Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-07-27
MILLIONS OF AUTOGRAPHS.
A Thousand Signatures an Hour, and the
Hard work OF writing Them When You
Have 10 Do It.

A Thousand Signatures an Hour, and the
Hard Work OF writing Them When You
Haveto Do 1t.
Neas York World.
Here isasigoatnre, that ofC. n. Jordan,
which has been written millions and mil
lions Of times, and years ago the writer
learned to write it small, smoothly and
without any shading. 1t has been printed
millions and millions of times on legal
tender notes, bank notes and checks. The
writer has been signing it nearly all the
time for overa quarter of century, irst as
a cashier, then as bank president, and
later rs treasurer of the United States. II
now adorns the notes of the Western
National Bank of New York.
81 found out, (" said he, THAT il wss ex-
hausting to bear too hard on the pen, and
You will notice that this is written easily
and rapidly, and its only popularity is the
fact that in making the "a the pen makes
circle twice instead of an up and down
stroke.
''Years and years ago ! found il neces-
and to do 1t as regularly and systematical-
ly as could. In signing notes, which, as
you know, come in sheets of four, would
act my watch open before me, and il
| could not sign 100 sheets, making
400 signatures every fifteen minutes, /
knew that i was running behind
hand. could keep that up hour after
hour, and some days have done it,
think, for nine hours, with only an inter
mission for lunch. i hold pen easily.
and 80 avoid any crsmp of the fingers, but
| have had to lie down on the floor and
stretch myself to get the kinks out of my
back. As for position in writing, / have
found il easiest to sit so that the weight OF
the arm rests on the edge of the table, and
the hand works with the least possible
strain upon the muscle. II is possible to
get some relief by turning round, more
nearly facing the table, which gives alittle
relaxation to the muscles Of the back and
of the neck.
THE greatest number of signatures in a
day? presume that when was signing
notes OF the Third National Bank with
which to pay off soldiers I wrote my name
between 1900 and $1,000 times a day.
The muscles of the wrist became little
tired, but the hand was seldom stiff,
though curiOusly enough, the sorest place
would be my forearm, the skin of which
would be worn thin by the incesssnt grind
ing sgainst my clothes. OF course, the
wear on the sleeve was great deal worse,
but could stand il great deal easier than
the soreness of the flesh which neither
vaseline nor cold cream could alleviate. /
used to start in with good supply of pens,
and the ink bottle was duly replenished.
used q smooth, fiue steel pen, and as /
have said, bore on il very lightly. As soon
as it began to scratch / took new one.
The difference would be psrceptible after
500 or 1000 signatures. In such work my
of steel pens ran from Is to
80 a day. There would he very few left in
a box after weeks work.
ut seems ludicrous," he continued, "at
this day to think of General Spinner and
s B. Colby undertaking to sign with a
pen all postal currency that was issued. |
1t was bad enough for Mr.. Acton to have
to sign the gold certificates at first or the
transfers Of the 8 per cents. when they
were extended by Secretary Window.
And yet General Spinner actually
started out to put that cramped
signature of his on all the pos
tai currency. The natural consequences
was that his hand began to swell
mp until the fingers were absolutely uncon-
trollabIe. 1t was physical impossibility,
and he became incspacitated very much
sooner than he otherwise would because he
had not adopted signature capable of
easy and rapid production. One would
not suppose that the amount of ink used in
signing ones name would be so very per-
hut Spinner used no more ink
than any of his successors, and followed
q line of treasurers who were in the habit
of shading letters rather heavily. You re-
member how Gilfillan and Wymsn use 10
sign their names. / was rather surprised
when my attention was called to the fact
that l had introduced a new economy
into the Treasury Department. /
was using only about one.third
as much ink as my predecessor. This was
before the amendment of the laws govern
ing the treasury requiring the signature of
the Treasurer himself to 10 many routine
papers. Before the war the work was eesy
enough for one man, but il grew so that
the Treasurer of the United States probably
had occasion to sign his name oftener than
any ether man in the country. In nay
time the law was amended permitting the
the Deputy Treasurer to sign large nnm-
Der of Papers necessarily passing through
the Office of the Treasurer / have seen il
stated that Mr.. Hyatt has adopted stamp,
but have seen no evidence of it. GER
tainly should never cash q draft, pay .
check or respect an Endorsement that was
not written with pen and ink"