CHAPTER   XL.

FORGERS AND THEIR METHODS —WILY DEVICES AND BRAINY
SCHEMES OP A DANGEROUS CLASS —TRICKS ON BANKS —
HOW BUSINESS MEN ARE DEFRAUDED.

A Crime That is Easily Perpetrated, and Detected with Difficulty — Pro¬
fessional Forgers — Men of Brains — Secret Workshops — Raising Checks

— A Forger's Agents and Go-betweens — The Organization  of a Gang

— How They Cover Their Tracks — In the Clutches of Sharpers — The
First Step in Crime — Various Methods of Passing Forged Paper —
Paving the Way for an Operation — Dangerous Schemes — Daring and
Clever Forgeries — Interesting Cases — How Banks are Defrauded — Es¬
tablishing Confldence with a Bank — A Smart Gang — Altering and Rais¬
ing Checks and Drjifts — How Storekeepers and Business Men are De¬
frauded — Cashing a Burnt Check — Crafty and Audacious Forgers —
A Great Plot Frustrated — Deceiving the Head of a Foreign Detective
Bureau — A Remarkable Story — Startling and Unexpected News —
Thrown off His Guard — Escape of the Criminal and His Band.

A DISTINGUISHED and learned criminal jurist tersely de¬
scribed forgery as " the false making or materially alter¬
ing, with intent to defraud, any Y'riting which, if genuine,
might apparently be of legal efficacy in the foundation of a
legal liability." The crime, in a general sense, is the illegal
falsification or counterfeiting of a writing, bill, bond, Y'ill, or
other document, and the statutes generaUy make the uttering
or using the forged instruments essential to the offense. The
uttering is complete, however, if an attempt is made to use the
fraudulent paper as intended, though the forgery be discovered
in season to defeat the fraud designed. The intent to deceive
and defraud is often conclusively presumed from the forgery
itself. If one forge a name, word, or even figure of a note,
and cause it to be discounted, it is no defense whatever to the
charge of forgery that he intended to pay the note himself,
and had actually made provisions that no person should be in-

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