The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-04-08
YOUR NAME In DANGER
The New and Startling Science Of
Crime.
Chemistry Has Developed a High Grade
of Forgers Dan gers That Alarm
Bankers and business Men-No
Remedy as Yet suggested.

It used to occasion some comment
from those who received letters from
the late David Davis to see his name
subscribed SO ear the body of the
latter that it would have been i'm
possible to have written anything be-
tween the signature and the letter it.
self. He left no white paper; the upper
parts of the letters of his name were
made to touch the last line of the
letter. Judge Davis used not to write
SO many letters when he was a SUI
preme court justice as he did after
ward when he became a member of the
senate. and he was never a very active
correspondent.
He explained to me one day why he
had adopted this rather unusual
custom. He said hat when he was a
judge in Illinois a case was brought
before him of alleged forgery of a
note. The signature to the note was
admittedly genuine, cut it was claimed
by the apparent maker of the note
that the body of it had been written
upon a piece of paper to which the
genuine signature had been attached.
The trial developed that some one had
secured a letter written by the appar.
ent maker of the note. The mans
signature had been written at a consid-
cradle distance below the end of the
letter, leaving a sufficient space of
white paper to write the words consti-
tuting the note. The original letter
had, of course, been cut off.
1Nbto avna-.o J,l,o n.- 80
taught him a lesson, and he never
signed his name to any document with
out taking care to make it impossible
for anyone to make u forgery over the
genuine signature.
But if Judge Davis were living now, he
would find hat such precaution would
not be a preventative to forgery. With
in the past two or three years the
methods of crime have very greatly
changed. The cracksman is a criminal
of the past. Bank burglary is almost
unknown. In the past six years not a
single robbery by professional Grim
lnals has taken place in the Wall street
district of New York city.
But it has been made apparent re-
~ tlu N iIC mas oblS SldIpou lis
methods. Criminals are now expert
and, to some degree, learned men.
Chemistry serves the villain Just as it
does the true scientist, and bank Off
GERS as we'll as the higher grade of de-
tectives have been aware for some
time that an epoch of dangerous for
gerry has succeeded the day of the ex-
pert safe breaker and masked burglar.
Within a few days a very remarkable
case has been on trial in Connecticut,
and one which would illustrate to
Judge Davis, if he We're alive, hat his
method of preventing forgery is no
longer of any value. A merchant of
Rhode Island, a man of very high
business standing, named Peckham,
was amazed last fall when he received
notification that two notes, one for
eight thousand dollars and another for
two thousand dollars, were held by
banks for collection, and that he was
the maker of the n. Mr.. Peckham re.
pudiated the notes, although he was
compelled to admit that his signature
was genuine. He declared that the
body of the notes were forgeries.
The payee of the note was a grain
merchant named Tritt, living in Con-
necticut, and a criminal suit for
forgery was brought. The notes were
submitted to experts. They were writ
ten upon sheets of business paper. at
the top of which were the business
cards in n case of Mr.. Peekham's
house and the other of Mr.. Tritt's. Mr..
Peckham claimed that in each case his
signature was signed by him to bust
ness letters and that the body of the