The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1882-02-25
HANDWRITING,
Curious Facts About Letters and Manu-
scripts

SEiiOLS AIS ilJat ACltGiS i.l1
scripts.
Yes, | am an expert, if you call one
an expert who has PASSED fourteen years
OF his life i'll porting over specimens of
handwriting with magnifyinG glass,
In that time il blind man would know
something about the pecuIi,trities of pen
mauShip."
This WAS the remark of Mr.. Henry
Sewer, whose home is III Philadelphia,
where he combines the avocations of a
conveyancer and a writing expert, and it
has frequently happened in the last few
years that he has been called on to make
long journeys through the country to
aid IN determining the genuineness of
handwriting.
Are there many experts in the coun-
try9'
"No; there are generally one or two
in each large city who have taken up the
study of handwriting for the pleasure
and interest which they find in it: but
as far as the real experts 90. don't think
that there are more than three in America
tile others are amateurs: amateurs GER
tainly with considerable knowledge, but
still only amateurs.
"What is the first step you take when
piece of forged writing is submitted to
you?'
Il must also have some of the genuine
writing of the person whose name has
been forged, and, if possible, some, too,
Of the person who is suspected of having
committed the crime
And Them
And then comes Il microscopic COM
pariSnn OF all three. The first step is to
determine whether or not the name is
crooked. Now suppose you understand
Everybody understands) that handwrit-
ing is peculiar and distinctive But no
one but those who have dug in hand
writing all their lives know how very
peculiar and distinctive it is. The oak
and the hickory have different leaves,
but those leaves are not more different
than Smith BIS. aud, supposing a fraudu-
lent oak wished to produce a leaf which
would be mistaken for a hickory leaf, it
might possibly throw off an i'm tation
whose shape would be all right. but
whose veins would be all wrong-that is
what we judge by: it is the inner mo-
tive. One man may write your name so
that it will deceive bank cashier or
probate court but he cannot do it so that
it will deceive me-
And how do You judge -
"Wel. let me illustrate Here is a
sheet of paper written by copying clerk :;
you see the same machine made letters
over and over again, To your eye there
is nothing individual about it at all, for
the reason that You 90 hunting for those
little marks and tlourishcs with which
people seek to individualize their writ
ing-tLat process would be much like
trying to recognize 4 beauty of the re-
gency by the position of her patches.
An expert goes first for the capital let
tiers, which were first learned and which
contain most of the unconscious indi-
viiualitv of the writer. Notice these
Ms, each of them shaded in the center
imperceptibly. and ending in slovenly
turn, now up. now down, getting more
and more slovenly as the pages so on
and the hand tires. See here: he has
changed the position of his pen from be-
tween the index and thumb to the next
two fingers, and the writing, to your
eye. is that of another person. But fol-
low those Ms: don't you see they are all
the same ~
Do You believe that character can be
read from handwriting ,"
Most assnredlv do-every one does.
If you will take a letter from friend
and examine it closely, you will see the
character reflected again in the charac-
tcriSlicS of his letter. If he is Il Wild
careless sort of a fellow. there will be a
wild, helter-skelter gallop of the pen
over the paper: if he is methodical, &C
curate and precise, there it will be again.
| saw Il very curious illustration of this
some years ago when | was travelling in
Ireland. | stopped at Kildare Castle,
and while there was shown letters writ
fitzgeraldS. To an expert the hcredity
shown i'll Thesis notes was startling. OF
course they We're diverse. but there was
an under similarity among them all as
well marked and recognizable as the
llapshnrg nose. From the villainous
scratching done by SilKen Thomas. down
to the civilized steel penmanship of the
present Earl, the hands were various but
alike
How do YOU account for the different
styles of penmanship in vogue among
different nations ~
That is point | was coming to. You
can tell a German by his handwriting as
readily as by his tongue, orr Frenchmar
either. Spain and Portugal write as
rule, one hand. while Italy writes alto
gether another and Greece still third.
There are race distinctions, just as the
Fitzgerald hand is family distinction
Writing divides itself into great groups
before it is separated into small ones and
into individual units. Take the stiff,
angular writing of the German, where
there is but little originality, and you
see the product Of a system. Compare
it with the utterly untrammeled hand of
America, and We are forming a national
hand. and you will see the enormous diff
ference. There is no prettier writing
than the oiampcd but systematic hand
of the nuns in the French converts.
Here, again. after cause look for effects
There is more in the scrivener's art, Young
gentleman, than is dreamed of in your
philosophy"
Not to be Sneezed at.
That pure sweet, safe and effective Amer
can ;istllation of witch hazel, American
pine, clnai;. iir mariguld and clover bios