Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-05-09
The Expert business.

An elderly gentleman with bushy white
hair and Whiskers, rather square and
massive features and a firmly knit form
of medium height, clad i'll an exceeding
ly plain and old-fashioned suit of clothes,
welcomed reporter i'll Cleveland the
other evening.
lis this Professor Piper?" asked the
reporter.
Please call me Mr.. Piper, plain Mr..
Piper was the modest request.
Piper is an eminent microscopic and
expert, summoned to examine the sigma
lures of deed conveying certain Pros
pect street zeal estate from Mr.. and Mrs.
W. III. Osborne to G. \. Adams, Mrs.
Osborne claims that her signature to the
deed was written at home without pro-
per acknowledgement by the notary,
whose signature and that of her husband
was written down town after hers
had been affixed. And upon this ground
she seeks to set aside the deed. Adams,
of course, objects to the setting aside of
the deed, since he has advanced Osborne
money on the strength of it, claims that
the instrument was signed i'll legal
| form.
Piper brought his microscope to bear
on the signatures and declared that it
was an indisputable fact that Mrs. Os-
borne's signature was not written before
that of the other signers, asshe positive
ly states, but afterward. The loop OF
the in Mrs. Osborne's Christian name
of Mary crosses the III. of her husband S
signature, and powerful glass showed
conclusively. Piper claims, that the
lines of the y were written over the Ii.
Numerous drawings of the letters mag
nified many diameters appeared on Pi-
per'stable, together with pencils, brushes
and finely-gTaded rules for measuring
the smallest fraction Of an inch. Piper.
by an ingenious device, threw the sha-
dows of the signature, magnitied many
ldiameters, ON sheet of bristol board
and then drew them as they appeared.
lie has just returned from Philadel-
phla, where he was employed over one
hundred days on one case. That which
called Piper into prominence more than
lanything else was his connection with
the Cadet Whitaker case. 1t will be
remembered that it was claimed that
Whitaker himself wrote the note OF
warning found in his room. Piper en-
llarged the handwriting and declared
that it was not Whitaker's. Subsequent
lconfessions proved that he was correct.
Il am firm believer" said the expert
.sin Whitaker's innocence.
One of the curiosities of Piper's col
lection is his wonderful laboratory oi
links, containing samples of almost ever!
variety of ink made. He has a bool
filled with ink tests. \ long strip o
paper is painted with a certain yariet,
of ink and then the strip is marked OF
into squares. In each square a drop o
a certain chemical is placed. OXali
iacid, for instance, takes out all the colo
of the bright-hued aniline inks, but ha
little effect on Arnold S ink or Stephens
Chloride of lime and potash water hav
a marked effect on even Arnold'S inks
India ink nothing appears to effect. A
stated intervals Piper writes specimen
, lof certain kinds of ink with dat
laffixed and lays them away to sho,
. what effect the action of time has o.
: them. In one case on which he wa
. lemployed matter of S250.000 hinge
ON his decision. A party swore tha
, lcertain certificates of stock were 81
. wears old. 1t was shown that it wa
, written with a certain variety of inb
and Piper obtained specimen of writ
. ing over six years old done with th
= same kind of ink, which had turne
4 brown, whereas the signatures on th
! certificates looked bright and fresh.
4 Blood has proven as great a field {
8 Investigation for the expert as ink.
. was claimed, for instance, by part
! ARRESTED out West for murder, that th
blood on his garments was from pi
= which he had carried ON his shoulde
lin human blood the minute corpusclt