Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1892-04-09
ABOUT EXPERT PENMEY.
HE is A SKILLFUL AND PATIENT
DETECTIVE.
Nobody Signs His or Her Name Twise
Exactly Alike-TrainIngi In Litho-
graphy the Preparation
for the Work.

What is an expert in handwriting?
Popular imagination pictures him, at
one moment as a charlatan whose
pretensions are founded on error and
carried out by fraud. and, at another
(when he happens to be in agreement
with that abstract quality as a SUI
premely gifted being who is able in
tuitively to decide whether this or
that signature is genuine, or whether
a certain person really did write a let
ter imputed to him.
Both views are wrong. The pen
man Is skilled, patient and laborious
detective. His first principle is
familiar to everybody-that the hand
writing is as inseparable part OF the
man as his nose or his ears. At the
same time. it is an important axiom of
his that nobody signs his or her name
twice exactly alike, and that ones
handwriting may vary greatly accord
ing as one writes with a steel or Quill
pen, in the light or dark, when calm
Or agitated- and so on. In these
simple facts we have the groundwork
Of his art omparison-minute ex-
haustive-this is the means by which
he puts his principles into practice.
This seems very easy matter, but
in reality it is anything but that To
begin with. it is almost if not quite
Indispensable that the expert shall
have been trained as photographer
much OF whose work as everybody
knows consists of making fac-similes
of letters and circulars by tracing the
original writing through a thin sheet
of prepared paper on to a stone from
which the circulars that find their ay
to our letter boxes are printed 1t is
| obvious that man so employed could
not fail to note every mannerism in a
hand, and that if kept constantly at
work, he would very soon draw up in
his own mind philosophy of hand
writing.
Having had this training. then, the
penman knows where to look for the
peculiarities of a handwriting-the
| Jennings, the slope, the formation of
certain letters etc. By the aid of a
powerful magnifying glass he care
fully scrutinizes one document what
ever it may be, until he is familiar
with its characteristics. Then he
looks for corresponding Characters
tics in the other document or docu-
ments and follows up a clue until he
runs it to earth. In due course he
proceeds to draw up his report which
is often veritable curiosity. Upon
1 RA1I-Hr ~
story, Foul Play may be consulted
with advantage, for il contains a re-
port made for the author by a we'll
known living expert When great is
sues are at stake. however the docu-
ment is Of a much more formidable ma
ture than that given in the novel.
The expert draws up on sheets of
tracing paper fastened to white sur
face two columns OF corresponding
peculiarities-one from the false
writing, the other from the real writ
ing of the person suspected-and to
each entry he attaches a reference in
red ink showing whence it was taken.
Experts have much work that no.
body sees or hears of save themselves
and their employers says the Saturday
Evening Post OF matrimonial SQUAD.
bles there is no end and penmen are
constantly being called upon to Danish
or confirm suspicious. Then wills
are documents, the authenticity OF
which. in about fifty cases out of every
hundred, somebody or other is pretty
sure to impugn.
Again romantic young lady of a
calculating nature-and it is odd, by
the-bye, how often the two qualities
so opposed in themselves are found
| together, is anxious to know whether
| Alphonse really did send her a certain
valentine in which ''love" rhymes to
dove" as of yore or whether. after
all it came from young Jenkins, the
| lawyers clerk, who has no expecta-
tons beyond those common to the
entire human race. Somebody, too.
takes offence at one of those monstrous
colored productions (known to the
little boys, we believe as long uns')
| and wishes to know the name of the
sender not for publicity. but as q
guarantee of good faith. So it hap
pens that every February sees a little
heap of such literature lying on the
desk of the expert. OF all such work
or at least the greater portion O
it. the outside public know nothing.
Their only ken of the expert is wher
he appears in the witness box.
a New Kind of Plaster.
Samples of a new composition
known rs liegine are exhibited at the