In one of the large banks where the finger print system was introduced, they make it a rule that when a depositor cannot read or write, he shall, in addition to making his mark in the old way on checks or documents, place the finger print of the thumb or index finger on them.
Important in Will Contests.
Finger prints are also used in the making of wills, so that while the signature of the testator may be contested, it is almost impossible to contest the signature of the fingers, for so long as the skin of the fingers of the dead person can be taken up, just so long can the finger print impression be obtained to verify the living imprint.
It is only a question of time before all large transportation companies, like express and railways, whose employes handle packages of money or other valuables, will be required to place their finger prints on file, so that when money or valuables are missing the cover of the package will indicate who handled or tampered with it.
How to Detect a Forger.
How to detect a forger as one of the cleverest of operating criminals has been solved by the "thumb print" method of identification now spreading through the rogues' galleries of the world.
It is quite as interesting as the suggestion that through the same thumb print method in commercial and banking houses the forger is likely to become a creature without occupation and chirographical or other means of support.
The system is not only a great aid in preventing the forgeries of commercial brigands, but the easiest of all means for a person in a strange city to identify himself as the lawful possessor of check, or note, or bank draft which he may wish to turn into cash at a banker's window.
Used in Ancient Times.
A thousand years ago the Chinese were using the thumb print signatures in commercial business. Its practical adaptation today is explained at a glance in the check reproduced here, as it was filled out by Mr. McClaughry himself. In this check the design is that the maker of the check, before leaving home for a distant city, shall draw the check for the needed sum and, in the presence of the cashier of his bank, place one thumb print in ink somewhere over the amount of the check as written in figures. Thereupon the cashier of the bank will accept the check as certified by his institution. With this paper in his possession the drawer of the check may go from his home in New York to San Francisco, stranger to every person in the city, but at the window of any bank in that city, presenting his certified check to a teller who has a reading glass at his hand, the stranger may satisfy the most careful of banks by a mere imprint of his thumb somewhere else upon the face of the check.