Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-11-12
NO DISGUISE is POSSIBLE.
Faces Change, But q Mans Handwriting
May Betray Him.

Faces Change, But q Mans Handwriting
May Betray Him.
ct is impossible for anyone to dis
guise his handwriting so that the at
tempt cannot be detected" says an ex-
pert. Let me give you an example.
Before me at this moment are the pa
pers in sensational case shortly to he
tried. The writer of series of letters
has attempted to disguise his hand so
that the letters might appear to have
come from several different people. In
all there are marring indications that
they were written by one and the same
person.
For instance, the habits of the man
show in the manner of the beginning of
the lines. In each case they are begun
close to the edge of the paper, this evil
IDENTIFY being one of the mans peculiar
tiles. Then, the conjunction and Is in
each sentence made with the sign a.
Even when he has gone to the trouble of
printing the letter, so that he may he
sure that the writing is effectually dis
guised, the writer forgets to disguise
this one word, and the signs are SO
much alike that there is no mistaking
them.
cit would almost seem as if nature
had made even the cleverest criminal
weak in some point or other thai his
crookedpess might be fastened upon
him. This man has disguised his hand
writing, but he forgot to disguise the
fact that he is fond of the exclamation
point and the Interrogation mark as
marks of emphasis to his words. Over
all the letters both exclamation and in
terrogation points are thickly
sprinkled, in some instances the marks
being repeated two or three times. No
two men in hundred would have this
popularity.
"Then, again, when he printed the
letter S. this stupid writer forgot that
he was in the habit of printing this let
ter in his ordinary writing; so that
this mistake makes it possible to COM
pare the two to detect the similarity.
When put them together, no one could
doubt that they were by the same hand.
AS a matter of fact, the writing OF the
world is as marked and varied in its
peculiarities as are the features OF the
writer's. The close observer distin-
guishes between nationalities by their
writings as readily as he does by
speech, physiognomy or any other race
popularity. Even when one has
learned to write another than his ma
tive language the race distinction re-
mains to a very perceptible degree.
The writing of a German or French
man or other foreigner who has learned
to speak and write the English Ian
guage will retain a style as perceptible
to the expert as will be the accent ia the
foreigners speech; and the one can no
more be overcome or avoided than the
other.
although il is fact that writing ul-
timately becomes the automatic pro-
duction of the hand, it is equally fact
that it does so as the pupil and agent of
the mind, and in the molding process
peculiar qualities of its tutor and mas
ter enter unconsciously into its compo-
sition, and it becomes a mirror OF its
creator-the mind. An inspection of
the autographs of famous people wcllld
reveal the fact that they illustrate how
persons whoss mental characteristics
are a matter of history clearly EXHIBIT
those characteristics in their fand.
writing Boston Traveller.