Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1900 — Not His Customary Style. [ARTICLE]

Not His Customary Style.

“Bank clerks are so ofteu called upon for directions that they sometimes fall intq the habit of giving them in a hurried and mechanical manner, consequently they are frequently misunderstood,” remarked the clerk of an institution in New York. “For instance,' the usual formula when a stranger is called upon to sign his name is, ‘Sign lierq—pen aud ink at your left hand.’ One morning last week a stranger entered our bank and asked me for a certificate of deposit for a considerable sum of money which he handed over. I counted the money aud found the amount to be as stated aud hurriedly said: ’Sign there, sir—pen aud ink at your left hand.’ “Wall, it took the stranger a long time to sign his name, but I thought nothing more of it and Issued the certificate of deposit. About a week later the same man, whose face I had forgotten, reappeared and presented tlie certificate. He dashed off an ornate signature, which I proceeded to compare with the first signature. The two were vastly different, as the first one was apparently the labored effort of an old mat). ] “’I can’t pay you this money, sir,’ I said. “ ‘Why not?* asked the astonished stranger. “ ‘Bee A use it is not the signature of the man to whom 1 Issued tlie certificate of deposit,’ I replied. “-‘Well,’ said tlie stranger, ‘when I was here a week ago you told me to write my name with my left hand, aud I did so, hut I can’t write very well that way.’ ” | “ ’Then will you oblige me by writing your name with your left hand again?’ 1 asked, a* a light dawned upon me. “ ‘Certainly,’ said the man. and after much laiio.: he produced a facsimile of his first signature, and I apologized aud paid him his money.”—Washington Star.