. If a cheque is
made payable to bearer it can be transferred from one person to
another simply by handing it to him--by delivery; but if a cheque is
made payable to order, then the person who receives it, if wishing to
transfer it to some one else, must write his name on the back. If he
writes his name on the back it is called a blank indorsement, and this
form is often used in transferring cheques. If, however, a person
intends to send a cheque through the mail he shou