Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-11-09
MR.. GOULD's BOOK OF AUTOGRAPHS.

From the Home Journal, October2I
We have, in our day, seen some very valua-
| bic collections of autographs and have studied
the characteristics of an individuals hand wri-
ting In order to detect peculiarities Of charac-
| ter; and have occasionally been aware of n
slight chill at coming thus suddenly into con-
tact with personal sOHrsHiT Of some of the
great men OF the world. But nothing in the
autograph line has ever excited in US so much
interest and astOnishment rs a volume we have
just finished examining.
In exterior arrangement it is pOrtly auarto
bound In morocco, containing about 400 pages
anu each page contains, on an average, some
ten or twenty names-making an aggregate of
perhaps four thousand. These names are those
OF distinguished Americans from the days of the
Pllgrlms to the present day; American authors
for similar period; British authors from date
antecedent to Shakespeare down to the contem-
porary writer's of the three kingdoms; men Of
mark In medicine, theology, natural history,
botany, music, the drama. and the fine arts:
Napoleon with his family and marshals and
personages of the French revolution; and finally
the royalty, nobility. military and naval celeb
rites OF Europe for the past three centuries
and appended to almost every name is n brief
biographical statement of birth, death. etc.
which, OF itself, forms a complete biographical
dictionary.
Inc names, however, are not autographs nor
are they Autographs or engraved fzc StD,tIrs of
autographs; but they are pen-and-ink imita-
tlons OF the signatures of the four thousand in
dElduais designated, all SO precisely, we might
almost say so absurdly accurate as to be nei-
ther more nor less than identical with their
originals, and all The trork Of one man, We
have no hesitation in saying that this far trans
cends all other = curiOsities of literature and
1T can be approached by nothing that we have
ever seen or heard Of before in the way of skill
with the pen;
AunnnU al L. .l
OF the Declaration of Inde pendence and Of the
Constitution of the United States; and we learn
oy the array OF names attached to the latter in
strument the interesting facts, hitherto forgot
ten by or unknown to ourselves that r ufus
King was one Of the two signers for Massachu-
setts Alexander Hamilton the only signer for
New ork; while Benjamin Franklin and seven
others signed for Pennsylvania. And from a
biographical note to one of the signers of the
Declaration, we learn the startling fact that an
individual of that Immortal band died in pyisou
for debt in the year l806,-a peculiarly dis
graceful instance of the well known reproach
against . Republics
Another and very different thing we learn
from this collection of signatures; that indi-
yidual character is very apOcryphally taught
by the peculiaritios Of handwriting For ex-
ample, among Napoleen's marshais, Macdon-
aid and Augereau dash forth their al alphabetical
combinations with the same bold utterance as
they evinccd when hurling their columns on
an enemy's position; and so tar all il welt
But Kleber, Soult, Ney and others, modestly
and timidly content themselves with a space
that any one Of Augereau's vowels, or Macdon.
aid cOnsOnants would Overwhelm. Again in
different department of life, we find Mary of
England" Bloody Mary"-all ncatness pre-
clsion and amiabiiity; while her unfortunate
namesake on the other side Of the Tweed dis
| patches paper and ink like another Thalaba
Then, again, the fiery and demonstratiye Ju-
MUS congresses his gigantic intellectual pro-
| portions into the breadth of sixpence while
alter Savage Landor can hardly rest within
the longitude of folio sheet
On the whole we repudiate this theory of
Judging individual character by handwriting,
at least until we are furnished with more re-
liable key OF Interpretation than a cursory
glance at external appearances
But all this time we are treating these sigma
lures as veritable autographs, and such indeed
they seem to be, though such they are not
Yet they are something far more wonderful
than autographs, for they show a power In one
man to produce an almost infinite variety of
chirography-each specimen differing entirely
from the other, and yet all in exact imitation
OF separate and independent models The
very contemplation of the thing makes one
| giddy.
We understand that the compiler and writer
of this book expended on it the leisure Of five
| and-twenty years, and we could readily believe
that no man could ever gain access to the orr
ginal signatures in much shorter period, to
say nothing of the endless labor Of copyipy
them. And rs he kept no duplicate of his
works, it may well be, that if this book should
be lost or destroyed, no power could reproduce
it.
The volume has become by purchase the
property OF our tOwdsman, Edward s. Gould,
Esq.