Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-09-20
Millions Of Autographs.

u JORDAN WIN Gil mas Deen written mil
lions of times, and years ago the
writer learned to write il small,
smoothly and without any shading. 1t
has been printed m lions and millions
of times on legal tender notes. bank
notes and checks. The writer has
been signing II n early all the time for
over quarter of century. first as
cashier. then as a bank president, and
later as treasurer of the United States.
1t now adorns the notes of the West
ern Nation Bank of New York.
II found out. said he 'that il was
exhaust,ng to bear too hard on the
pen. and you will notice that this is
written easily and rapidly, and its only
peculiarly is the fact that in making
the "a" the pen makes Il circle twice
instead of an up and down stroke.
Years and ears ago | found it
necessary TO make the work as easy as
possible. and to do it ms regularly and
Systematically as | could In signing
notes. which as you know. come in
sheets of four, l would set my watch
open before me- and If | could not
every 10 minutes, l knew that |
was running behind hand. l could
keep that up hour after hour. and some
days l have done it, think for nine
hours with only an intermission for
lunch. hold II pen easily, and so
avoid any cramp of the fingers. but |
have had to lay down on the floor and
streech myself 10 get the kinks out of
my back. AS for "a position in writing.
| have found ii 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 mus
Gle. 1t is possible to get some relief
by turning round. more clearly facing
the table. which gives little relaxation
to the muscles of the back and of the
neck.
THE greatest number of signatures
in a day? l presume that when | was
signing notes of the Third National
Bank with which to pay off soldiers
wrote my name between $4,000 and
10, 600 times q day. The muscle of the
wrist became a little tired. but the
hand was seldom stiff. though curious
" enough. the sorest place would be
lie worn thin by the incessant grinding
against my clothes OF course the wear
on the sleeve was great deal worse.
but could stand it "a great deal cas- er
than the soreness of the flesh, wheel
neither vaseline nor cold cream could
alleviate. l used to start in with
good supply of pens, and the ink bottle
was duly replenished. used smooth.
fine steel pen. and as have said, bore
on it very lightly. AS soon as ii began
TO scratch | took a new one. The diff
ference would be perceptible after 500
or 1000 signatures. In such work my
consumption of steel pens ran from
10 to 80 day. There would be very
few left i'm 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 pen all postal
currency that was issued. 1t was bad
enough for Mr.. Acton to have TO sign
the gold cert ticates at first or tile
transfers of the per cents. when they
were extended by Secretary Window.
And yet Gen. Spinner actually started
out 10 put that cramped signature of
his on all the postal currency. The
natural consequence was that his hand
began to swell up until the fingers
were absolutely uncomfortable. IL
was physical impossiblity. and he
became incapacitated very much SOON
er than lie otherwise would because he
had not adopted a signature capable OF
easy and rapid production. Ono would
not suppose that the amount of ink
used IN signing ones name would be
so very perceptable. but Spinner used
up more ink than any of his success
ors, and l followed line of treasur-
ers who were in the habit of shading
letters rather heavily. You remember
how Giliillan 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. l
was using only about one-third as much
ink as my predecessor. This was be-
fore the amendment of the laws gov
erring the treasury requiring the sig
nature of the treasur himself to so
many routine papers. Before the 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 in the country. In my
time the law was amended permitting
the deputy treasurer TO sign o large
number of papers necessarily passing
through the Office of the treasurer. l
have seen it stated that Mr.. ii att has
adopted stamp. but l have seen no
evidence of it. l certainly should new
er cash draft, pay check. or respect
an Endorsement that was not written
with pen aud ink. "-New York World.