Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1896-11-28
NO DISGUISE is POSSIBLE.

NV OISSSISI " SSStS.es
Faces Change. but q Mans Handwriting
May Betray Him.
1T is impossible for any one to
disguise his handwriting so that the
attempt cannot be detected" says
mn expert. Let me give you an ex-
ample. Before me at this moment
are the papers in sensational case
shortly to be tried. The writer of a
series Of letters has after ,pted to
disguise his hand SO that the letters
might appear - 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 be-
ginning of the lines. In each case
they are begun close to the edge of
the paper, this evidently being one
of the mans peculiarities. Then the
conjunction and IS IN eacn SEN
tence made with the sign So"
Even when he has gone to the trou-
BILE of printing the letter, so that he
may be sure that the writing is ef-
fectually disguised, the writer for
gets to disguise this one word, and
the signs are so much alike that
there is no inistak:ng them.
1T would almost seem as if ma
ture had made even the cleverest
criminal weak in some point or 9TH
er in order that his crooketlness
might be fastened upon him. This
man has disguised his handwriting,
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 exclama-
ton and Interrogation points are
thickly sprinkled, in some instances
the marks being repeated two OF
three times. No two men in a hun
dred would have this popularity.
Then, again, when he printed
the letter s. this stupid writer for
got that he was in the habit of print
ing this letter in his ordinary writ
ing, so that this mistake makes it
possible to compare tho two to de-
tect the similarity. When I put
them together, no one could doubt
that they were by the same hand.
As matter of fact, the writing of
the world IS as marked and varied
in it's peculiarities as are the fea-
lures of the writer's The close OBJ
server distinguishes between ma
tionalities by their writings as read
lily as he does by speech, physiogno-
my or any other race popularity.
Even when one has learned to write
another than his native language
the race distinction remains to a
very perceptible degree. The writ
ing of a German, Frenchman or 9th
erforeigner who has learned to speak
and write the English language
Will retain Il style as percept1Dle TO
the expert as will he the accent in
the foreigners speech, and the one
can no more be overcome OF avoided
than the O''.er
although it be fact that writ
ing ultimately becomes the auto
matte production of the hand, it is
equally fact that it does so as tho
pupil and agent of the mind, and in
the molding process peculiar quail.
ties of its .ttor and master entel
unconsciously into its composition,
and it becomes a mirror of its ere
ator-the mind. An inspection of
the autographs of famous people
would reveal the fact that they il
lustrate how persons whose mental
characteristics are a matter of his
tory clearly exhibit those charac-
teristics in their handwriting" y
Boston Traveller.