The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1892-01-21
ABOUT EXPERT PENMEN.'
PEI5 A sKILLFuL AND PATIENT
DETECTIVE.
Nobody Signs Hi or Her Name Twice
Exactly Allke-Training In Litho-
graphy the Preparation
for the Work.

What is an expert in handwritingP
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 SUI
premely gifted being who is able in
tuitively to decide whether this or
that signature is genuine, or whether
Il certain person really did write let
ter imputed to him.
Both views are wrong. The PEN
man Is skilled. patient and laborious
detective. His first principle Is
familiar to verybody-that the hand
writing is as inseparable a 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 a 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 IS photographer.
much of whose work. as everybody
knows consists of making fac SMILES
of letters and circulars by tracing the
original writing through thin sheet
OF prepared paper on to a stone from
which the circulars that find their way
to our letter boxes are printed 1t is
obvious that man so employed could
not fail to note every mannerism in
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
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 a veritable curiosity. Upon
this point Charles Reade's powerful
story, Foul Play" may be consulted
with advantage, for it contains 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 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
pecul1arities-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
41NCIA1LlS Oob' Va LuCbtE1uAOuldI luaD~
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 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 atone 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 a
guarantee of good faith. So it hap
pens that every February sees little
heap of such literature lying on the
desk of the expert. Of all such work
or. at least the greater portion of
it. the outside public know nothing.
Their only ken of the expert is when
he appears in the witness box.