, 1888-07-18
MILLIONS OF AUTOGRAPHS.
4 Thousand Signatures an Hour, and the
Hard Work of Writing Them.

\ Thousand Signatures an Hour, and the
Hard Work of Writing Them.
Here is a signature, that of G. N. Jor-
dan, which has been written millions
and millions 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
1t nearly all the time for over a quarter of
a century, first as a cashier, then as a
bank president, and later as treasurer of
the United States. It now adorns the
notes of the Western National bank of
New York.
II found out" said he, that it was ex-
hausting to bear too hard on the pen, and
you will notice that this is written easily
and rapidly, and its only peculiarityi is the
fact that in making the "a the pen makes
a circle twice instead of an up and down
stroke.
Years and years age 1 found it neces-
sary to make the work as easy as posi-
BILE, and to do it as regularly and system
atically ms / could. In signing notes,
which, as you know, come In sheets of
four, / would set my watch open before
me, and II l could not sign 100 sheets,
making 400 signatures, every fifteen min
utes, l knew that l was running behind
hand. l could keep that up our after
hour, and some days l a done 1t, j
think, for nine hours, with only an inter
mission for lunch. Ihold a pen easily,
and SO avoid any cramp of the fingers,
but 1 have had to lie down on the hoor
and stretch myself to get the kinks out
OF my back. As for a position in writing,
have found 1t 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. 1t is
possible to get some relief by turning
round more nearly facing the table, which
gives a little relaxation to the muscles of
the back and of the neck.
The greatest number of signatures in
a day2 1presume that when I was sign
ing notes of the Third National bank
with which to pay off soldiers l wrote my
name between fourteen and fifteen thou
sand times a day. The muscles of the
wrist became a little tired, but the hand
was seldom stiff, though curiously
enough, the sorest place would be my
forearm. the akin of which would be worn
thin by h incessant grinding against my
clothes OF course the wear on the sleeve
was a great deal worse, but l could stand
1t a great deal easier than the soreness of
the flesh, which neither vaseline nor cold
cream would alleviate. used to start in
with a good supply of pens, and the ink
bottle was duly replenished. 1 used a
smooth, fine steel pen, and as have said,
bore on it very lightly. As soon as it be-
gan to scratch 1 took a new one. The diff
ference would be p~erceptible after five
hundred or a thousand signatures. In
such work my consumption of steel pens
ran from fifteen to thirty a day. There
would be very few left In a box after a
week work.
"It seems ludicrous, " he continued, "at
this day to think of Gen. 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 6 per cents. when they
were extended by Secretary Window.
And yet Gen Spinner. actually started out
to put that cramped signature of his on
all the postal currency. The natural con-
sequence was that his hand began to
well up until the fingers were absolutely
uncomfortable. 1t was a physical impos-
sibility, and he became'incapacitated very
much sooner han he otherwise would
because he had not adopted q signature ca
pable of easy and rapid production. One
would not suppose that the amount of ink
used in signing ones name would be SO
very p~erceptible, but Spinner used up
more ink than any Of his successors, and
l followed q line of ~treasurers who were
LII INC hhDlL VI bnhuluB IeIIerS Tdbuer
heavily. You remember how Gilfllan
and Wyman used to sign their names. 1
was rather surprised when my attention
was called to the fact that l had intro
duced a new economy into the treasury de-
partment. l was using only about one-
third as much ink as my predecessor.
This was before the amendment of the
avs governing the treasury requiring the
signature of the treasurer himself to so
many routine papers. Before the war the
work WINS easy enough for one man, but
1t grew SO that the treasurer of the United
States probably had occasion to sign his
name oftener than any other man In the
country. In my time the law was amended
permitting the deputy treasurer to sign a
large number of papers necessarily pass
ing through the office of the treasurer. l
have seen it stated that Mr.. Hyatt has
adopted a stamp, but l have seen no evil
dence of it. 1 certainly should never
cash a draft, pay a check or respect IN
Endorsement that was not written with
pen and ink."-New York World.