The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1857-11-12

no hesitation IN saying that TINS tar trans
cendssall other "curiosities OF Literature e,
and it can be approached by nothing that
We have ever seen OF heard Of before in
the way of "skill with the pen
Among other things we find here the
siSners of the Declaration of Indepcnd-
cnce and of the Constitution of the United
'Staaes; and we learn by the array of
names attached to the latter instrument
the interesting facts, hitherto forgotten
by or unknown to ourselves, that Rufus
King was one of the two signers for Mas
aachusetts; Alexander Hamilton, the 0niy
signer for New York while Benjamin
Franklin and seyen others signed for
Pennsylvania. And from biographical
note to one of the signers of the Declara-
ton, we learn the startling fact that an
individual Of that immortal band died an
prison tof debt in the year 1906! "a pc
culiarly disgraceful instance Of the we'll
known reproach against Republics.
This was Robert Morris, the great fnancier
of the Revolution, to whom, more than to amy
other man, Washington alone excepted, our
country is indebted for the achievement of its
ndependcnce.-N. y Eve. Posi-
Another and a very different thing we
learn from this collection of signatures
that Individual character is very apocry-
phally taught by the peculiaritics OF hand
writing. For example, among Napoleon's
marshals, Macdonald ssand Augereau dash
forth their alphabetical combinations with
the same bold utterance as they evinced
when hurting their columns on an enemy 5
position and, so far, all is well. But kle-
Der, Soult, Ney and others, modestly and
timidly content themselves with space
that any one of Augereau's vewels OF
Mcdonald's consonants would overwhelm
gain, in a different department Of life
we fI.d Mary of England" Bloody Ma
ry' all neatness, precision and amiabil
ity; while her unfortunate namesake or
the other side of the Tweed depatches pa
per and ink like another Thalaba Then,
again, the fiery and demonstrativc Junius
congresses his gigantic intellectual pro
portions into the breadth of sixpence
while Walter Savage Landor can hardly
rest within the longitude of folio sheet
On the whole, we repudiate this theo-
ry of judging individual character by
handwriting; at least, until we are fur
nished with more reliable key Of inter.
probation than cursory glance at exter
nal appearances.
But, all this time, we are treating these
signatures as yeritable autographs; anc
such, indeed, they seem to be, though
such they are not. Yet they are some
thing far more wonderful than autographs
for they show a power III one man to pro
duce an almost infinite variety of chirog
arphy-each specimen differing entirely
from the other, and yet all in exact imi
tation of separate and Independent mod
els The very contemplation of the thin:
makes one giddy.
We understand that the compiler ant
writer of this book expended upon it tn,
leisure of fve-and-twenty years, and w
can readily believe that no man couic
even gain access to the original signature
in much shorter period, to say nothin.
of the endless labor of copying them
And as he kept no duplicates of his work
it may well be said, that if this bool
should be lost or destroyed, no powe
could reproduce it.
The volume has become, by purchase
the property of our townsman, Edwar'
S. Gould, Esq