The San Francisco call., 1897-05-21

"Can you tell by an examination of a
PERSONS handwriting how old that person
was when he executed the document or
what his physical condition was?" asked
Mr.. Foote.
''In a great many cases, yes" replied
Carvalho. LAS age creeps upon the in.
dividual the hand becomes stiffer and
slower of action and also wayers some
what. This might also be the result of
Sickness
"Would it not also cause more breaks
and spaces in the formation of the words 2"
II think it would.''
BREAKS similar to those you have at
tempted to point out in the pencil will2"
"Perhaps-in fact, quite likely"
That's all | wanted to know" said Mr..
Foote, and then he announced that he
was done with the witness.
Redirect examination now being in or.
der Attorney Mitchell asked Carvalho to
explain the circumstances under which
he happened TO give two different expert
opinions regarding the Morey letter. In
reply he said that his first opinion
namely, that the document was written
by General Garfield and was genuine-was
based simply upon an examination of a
purported reproduction of the letter in
newspaper called Truth. Subsequently,
however, he saw the original document IN
court and then found that he was mis-
taken in his first verdict. He said he ex-
planned TO Garfield by letter how he hap
pened to blunder.
Mr.. Foote objected to this evidence as
being irrelevant, and considerable of it
was stricken from the record.
Mr.. Mitchell next wanted to know more
of the details of the engagement of Car
valho by Herman Oelrichs to give an ex-
pert opinion on the genuineness of the
pencil will. Carvalho said Mr.. OelrIchs
sent for him in New York and submitted
to him a Photographic copy of the will,
along with number of letters in Senator
Fair handwriting.
An effort was made to have Carvalho
say that when Oelrichs employed him the
young millionaire believed the pencil will
to be genuine, and that the expert crushed
his hopes in that regard. The court would
not permit this to be done, though. Then
it was sought to have him testify that his
compensation at the hands OF the Fair
estate was no greater than he was in the
habit of charging in all cases wherein he
is required to leave New York. The objec-
tion TO this was overruled, and Carvalho
replied that he always charged $1O0 day
for his services away from home.
This ended Carvalho's long seige on the
witness-stand, and Max Gumpel, the hand
writing expert of Sharon trial fame, was
called. Max startled the crowd right at
the beginning by confessing that his given
name was not Max at all, but Michaelmas
In answer to Mr.. Mitchell's preliminary
inquiries Gumpel said he was born in
Germany, and emigrated to this country
i'll 1870. He worked at his profession,
Iithography, in various places, and in 1880
took charge of the lithographing depart
ment of II. S. Crocker & Co. For twenty
seven years, he said, he had made study
of handwriting, and had testified in the
courts of California as an expert over a
hundred times.
Then, getting down to business, the
witness said he had made an exhaustive
examination of letters written by Senator
Fair, but had seen only photogra phs of
checks bearing his signature. he had
also examined the disputed deeds, the
pencil will and Fairs letter to Mrs. Cra-
ven. He did this at the solicitation of tho
executors OF the Fair estate. As the re-
suit of this scrutiny ana employment he
had formed an opinion as to the disputed
papers.
When Gumpel was asked to give this
opinion Mr.. Foote objected on the ground
that the expert was not competent to obey
this command because il appeared that
he had examined some of Fairs writings
that were not in evidence in the case The
attorney said be would demand that all of
these papers be produced i'll court.
Judge Slack ruled that he would per-
NIT the introduction OF theset outside let
tiers and papers when the cross-examina-
tion was reached.
This seemed to worry the attorneys for
the plaintiffs, for both Mr.. Wheeler and
Mr. Mitchell made long arguments in the
hope of getting a reversal OF the ruling
They said it had not been shown that
Gumpei based his opinion altogether upon
those writings, but rather upon the checks
and letters formally placed in evidence.
The court would not be swerved from
the first ruling, and Gumpel was directed
to bring all of the letters he examined into
court.
Gumpel then gave his delayed opin ion.
As was to be expected, he being the plain.
tiffs' witness and in their employment,
this opinion was to the effect that the
will, deeds and letter were all limitations.
He proceeded to explain why he reached
this opinion, and with chalk in hand he
demonstrated on the blackboard. He said
he found in Senator Fairs admittedly
genuine signatures a life and '.flu-
ency" that he could not discover in the
disputed writings. Life" could only be
reiouching the latter after it had been
written. He said he believed that the
signatures in the deeds and other docu-
ments in question had all been retouched,
and in some instances retouched in the
wrong places. Continuing he took up the
San some street deed. and said be found
that the signature was broken into more
pieces than was Fairs regular signature.
Gumpel WAS still undergoing direct ex-
animation when court adjourned until
to-day.