The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-01-05
.sT4t MICROSCOPE IN FoaesRlEs
ae1e5 IakensA se Cases of Detection ,,
Its Usc-An Experts Testimony.


Washington Star.l
a reporter was sitting in DIR. l. q.
Schaeffer's ofIise the other evening talking
With BIN Of tho mysteries OF the micro
scope. d.. Schaeffsr il called in as an ex.
pert microscopist in n great many cases in
the courts. This little instrument is
very valuable witness sometimes" he said,
as hs I,ut slide upon the microscope and
adiresssl himself to the scribe. at is ex-
ceeiingly inquisitive, and uncovers a great
many mysteries, Eo5 only OF inanimate ma
tura, but of man. As its MASTER, am In.
formed of a great many curious things.
Some OF the most interesting cases. arc
thcs, of hand writing. l have made q very
thorough study Of this under the micro
scope, both as - Individuality OF form and
various sorts OF ink. AM tie effect of Tina
and condition upon them. ! can very
readily discover forgeries, ilterlineat tom.
kor eraslrres I .i9 not think 1-could be dc
ceivei IN this unless the man that did the
work had the same facilities for doing it
that / have for detecting it-that IL unless
the fcryer was.a micrlscopi,t.
? c"Ot,s case in which testified was where a
man was being sued bond involving
300. 900 He acknowledged that he had
signed bouI for ono Of the parties named
in the bond produced, oct claimed thaoth
tie second name iia been aided since.
The person he signed for. hs said. was re-
uaDle anu Out tue OtueF person
:w9s not, and he wonid never have signed
the bond had his na:no been upon it at the
time. All the writing on thu document was
in the same hand, AMI appeared t. have
been written at tao sama time. Under
R;croscop,. fliscSverei by the age OF the
in3Irrthat tho s,con1 mama had besn aide1
some time after The paper was signed, ami
that tbs pronoun aim hal bs,n changed to
'tken' Whenever it occurre1 on the bond.
= fnarr - I ev cpola inrA wa who ~.
an ola mans Mans had been forged to notes
by his son-in law. Taare We're ninety notss
of $1,000 each, which the old man pro-
1asouocel7 forg sris !, al on examining them
n fbani, thom % b, such.5 Without know
AiDg any thing OF bis nabss.I know as som
as saw his genuine 81 ynlture that he al.
ways wrote with "a golI pen. The forgeries
were ali~writtsi. with = ste,l pan, AMI there
were enSuzI p.in;s OF difference for ms 10
b, able to distinguish them from the
genuine in every Gaze. In murder
trial in isyehal tie:, was a curious
case Of orserJ iavoIvei y faithless wife
and her loyer d,teriuinei to put trouble
some h,tstI1i tus OF tne way. TIE hus
band remarked ono m1rainsg at hreakfa't
that the ccffss t. tel strange. 4 few min
aTsas ;later he faIia 1T AMI disi. AZ the
inquast q hoto was proiuccd purporfing TO
rbe fEamthe lcceas.l written just bstors
: his death, coafassin. that he had taken his
own life.
rNobody rcslil .,s r;found who had ever
seen any OF the mans writing except his
signature. ianl tala appeared TO be all right
ON the noto. Thsr, was nothing to compare
the rest OF tho writing with. l examined
the note very carefully AMI found that
while the lSoiy OF the Biann=crip. was writ.
ten freely and naturally, as il by some ons
used to writing. tho signature was very
black AMI heavy, AM seemed to have bsea
drawn. Another thing was that, whi,s it
must have taken coasiferabs pre- isurs to
make it so Black (the whole was written
with perci). there was impression
through rha paper I pronounced the nots
. forgery knew teyoni doubt that it
was. The friends OF the willow threatened
to kill the ey1ers. b.s they gave up tn,
note rs a,dctins, ani took up another line,
by which they sscurei an acquittal After
it was all over with and the accused coull
not be again pis on trial. hsr sister-in- law
Dragged that sho had written the note. ami
traced tho signature from an original by
holding it against tas window pane. Tho
hard, smooth surface of tho glass was what
had preyeated the pencil lines from show.
ing through tie paper.