The ordinary letter of credit is the leading and usual instrument for the use of travelers in Europe and has now become such a common feature of banking that every one should be familiar with its form and purpose. We reproduce a facsimile of the first and second pages of a circular letter for £500. The first is the credit proper, authorizing the various correspondents of the bank issuing it, who are named on the third and fourth pages, or any other banker to whom the letter may be presented, to pay the holder, whose signature is given on its face, money to the extent of £500. The second page shows how the holder availed himself of the advantages of the letter. It gives the names of the banks to which he presented his letter and the amounts paid by each. With such a letter a traveler could make a trip around the world and not carry in his pocket at any one time more gold or silver or bills than would be necessary to meet immediate local expenses. When a banker issues a letter of credit, the party purchasing it, and who is to use it abroad, places his signature upon a lower corner of the document in the banker's presence. Other copies of the signature are left and are forwarded to the leading foreign bankers drawn upon. When the party buying the draft presents himself at a London or Paris bank with his letter of credit and asks for a payment upon it, the banker asks him to sign a draft on the American banker issuing the letter, for the amount required, which amount is properly entered upon the letter of credit before it is returned to the payee. Payment is usually made upon the simple identification or comparison of signatures.

Second Page of Letter of Credit.

If a traveler should lose his letter of credit he should notify at once the banks upon and by whom it is drawn.

These letters are cash anywhere. Almost any banker in the world will at any time consider it to his advantage to buy a reliable sterling draft on London. Such drafts should sell at a premium anywhere.

"At a period in the country's life when the cost of living is only surpassed by actual waste and extravagance, it is the banks throughout the country which steadfastly and attractively give wide publicity and reasons for saving. It is an example of good business enterprise; it does not lessen its educative value because the banks profit through it."