The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-16
THEIR SIGNATURES.
A LOOK AT A LOT OF SENATORIAL
AUTOGRAPHS.
PenmanshIp of the President and Cabinet
How the Characters of Our States
men Are Made Manifest by
Their Signatures.
washington Cor. Cleveland Ieader.1

the cdplLdI, ana eac0 Gay you may see the
page boys Of congress running from rep
resentative to representative, and from
senator to senator, with long, morocco
covered books in their hands, asking each
man for his autograph. Most of the great
give scratch of the pen willingly, and
some write little pieces of poetry or
"Yours truly" in addition to their names.
Some put the date and the town, county,
and state where they reside, while others
possible way. These albums do not be-
long to the pages. The boys are paid by
strangers and others So apiece for carry.
ing them around. Sometimes they belong
to congressman, and when Senator Tabor,
of Colorado, was here he created a SEN
satiOn by taking about his own album to
his brother senators. This looked rather
foolish to the other statesmen, but still
there is a great deal in autographs, and
some men can tell more of the character
of person from his handwriting than
from his photograph. l am now looking
over one of these books, which was left
in the press gallery for the signatures of
the correspondents. 1t belongs to Nc
Carly, of The Baltimore Sun, and is to
go to lady friend of his in California.
He tells me it has already cost him $15 to
get the signatures, and that he has been
two years in doing it. The book begins
with the president and his cabinet
President Arthur writes a big ur-and-
down hand which sprawls and jumps from
one word to the next without leaving the
paper He is evidently glad when the
end of his name is reached, for he closes
it with flourish. and the final ''r" takes
shoot right through the Arthur" and
across the 1T =" The presidents figures
are well made, trick which he had to
learn when he taught school, and his pen
manship is quite legible.
No one would imagine Secretary Ere
linghuysen's autograph was written by a
man. 1t looks like the signature of pal
sled old woman. The letters are small,
grabbed, and a foreign policy modelled on
the autograph would be weak indeed.
Hugh McCulloch, old as he is, writes far
steadier than FreGnghuysen, and Secre-
tary Chandler has a good round hand.
Robert 7. Lincoln's signature has an " r "
bigger than all the rest of his name, and
the "T, the middle initial, is mono
grained with the IL" Attorney General
that he dresses. The ink flows in rivers,
and every curve says "This is Brewster,
with his coat of arms, his frilled shirt, his
white plug hat Judge Gresham pens
his name in big, black curves, and his sig
nature, like himself, is plain, common
sense and outspoken.
In the same way the characters of some
of the senators may be seen in their auto
graphs. Lucius Quintius Lamar writes
as though he were monk in some old
monastery of the fifteenth century. The
letters are small and neat and made in the
up-and-doWn strokes in vogue before
Spencer invented his curves and loops. It
Is a scholarly hand and is warmer I
think, than that of George Frisbie Hoar,
which stands upon the paper as cold as
Massachusetts and as reserved as Boston,
Rryl%I I'd I,
and abbreviated at every point.
The late Senator Anthony wrote a hand
modelled on the tracks in the mud of his
big turkey farm in little Rhode Island
The "y" at the close of his autograph has
q flourish like a big turkeys claw, and it
ends in a knob like the bone end of the
same. The hand + David Davis is as
pyInctuates profusely. Howell Jackson,
of Tennessee, writes an old-time hand.
Senator Pugh, of Alabama, scribbles in
acute angles, and Isham G. Harris throws
his pen about boldly as if he knew the
government was paying for the ink.
John A. Logan's signature takes up
half a page, and it is like nothing outside
of the hieroglyphics in the subterranean
tomb of III. 1t is as bold and aggressive
as Logan's own character. and he closes
it with dashing curve half as big as the
sword which he carried during the war.
Senator Edmunds has also an illegible
signature, but it looks more like the sign
on Chinese tea box than the Egyptian
scroll of Logan. Senator Frye writes his
name, state, and date without taking his
pen from the paper-an emblem of quick
ness on the part of the senator. Camden
of West Virginia and Jones of Florida
have the same style of handwriting, and
ingalls, of Kansas, Randall of North
Carolina, Bayard of Delaware, and little
Gen. Hale of Maine all use up-and- down
strokes, and write as if they were not
ashamed of their names. Senators Sher-
man, Vest and Angus Cameron all have
small, f1nely-written signatures, but Voor-
hees writes with bold goose-quill flour
tsh clustering hand, and Ben Harrison
evidently uses steel pen.
Philetus Sawyer, the millionaire Of Wis
consin, prints his signature; Warner
Miller uses a goose quill; Plumb of Kan
sas, writes a hand which would delight
the old printers who set type for him
when he was editing country newspaper,
and Senator Sewell of New Jersey, uses
more ink than any other man in the senate.
Mcmillan of Minnesota, puts a long
flourish under his signature, and pens his
letters in bold, straight strokes, Van
Wyck of Nebraska, has a signature like
q green schoolboy's and his letters are
half like capitals and half like small let
graphs, and gives the day and date of his
writing. Eli Salisbury writes on a
straight line across the page and he
evidently has a mathematical eye. Sena-
tor Tabor's signature is the best thing
about him. Senator Garland of Arkansas,
writes like copperplate, and Senator Call
of Florida, has whip-like flourish under
his name which looks as though maiden's
hand had penned 1t. German of Mary
land writes big, bold hand. 1t is the
fist of baseball player and a man in
sound physical condition. Hill of
Colorado, writes well, but the autographs
of Beck and Joe Brown look as if they
were scrawled off with the wrong end of
q goosequIl.
Take the senators all in all, and they
are as good a set of penmen as you will
find in any body of the kind. They
write, as a rule, palmer than the members
of the house, some of whom can hardly
read their own writing.
Cost of the Great Eastern.