Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-17
FORTUNES IN A SCRAwL.
Queer Signatures That Treasury On
cials Have to Examine.

cials Have to Examine.
HOW Loss .BY, FORGERY Is GUARDED AGAINST
THE SKILL THAT ooMRs By PRAcrIoE-xAMHs
THAT CANNOT BE READ BUT YET ARE PASSED
MEN WHO CHANGE THEIR SIGNATURES.
| rather shrewd-looking stranger walked into
Mr.. whelpley's Office in the Treasury depart
ment Saturday and took seat in q business
like way across the desk from him. Il want to
induce you to 60 out to Ohio" he said, after
producing letters introducing himself as a
leading lawyer of that state There is a most
important and interesting case in the court at
-, III which want you to appear as an ex-
pert"
Mr. Whelpley is the assistant United States
treasurer and has for twenty years been hand
hng drafts and checks scrawled over with Curl
GUS signatures and representing millions Of
money As cashier before he became assist
| ant treasurer, he received and cashed drafts
with but glance at the signature when a
forgery would have involved the loss of hum
dreds OF thousands of dollars
IL was this experience with signatures that
Drought The lawyer to see him.
ne case, the lawyer continued. sis one in
winch we charge that forgery has been COM
,n na,,ea. ! want you to make study of the
|
Ties represent-honestly believe there has
| been a forgery, by which we are threatened
with the loss OF $4,000 man died leaving
| considerable fortune After his death man
appeared with document purporting to be a
contract between the deceased and the party
producing the document by which the former
agrees that on the day of his death he will give
10 the latter 900 in consideration of his
marrying certain lady. The man named as
oenenclary In the document appears with his
hat 4 III
ance with the terms of the contract. We think
the signature to this document is a forgery
We want you to study the case and testify
Inc assistant treasurer was forced to decline
20 act as expert In the case because of the
duties that kept him at his desk.
1t Is quite a common thing for Treasury Off
| Gals to be called on for sucn services. 1t ap-
pears good endorsement of the credibilitv of
an expert ON signature to say that the govern
ment stakes hundreds of thousands on his
Judgment in this respect and for ten or twenty
years has lost nothing by it.
II association with signatures, and hard ones,
Will make man expert one who has been
cashier OF the United States Treasury ought to
be able to tell forgery if anybody can. Mil
lions pass through his hands in checks and
drafts each year, and to the paper are attached
some OF the most unintelligible signatures that
man can write. There are thousands of differ
ent names, some foreign and difficult to sound
some not to be deciphered by any possibility
and others that are different at each writing
They keep book of signatures and a pretty
big book it is 1t might pass for the transcript
tlon by some archaeologist from an ancient
Assyrlan or Egyptian slab Some of the sigma
| lures upon which money has been and is being
PAID out are accepted on their general APP
Pearance without the name having ever been
dlscovered-they know that certain eccentric
INES and curves are good for SO much from
certain banking house or corporation. They
know 1T is the signature of the president or the
treasurer, as the case may be, but they do not
know his name.
HOW MISTAKES ARE AVOIDED.
"How, The STAR reporter asked Mr.. Whelp-
ley, ''are you able to avoid mistake. and
fraud?"
I'VE keep book of signatures as banks do,
and by long practice are able to make accurate
comparison. There are signatures we can swear
to without being able to tell the Names There
Is signature know because it is that of a
treasury official; see if you can make it OUT
He produced document at the bottom of
which was a scrawl that looked like an intri-
cate combination of shorthand characters.
The lines were heavy and crooked, but there
was not the form of letter of the English
alphabet In the scrawl.
That is s. Davis Page" he said SIT is a
fair specimen OF some Of the signatures we
have to deal with but there are some worse
than that. There is an old signature of Gen.
Fuckers; 1t would be as ineligible if written
In Hebrew. But even that is not the worst
One think of looks like the rough sketch of a
whirlwind. Another is like three Chinese char
acters just alike, strung on a curved line. They
would be hard to imitate-but to read them is
impossible. We can always identify them,
however, and are not afraid to pay money on
them"
MEN WHO CHANCE THEIR SIGNATURES.
''The greatest trouble" he added, sis where
the man changes the form of his signature. It
sometimes happens in the case of claims that
require an appropriation that ten or twenty
years elapse after the claim is presented and
the signature taken on our book before the
draft for the money Is presented There is
then often no sort of resemblance between the
first signature and that on the back of the draft
The last signature has then to be proven.
man who signs his name many times each day
seldom changes it, but farmer or mechanic.
or any one who writes his name occasionally
only is apt to vary it great deal In the
course of number of years the change is
sometimes complete. Usually. however, there
last. Some men have two signatures
that they use for different purposes.
with no resemblance between them-one for
drafts and checks and one for their ordinary
correspondence. A case of that sort might
lead to legal complications after the mans
DEATH 1 have two signatures myself. The one
attached to drafts on the Treasury is properly
speaking, my signature, but when I write a
hurried note or in private correspondence I
run the letters of my name together yery
differently. l do not think my signature has
changed in the past twenty years Every ono
is familiar with the signature of F. E. Spinner.
that curious signature that appears on the old
Treasury notes. The old gentleman is now
elghty-hve or eighty-six years old, and here is
a letter got from him the other day almost
like the engraving on the notes."
WHAT A PEN WILL DO.
the STAR man talking with another
treasury official on the same subject 'Did it
ever occur to you," said the official. ..that a
forger has half his work done when he cansoet
hold OF the identical pen with which the owner
OF the signature habitually writes? A great
many men. bank presidents and the like, use
the same pen for their names only for a wear
or two without change. A pen that has been
used by man in writing his name hundreds of
times. and never used for anything else will
almost write the name Of ITSELF 1t gets lmbued
with the spirit of the signature In the hands
OF fairly good forger it will preserve the
characteristics of the original. The reason for
this is that the point of the pen has been
ground down in a peculiar way, from being
used always by the same hand and for the same
combination of letters. 1t would splutter If
held at wrong angle or forced on lines against
its will. 1t almost guides the sensitive hand of
the forger when he attempts to write the
name"
Hot Water and Digestion.
From Medical Classics.
OpiniOns diffar IN fba afFao< - A. g.