The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1888-09-22

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smoothly and without any sha ding. II
has been printed millions and millions
of times on legal tender notes. bank
notes and checks. The writer has
been signing II nearly all the time for
over y quarter OF n century. first as
cashier. then as bank president and
later as treasurer of the United States.
Ii now adorns the notes of tho West
ern Nation Bank OF New York.
II found out" said he s'that Ii was
exhausting TO bear too hard on the
pen. aud You will notice that this is
written easily and rapidly, and its only
peculiarly Is tho fact that in making
the "a the pen makes circle twice
instead Of an up and down stroke.
Years and years ago | found il
necessary TO make the work as easy as
possible. aud TO do IL as regularly and
Systematically MS | could. In signing
notes. which as you know. come in
sheets OF four. i would set my watch
open before me. and II could not
sign 100 sheets making 400 gnaturcs
every Is minutes. l knew that
was running behind hand. l could
keep that up hour after hour. and some
days have done il. think for nine
hours with only an intermlssion for
lunch. hold pen easily, aud so
avoid any cramp OF the fingers. but
have had To lay down on the floor and
streech myself TO get the kinks out of
my back. As for position in writing.
1 nave found 1t easiest To sit SO that the
weight OF tho arm rests ON the edge
OF the table, and the hand works with
the least possible strain upon the nous
Gle. Ii is possible to get some relief
by turning round. more clearly facing
the table. which gives little relaxation
TO the muscles Uf tho back and Of the
neck.
1.-The greatest number of signatures
In n dayP presume that when was
signing notes of the Third National
wrote my name between $4,000 aud
10. 900 Times day. The muscle of the
wrist became IA little tired. but The
hand was seldom stitf. though curious
ly enough. the sorest place would be
my forearm. the skin of which would
les worn thin by the incessant grinding
against my clothes. OF course the wear
on tho sleeve was a great deal worse.
but / could stand IL "a great deal cas- err
than the soreness of tho flesh, which
neither vaselino nor cold cream could
alleviate. | used TO start In with
good supply OF pens, and tho ink bottle
was duly replenishoi. | used smooth,
fine steel pen. and as have said, bore
on il very lightly. AS soon as IL began
10 scratch | took a new one. The diff
ference would be perceptiblc after 500
or 1000 signatures. In such work my
consumption of steel pens ran from
ID TO 80 a day. There would be very
few LETT in box after a week
work.
at seems ludicrous he continued
''at this day TO think of General
Spinner and S. b. Colby under
taking TO sign with n pen all postal
currency that was issued. 1t was bad
enough for Mr.. Acton to have to sign
the gold cert iicates at first or the
transfers of the per cents. when they
were extended by Secretary Window.
And vet Gen. Spinner actually started
out To put that cramped signature of
his on all the postal currency. The
natural consequence was that his hand
began 10 swell up until the fingers
were absolutely uncomfortable. Ii
WIS physical impossiblity. and he
became inoapacitated very much soon
err than hc otherwise would because no
had not adopted signature capable OF
easy aud rapid production. One would
not suppose that the amount OF ink
used IN signing ones name would bo
so very perceptabe. but Spinner used
up moro lux than any OF his success
ors, aud | followed line OF trensur-
ors who were in tho habit OF shading
letters rather heavily. You remember
how Gillillan and Wyman used to sign
their names. | was rather surprised
when my attention was called TO the
fact that had introduced new econ
omy into the treasury department. !
was using only about one-third as much
ink as nv predecessor. This was be-
fore the amendment OF the laws gov
erning the treasury requiring the sig
nature OF the treasur himself 20 SO
many routine papers. Before tho war
the work was easy enough for one
man. but it grew so that the treasurer
OF the United States probably had
occasion TO sign his name oftener than
any other man I'm the country. In my
time tho law was amended permitting
the deputy treasurer to sign large
number OF papers necessarily passing
through the office OF the treasurer. 1
have seen IL stated that Mr.. HYATT has
adopted stamp. but l have seen no
evidence OF it. l certainly should new
or cash draft pay check. or respect
an Endorsement that was not written
with nan md ink "-NetD York World
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