ly, the chances are that he will think that the pieces are parts
of the same check, and becomes a victim of the swindle. The trick, of
course, suggests its own remedy.

It is a well-known fact that there are banks in the country that have
paid thousands of dollars on raised checks, and decided that it was
cheaper for them to pocket the loss than to have the facts become
known.

The New York Court of Appeals holds that the maker of a check is
obliged to use all due diligence in protecting it, and the omission to
use the most effectual protection against alterations is regarded as
an evidence of neglect.

Here are a few points about raising checks and drafts that should be
carefully noted: To successfully raise a check or draft requires so
much less skill or art than to accomplish a forgery that it has of
late become alarmingly prevalent. Often where a check or draft is
printed on ordinary paper the original figures are removed by some
chemical process so skilfully that no alteration can be detected, even
with a strong magnifying glass.

It is not uncommon, when filling up checks or drafts, to take another
pen, and with red ink write the amount across the face of the paper,
and again make the figures in and through the signature. All these
precautions may make tampering with the amount more difficult for a
clumsy novice, but it only imposes a few moments' more work upon the
accomplished manipulator. He takes his strong solution of chloride of
lime and rain water, or other prepared chemicals, and with a pen
suited to the purpose, by neutralizing and abstracting the coloring
properties of the ink, he carefully obliterates such portions of the
lines in the figures and written amounts as suits his purpose, then
easily makes the alteration he desires, the red ink coming out as
readily as black. And if the tint or coloring of the paper should have
been affected by his cautious touch, he takes the proper shade of
crayon or water-color, and carefully replaces the original shade.

Now, the signature not being touched, but remaining genuine, and the
payer not being supposed to know who wrote the check, but only who
signed it, he pays the amount specified, and the law holds the "maker
of the check responsible when there is nothing in its appearance to
excite suspicion, and the signature is proven genuine."

CHAPTER VII

THE HANDWRITING EXPERT

No Law Regulating Experience and Skill Necessary to Constitute An
Expert-