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 or MI.
Blalsdell which terminated in DOT, but
the witness claimed that was vanish
ing line, just the same.
All of the signatures shown 10 the
witness were also given to the jury Tor
examination, and as there was large
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 THAT appars
emily MIR. Blaisdell had spasm at that
point, and hence did not get in the van
isher.
Ibid 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 querulous tone, Ibid you
ever see Mr.. BlalSdell in a spasm?''
''No, sir, bat have seen the effects
of them in his penmanship.' replied the
witness.
do you see anything remarkable In
this signature of Mr.. Blaisdell Oh ex-
hIbit A 52?"
Yes, sir. It is written 'Blaisde-
dell.'"
do you account for that eccentricity
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 quite uniform resem-
blance to each other; that they did not
differ in any greater degree than the
signatures of other men. He said that
no man wrote all of his signatures ex-
actly alike.
at this point the examination took
another curve and the question of ths
first examination by Mr.. Curtiss of the
alleged forged signatures at the office
of Davis & Farnham on Aug. 5 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 & Farnham's office, on the Occa-
sionS mentioned, that portion OF the
alleged forged signatures were genuine.
The defense undertook to ask him If
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
tend to show that he had given two
different opinions as to the genuineness
of the, signature in dispute, it was irreIe-
want. The court sustained the objeo-
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.
Daring 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 out
At 4 o'clock Mr.. Curtiss was released
from the witness stand and was eVi.
IDENTIFY 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 a number of large bromide photo
graphs in big frames which were
marked.
William E. Hagen, venerabIe-look-
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 q
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
Mercy Garfield forgery; the Duncan
murder trial at WatertOwn, N. z, and
several others.
MIR. Hagen was shown Exhibits A. B,
G, d, E and F and asked if, in his opin-
ion, the signatures of Mr.. BIaisdell on
all of them were written by the same
person, to which he answered: mo. sir;
l think not"
Being asked to give his reasons fog
seat and proceeded to deliver lecture
upon tire subject, first handing the jury
the large frames brought in by Mr..
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
rigid position. This, he claimed, made
wide difference in the signatures, par.
tieufarly 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
the thumb and the first and second
fingers in writing; that this caused al
certain points regular spasmOdid
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,
depth of the burrow in Mr.. Blaisdell's
signature and the ShalloWness in that of
Mr.. Collom.
This, he claimed. he could demonstrates
to the jury with a 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.
pital to Be Built.