1900 Harry Johnsons Bartenders Manual (Mixellany)

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has. If you know all about the endorser, that he is a man of good standing and ample means, and the check is afterward returned to you, marked "N. G." or stamped "Insufficient Funds," then you have an opportunity to collect by process of law, if necessary, from the endorser. To repeat: In every case you should know the business and residence address of all those connected with the check—the maker, the en- dorser, and the person who presents the check. Another point is, that when you accommodate your patrons by cashing their checks, and a certain party is in the habit of taking advantage of your willingness very often, it is then wise to find out the reason why, for, as a rule, a man that makes it a habitual practice of using checks in payment is one who has not much money in the bank, and this class generally exist and keep up their bank account on the strength of other peopled money. For instance: There are a set of men known as "check writers"—you may know them by their over-politeness and frequently their extreme gen- erosity, which costs them nothing—who may have in bank the sum of $5, $2, or only five cents. Cashing a check of $200 with you, they will deposit $150, keep the balance in their pocket, and, during the same day or upon the next, will cash another check for $100 or more elsewhere, deposit enough of this to make the check you have taken "good," and in all probability will be asking the same favor of you again in a few days and repeat it from time to time with you, and probably several other people, always increasing the size of the sum of money, until at last they are finally refused everywhere, and then the crash comes. They are then, as they have always virtually been, bankrupt, and you and others must lose the amount of the last check cashed. It is useless to sue them, and you have no chance for criminal prosecution against them, be- cause they have always had an account at the bank.