The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-03-05
CANNOT DISGUISE 1T.
so SAYS A FAMOUS cALLloRAPHIsT
ABOUT HANDWRITING.

1t Is as Natural to Person as breathing.
Methods Employed For Ferreting Out
Forgeries-some Notable Cases-Ths
Dinicuity of Proving Human Blood.
II is the opinion of pleasant little gen
tlemau, a guest at the Gibson House that
81 is impossible for any man to successful
! ly disguise his handwriting Il would be
just as easy to live without breathing
While the writer might think that be
had 80 altered the appearance Of his callig.
raphy that II would be out of the ques-
.tion for any person TO recognize It IA his
work. yet the variest tyro in the art of
Identification would have no trouble In
proving the contrary
The gentleman in question is one Of the
most famous experts in the United States
DR. Marshall ID Ewell of Chicago. presi.
/ dent OF the Microscopical society and dean
/ Of the Kent Law school Of Chicago. lie
was one Of the microscUpical experts in the
] celebrated Crouin murder case, was one Of
those who succeeded in demonstrating the
falsity Of the alleged will Of the late >ena-
tor Joseph Mcdonald Of Indiana, and az.
sisted in overthrowing n notable conspiracy
to seize rich mineral lands at Duluth, the
value Of the property at stake being almost
inestimable
As he beamed benevolently from behind
a rather large pair of gold bowed specta
Giles Mr. Ewell resembled anything rather
than an expert. The hawklike eyes and
the aquiline nose, together with the raven
black hair, were absent Nor was the lean
and 1.-THE figure there. Mr. Ewell is a
stoutly built gentleman below the average
size, wears IA silk skulcap and resembles
good natured schoolmaster more than any
other character.
There are many ways of ferreting out
the authors Of handwriting. 1t has to be
studied for characteristics for a man i'm.
presses certain marks upon his chirography
as much as he does his language--that is,
a person whose habits are formed does.
The muscles and nerves Of natural writer
act almost unconsciously. The moment
the thought arises in the brain they re-
spond without further voliton on the part
of the writer The only way to puzzle an
expert In Identification Is for man to first
write the letter or document which he pro
poses to use as n deception i'm his natural
style. Having II before him he can then
proceed to make a copy Of it, paying the
striCtest attention to each individual stroke
of his pen, for it is the unconscious cere-
bration that he must guard against.
with this to do, it is almost impossible
ibI uib~b ultl Ibl W btiIhN themselves.
They write at certain angles, cross their It's
the same way and have peculiar habits as
to the running together of certain letters.
One of the best cases that ever had in that
line came from North Hampton, la. Che
daughter of n physician in that town had
been annoyed by receiving the most oh.
scene and filthy letters from an anonymous
writer. Her father sent them with samples
of the writing of suspected persons to ne.
In order to test my skill he also sent some
of his own correspondence and page torn
from the minutes of IA medical society.
Within 10 minutes / had discovered that
the person who wrote the minutes also
wrote the letters. | SO informed the father.
He responded that was mistaken, as the
gentleman who had written the minutes
was his business partner and above sus
picion. AT my request he came TO Chi
cago, and | convinced him Of the justice of
my allegations He went home and ac-
cused his partner Of the villainy. That
person broke down and confessed.
I'm the Mcdonald will case the type
writer figured, the attorneys for the de-
fense, with whom | was allied, believing
that the last sheet Of the will had been re-
written and added to the whole did not
believe this, but upset the forgery on an
other common thing in identified ion The
signatures that appeared on the duplicate
copies were too exactly alike to be genuine.
No man ever writes his signature hike
| twice even though he wrote it thousand
| times. In this case when the duplicate
sheets (for The viii was supposed to be
/ written doubly) were held up 10 the light
/ the signatures seemed as one. This showed
that care had been taken to get them in
/ the same place and to write them as nearly
as possible alike. They were too careful,
and thus lett an opening for their own de
stIuction.
THE Duluth land case was peculiar
thing The property involved was known
as section 30, and the disputed paper land
scrip. In making the bogus entries the
conspirators forgot TO fill in certain speci-
/ fled blanks, aud when the ease came TO trial
| tried to show that the writing had been
| erased. Alleged experts were produced,
| who declared that under the microscope
| they could make out the words In question.
| They had not been well drilled, for they
made fatal mistakes in the words that
| ought TO have appeared, and thus lost their
case.
III chemicals are used to erase writing,
| the surface can never be returned to its
pristine state The only thing TO do then
is TO treat the face Of the whole document
In the same way Paper once written upon
!
would seem as though every trace is gone.
but If the proper agent is used the writ
ing can be brought up"
In microscopy Mr.. Ewell hangs firmly to
the theory that it is impossible TO decide
between the blood stains made with fluid
from warm blooded animals. The micro
scopist can always tell whether or not sus-
pected stains are blood, but there is no way
OF determining whether or not the blood
once flowed through a humans veins. This
> was his testimony in the Cronin case "a to
the stains on the floor of the Carlson cot
tage, where the doctor was murdered The
overZealousness Of a reporter In working up
sensation for his paper prevented any
testimony being taken as to whether or not
the doctor was killed in the cellar.
This journalist took beef's liver and
wiped the floor Of the basement with ii, pro-
ducing the marks Of a tragedy, but destroy
ing forever all chance of inspection Of the
stains. Mr. Ewell firmly holds To the be-
lief that the Syrian who was convicted as
Jack the Ripper in New York some years
ago was the victim of improper expert
testimony, one Philadelphia physician
1 SWEARING that the blood found beneath the
finger nails Of the suspect was human. He
offered his services to the attorneys for the
defense after the fellow was convicted, but
they would not move for an appeal.
n cmnati Enquirer.
As sign OF the rapid progress of repub-
lican ideas ia France it has been noted that
, only Is persons of title hold seats in the
chamber of deputies There were 22a
twenty years ago.
The official" scale of prices of Mis-
II souri naner are as follows: One year, X