St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-31

not vanish.
Judge Shaw called the attention Of
the witness to the signature OF MI.
Bia1sdell which terminated III DOT, Dut
the witness claimed that was vanish
ing line, just the same.
All of the signatures shown 10 ine
witness were also given to the jury i0f
examination, and as there was largo
number of them, the process was neces-
sarily slow, and retarded the progress
of the case.
Exhibit A was shown the witness to
find vanishing line between the cps
and the "a." He said sthat appar.
emily MIR. Blaisdell had a Spasm at that
point, and hence did not get in the van
isher.
''Did not get in his usual grace nor
beauty In that signature either, did he,
Mr.. Curtiss?' said Judge Shaw.
81 did not know that he bad any," re-
piled Mr.. Curtiss.
''Mr. Curtis" demanded Judge Shaw,
in his most queruIous tone, Ibid you
ever see Mr.. BlalSdell in a spasm?"
mo, sir, bot have seen the effects
of them in his penmanship.' replied the
witness.
''Do you see anything remarkable In
this signature of Mr.. Blaisdell on ex-
hlbit A 52?"
Yes, sir. It is written 'BIaisde-
DELI"
''Do you account for that eceentricity
by spasm?"
mo, sir.
At this point large number of Mr..
BlaiSdelPs signatures were shown to
the jury, in order to demonstrate that
he had different methods of making
his rs
Mr.. CurtisS, while admitting that they
differed in some respects, claimed that
they all bore a quite uniform reSem-
blance to each other; that they did not
differ in any greater degree than the
signatures of other men. He said thas
no man wrote all of his signatures ex-
actly alike.
At this point the examination took
another curve and the question of the
alleged forged signatures at the Office
of Davis g Farnham on Aug. and 6
was taken up. The object of the de-
Tense was evidently to lay the ground
work for impeaching the testimony of
the witness on this point. He insisted
that he had never told Mr.. Chamber.
lain. the cashier of the Security bank, at
Davis Il Farnham'S office, on the Occa-
sionS mentioned, that portion OF the
alleged forged signatures were genuine.
The defense undertook to ask him il
he did not on Aug. 6 examine more
than the six signatures in the case and
say that some of them were genuine,
and that on this opinion Mr.. Blaisdell
waived protest on seven of the notes
and agreed to pay them.
To this the prosecution objected,
claiming that, as the question did not
tanH IN cbou no han uiV fuO
different opinions as to the genuineneSs
of the signature in dispute, it was irrelo-
want. The court sustained the Obieo-
ton and the defense took All exception,
This process was repeated several
times.
The question was quite lengthy. and
was formulated with care, the defense
evidently placing considerable stress
upon it.
During the discussion of The matter
Judge Shaw said he proposed the ques-
ton to test the credlbiIity of the wit
ness and that if he denied it he pro.
posed to prove by other witnesses that
he did so. The drift of the questions
indicated that Mr.. Chamberlain, cashier
of the Security bank. is the man relied
upon to prove the assertion of Mr.. Cur
tiSS to be untrue.
The court ruled the questions all ous
and so no answers were returned.
At t o'clock Mr.. Curtiss was released
from the witness stand and was eVi.
IDENTITY glad that the ordeal was over,
He had been on the stand about six
hours.
W. Fl. Jacoby, the photographer, was
here recalled and produced and identl.
fed number of large bromide photo,
graphs in big frames which were
marked.
William E. Hagen, a venerable-Iook-
ing gentleman with gray hair and whiS.
kerS, was then called. He said he lived
in Troy, N. Y; had lived there since he
was born; was about sixty years Old.
and that his occupation was that OF
scientific microscopic. He said that he
had been sworn in hundreds of cases as
an expert on penmanShip, and men,,
toned some of the eases, viz: That Of
Cadet Whitaker. at West Point; the
Morey-Garfield forgery; the Duncan
murder trial at WatertOwn, N. Y, and
several others.
MIR. Hagen was shown Exhibits A. B,
G, ID, E and F and asked if, in his Opin.
ion, the signatures of MIR. BlaiSdell on
all of them were written by the same
person, to which he answered: mo. sir;
think not"
Being asked to give his reasons fog
the opinion. Mr.. Hazen rose up from his
seat and proceeded to deliver a lecture
upon tire subject, first handing the jury
the large frames brought in by MIR.
Jacoby.
He followed pretty much the same
line of argument laid down by the other
experts for the state, but in more
thorough, concise and scientific man.
ner. He called particular attention to
what he said was Mr.. COllom's habit of
rolling his pen OH the ball of his thumb,
while Mr.. BlaiSdell held his pen in a
rigid position. This, he claimed, made
wide difference i'll the signatures, par.
tieularly where the motion of the pen
was reversed from right to left in the
disputed signature.
He also went into the subject of
spaSms or tremorS at some length, and
claimed that they were caused by lack
of harmony or unison in the action OF
fingers in writing; that this caused at
certain points a regular spasmodio
action, which resulted in Wavers or
tremOrs such as are seen in Mr.. BlaiS-
delPs signatures.
He spoke also of the difference in the
pressure of the pens of the two writer's,
which, he said, was manifested in the
depth of the burrOW in Mr.. BIaisdell's
signature and the shalloWness in that Of
Mr.. COLON.
This, he claimed.he could demonstrates
to the jury with microscope if there
was light enough, and the court ad.
jOurned until this morning, when he
will essay the task.
IMPROVEMENTS
A New Station House and q Hos.
pitai to Be Built.
At a meeting of the committee on