The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-05-28
A NEW EXPERT
HOLDS THE BOARDS
Daniel T. Ames Is Now
the Star in the Fair
Craven Trial.
His Recital Is Dull and Con.
= ducive of Soft and Gentle
Slumbsr.
A Reaction Has Set in and the Pro
ceedings Once More Revel in
Their Wonted Dizziness.
The Fair Craven trial has relapsed into

The Fair Craven trial has relapsed into
its wonted drowsIness.
Wednesdays excitement during the
hurricane examination of expert Max
Gumpel and the startling disclosures
therefrom must have been too much OF
an effort for this somber, slow-going It'll
CATION, for when the reaction set In yes
terday the proceedings were duller than
they have been since the celebrated trial
began. The only redeeming feature was
the appearance of a new face and figure
on the witness-stand-that of Daniel L.
Ames, another Eastern handwriting ex-
pert-but even he soon grew tiresome.
This Mr.. Ames halls from Elizabeth, n.
J. He relies for his efficiency as an expert
on chirography upon the fact that he is
an artist, publisher of a penman's jour
nal, and an author of quartet of books
on the subject OF handwriting. Mr.. Ames
is venerable in appearances man OF over
60 years OF age, white-haired and whis-
kered, and not like unto a cricket on his
pins" to borrow the sporting editors
favorIte term. He is technical in the ex-
treme, profound and mystifying.
A glance at the ''pencil' will or the dis
puted Craven deeds, and he sees ali man
ner of curly cues, hobgoblins, footprints
of forgers and bacilli, which, it is safe to
say, the uninitiated Iayman could not
discern even with the aid of the Lick tele-
scope. When Mr.. Ames is testifying 1t is
difficult for one to disabuse his mind of
the belief that he has by mistake tumbled
in upon a dry lecture on the points of mi
croscopical researches at the Academy OF
Sciences. So deep was the gentleman yes
terday, in fact, that even Mr.. Foote of the
defense line lapsed into dormant state,
and was for the nonce cured OF his ha bit
of inlerrupting and asking conundrums.
Sympathy was uniformly accorded the
patient jurors. They had orders from
the court to hold in their laps photo
graphic copies of the pencil will-the
document upon which Mr.. Ames was first
to dilate-and in their hands what Mr..
Foote persists in calling "spYglasses."
They were supposed to follow the New
Jersey expert through his maze of tech
nical wanderings over the disputed Will,
and to their credit be it said, they did the
best they could to do it.
But it was awfully wearying. Between
their yawns and stretches they would now
and then indulge In squint through
their magnifying glasses at their
copies, but their very manner indicated
that they were only doing it to keep
awake and to demonstrate that they were
= y
In order that the jurors might not be
tempted to steal a quiet little nap now
and then. the attorneys for the Fair
estate caused their scenes hifter, Mr..
Marshall, to move the several scaffolds
and their suspended charts of enlarged
bromides of the will to position directly
in front of the iury-box, and Ames WAS
compelled to leave the sacred witness
chair and deliver his lecture from the
center of the courtroom.
AlIes began with the very first letter
written in the will, and slowly moved his
analysis down the line Mites of flaws,
slips of the pencil, retouchlng and paral-
lei lines he said he detected, and in each
instance he would illustrate the alleged
defect upon the blackboard. BY the time
the morning session was over he had
waded through fifteen lines of the will.
Ames resumed his hacking of the will
as soon as the afternoon session was in
augurated. He took up the sixteenth
line of the first page and, pointing 10 the
enlarged reproduction of the disputed
document which Scene-shifter Marshall
had rolled into position before the Jury
proceeded to call attention to various
additional so-called retouchings, erasures
and other alleged flaws. Ames paid par
ticular attention to what he claimed were
evidences that most of the words in the
Will had been put together in pieces.
These evidences were described as being
breaks between the letters forming the
words. True it was that even on this
magnifed and illumined reproduction
The alleged breaks could not be detected
with the naked eye-at least with the
ordinary jurors nude optic-bnt Ames
said they were there, and his statement
had to go for what 1t was worth.
The expert devoted considerable time
and description to discovery of his,
which he claimed was important to the
task of tearing asunder the WILL This
was an apparent unevenness OF the words
that is, a tendency to bob up and down
from the "nase line" Some of them
rested coZily and iauntily on the line,
while others of their neighbors insisted
upon being ambitious to rise In the world
ami soar. This lack of uniformity in dis
position, quoth the technical Ames, was a
sure indication that The words had been
copied or traced from copy.
Ames did no. think that forger bold
would have sense enough to trace the
words along an even plane while he was
at It,
And SO the afternoon wore away-tedi-
ously, YEARLY, sieepily. Ames reached
the second page of the will and his dis
sertation in monotone continued on, with
4.