1900 Harry Johnsons Bartenders Manual (Mixellany)

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If I had any advice to give, it would be not to cash any checks whatever, if it is possible to avoid doing so. Where there is a large number of checks cashed, there will be some trouble, if not actual loss, connected with the collections. In cashing checks, you should also have your wits about you, be as calm and collected as a bank official, examine the check, back and front, and see that it is perfectly drawn. Do not keep checks in your possession a minute longer than possible, but immediately place them in your bank, with your en- dorsement, for collection. By neglecting to do so, you may lose from no other reason than the failure of the parties drawing the checks or the banks upon which they are drawn, for if you do not deposit at once the law holds that you gave the maker a stipulated time, and you will not have the benefit of an ordinary claim against your debtors. Another important point is the common but exceed- ingly wrong habit of letting customers have blank checks. It is best not to do so under any circumstances unless you know perfectly well the one asking the favor of you, because this is how the rogue gets an oppor- tunity to forge both the body and signature of a check, having the right form and knowing where the party he intends to defraud deposits. I do not pretend to know all about banking formulas and arrangements, but I have had experience with checks, because in one place kept by me there were $5,000,000 worth passed through my hands in the course of a number of years. It is also well, in our line of business, to decline to lend cash money to customers, no matter whether an I. O. U, a due bill, or security, such as a watch, dia- monds, etc., are offered. If a man wants to lose his trade, all he has to do is to loan some of his custom- ers cash, and then he need not wonder why they remain away, though some of his other patrons may. It is not alone the sum of money you may lose, but also the