Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1886-01-16
THE MICROSCOPE IN FORGERIES.
Interesting Cases Of Detection by ITS
Gse-An Experts Testimony.

Use-An Experts Testimony.
A reporter was sitting in DIR. L. M.
Schaeffer's office one evening talking
with him of the mysteries of the I-icro-
scope. DR.. Schaeffer is called in as an
expert microscopic in a great many
cases in the courts. This little instru-
ment is very valuable witness some
times," he said, as he put slide upo.,
the microscope and addressed himself TO
the scribe. 1t is exceedingly inquisitive,
and uncovers a great many mysteries,
not only ofinanimate nature, but of men.
As its master, | am informed of a great
many curious things. Some of the most
interesting cases, are those of handwrit
ing. / have made a very thorough
study of this under the microscope, both
as to individuality of form and various
sorts of ink, and the effect of time and
condition upon them. can very readily
discover forgeries, interlineations, or
erasures. / do not think 1 could be
deceived in this unless the man that did
the work had the same facilities for
doing it that have for detecting it-that
is unless the forger was microscopic.
zone case in which 1 testified was
where a man was being sued on a bond
involving 100000. He acknowledged
that he had signed bond for one of the
parties named in the bond produced, but
claimed that the second name had been
added since. The person he signed for,
he said, was reliable and trustworthy,
but the other person was not, and he
would never have signed the boud had
his name been upon it at the time. All
the writing on the document was in the
same hand, and appeared to have been
written at the same time. Under a
microscope, discovered by the age of
the ink, that the Sc ,ond name bad teen
added some time after the paper was
signed. and that the pronoun him had
been changed to them whenever it &C.
Cured on the bond.
| Another case | was called into was
where an old mans name had been
forged to notes by his son-in-lsw.
There were ninety notes of 81 900 each,
which the old man pronounced forgeries,
and on examining them found them to
be such. Without knowing anything of
his habits, | knew as soon as l saw mis-
signature that he always wrote with a
gold pen. The fOrgeries were all written
| nj
points of difference for me to be able to
distinguish them from the genuine in
every case. In a murder trial in Mary
land there was curious case of forgery
involved. A faithless wife and her
lover determined to put a troublesome
husband out of the way. The husband
remarked one morning at breakfast that
the coffee tasted strange. A few minutes
later no fell in fit and died. Al the
inquest note was produced purportlng
to be from the deceased, written just
before his death, confessing that he had
taken his own lite.
Nobody could be found who had ever
seen any of the mans writing except his
signature, and that appeared to be all
right on the note. There was nothing
to compare the rest of the writing with.
l examined the note very carefully and
found that while the BODY of the manu-
script was written freely and naturally.
as if by some one used to writing. the
signature was very black and heavy, and
seemed to have been drawn. Another
thing was that, while it must have taken
considerable pressure to make it so black
(the whole was written::with a pencIl),
there was no impression through the
paper. pronounced the note forgery.
l knew beyond doubt that it was. The
friends of the widow threatened to kill
the expert, but they gave up the note as
a defense and took up another line, by
which they secured an acquittal. After
it was all over with and the accused
could be not again put on trial, her sister
in.law Dragged that she had written the
note, and traced the signature from an
original by holding it against the window
pane. The hard, smooth surface of the
glass was what had prevented the pencil
lines from showing through:the paper"
| WASHINGTON Star