Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-27

condition and appearance Of the famous
document. He said that when he first ex-
amined It the upper fragment. containing
the body OF the will, and the lower, con-
separated.
DR.. Frazier asked for little table. This
vas placed In front of the jury. From q
green cloth bag, such as Philadelphia law
yers carry, he laid out number Of papers.
On the table he set up handsome micro
scope of high power. and under the glass
nc placed the mysterious burnt paper which
purports to be the last will of Judge Holt.
Occasionally placing his eye to the instru-
ment he told In the greatest detail every
thing he saw. First he devoted his atten-
ton to the break between the upper and
lower fragments of the will. The sigma
ttre, ). Holt, Is Just below this line, and
the witness told of his efforts to trace the
upper parts of the letters ]. H. and t
across this line. He said that on the upper
piece ne distinguished certain stains or
marks not unlike Ink marks, but he would
not say whether or not they were parts of
the signature.
The letters of the document and the sig.
nature are backhanded, forehanded. or in
Ginning from the left to the right upward
ara vertical. There are 644 letters in the
words purport!ng to have been written by
Judge Holt. OF these 123 are backhanded
100 are fOrehanded and the remainder are
practically perpendicular In the first line
IN the name of God, Amen" nine letters
are backhanded and nine forehanded Aside
from This the character of the handwriting
was peculiar, he said, and showed that The
writer used unusual force or pressure on
ms pen; that he had good control of his
peH'and that there was an evident desire for
symmetry on the part of the writer. Dr.
FRAZIER testified that he had made a thor
olgh examination of a number of Judge
Holts letters to Mr.. Robert s. Holt and to
mrs. iglehart. They We're in his possession
ne saio: Tor several weeks. and were sub
mltted to searching scrutiny
Dr. FRAZIER said that he had nade n
careful comparison of the handwriting in
tnese twenty-four letters with that in the
aeleged VIII. He had made measurements
OF the salient features. angles distances
etc, or the letters in the signatures. and ali
tnese ne had in tabulated form on a big
sheet or paper. which looked as though
~ nisnt nave been report from the bu-
reau OF statistics. He explained at length
and In great detail the methods followed
IN studying handwriting, and the average
OF divergence from normal In signatures
~ was technical subject. and he handled
IL IN a thoroughly technical manner but
The jury seemed to be intensely Interested
In his testimony
In the course of his statement DIR.
fraZler said that the pictorial effect of
any certain writing may be initiated so
Wen as to deceive the ordinary eve As
result, the final test of the genuineness of
handwriting depends on ratios and ele-
mcnts that are not obvious to the eye
al th!S point a recess was taken for
IunC heon i'i
Alter recess DR.. Frazier continued his
testimony as to the countless measure
ments he had made Of the various Speci-
mt ms OF Judge Hollis handwriting which
We're submitted to him for examination
In the course of his explanation DR.
Frazier said that ne had made a com
poslte photograph of a number of Judge
f1oit signatures, which would show the
points OF similarity of all and the par
ticular points In which each differed from
the others. In such a photograph the es-
sehtlal characteristics of the signature are
shown The same method of measurement
was pursued in the case of this COMPOSITE
lie also, for the sake of comparison, meas
ured all the salient features of the sigma
lure to the alleged Will
DIR. Frazier said that the average LENGTH
OF twenty-four signatures was II.5 MILL
meters. the length of the composite was
- Hiliifneters, while the length of the sig
nature 10 the alleged will was 175 mill
meters. In like manner he made a com
paflSon OF the measurements of letters
stfohSs ana distances, showing no great
amount OF divergence in any case, except
In the angles.
After explaining all this sort of thing at
SFeat length. the witness was asked what
ne thought of the sigma ture 20 tho ALLEGED
will He said: 7eN
4 believe that TIE signature to the dncu-
ment Is not in the same hand as that of
me signatures to the twenty-four letters T
have studied
Inc cross-eXamination of the witness and
ms methods occupied the time until the
adjournment If court