persons sealing the package, a
thumb-print in wax will determine absolutely whether the wax has been
unbroken in transit, as well as establishing the identity of the
person putting on the first seal. As to the protective value of such a
thumb-seal, a case has been cited in which train robbers, discovering
a chance seal of the kind in wax of such a package, left that package
untouched when the express safe had been blown open; it was too
suggestive of danger to be risked.

In the ordinary usage of the thumb-print on bankable paper the city
bank having its country correspondents everywhere often is called upon
to cash a draft drawn by the country bank in favor of that bank's
customer, who may be a stranger in the city. The city bank desires to
accommodate the country correspondent as a first proposition. The
unidentified bearer of the draft in the city may have no acquaintance
able to identify him. If he presents the draft at the windows of the
big bank, hoping to satisfy the institution, and is turned away, he
feels hurt. By the thumb-print method he might have his money in a
moment.

In the first place, even the signature of the cashier of the country
bank will be enough to satisfy its correspondent in the city of the
genuineness of the draft. Before the country purchaser of the draft
has left the bank issuing the paper he will be required to make the
ink thumb-print in a space for that purpose. Without this imprint the
draft will have no value. If the system should be in use, the cashier
signing the draft will not affix his signature to the paper until this
imprint has been made in his presence.

Then, with his attested finger-print on the face of the draft, the
stranger in the city may go to the city bank, appearing at the window
of the newest teller, if need be. This teller will have at hand his
inked pad, faced with a sheet of smooth tin. He never may have seen
the customer before. He never may see him again. But under the
magnifying influences of an ordinary reading glass he may know past
the possibility of doubt that in the hands of the proper person named
in the draft the imprint which is made before him has been made by the
first purchaser of the draft.

In the more important and complicated transactions in bank paper one
bank may forward from the bank itself the finger-print proofs of
identity. The whole field of such necessities is open to adapted uses
of the method. Notes given by one bank to another in