The San Francisco call., 1897-07-21
DAVIS WILL
is GENUINE
That Is the Opinion Of Ex-
pert D. N. Carvalho
of New York.
He Has Examined the Docu-
ment in Question With
Great Care.

Jacob q. Davis will received the In
dorsement of a noted expert in hand
writing in Judge Coffey's court yesterday.
David n. Carvalho, the leader of his
profession in the United States, said
that he had made an examination
of the document and that he be.
lieved it to be genuine. To be more
explicit, be swore that the hand which
wrote the so-called wife will and the other
letters that are acknowledged to be in
Mr. Davis manuscript, wrote the dis
puted document.
When Mr.. Carvalho was wading through
a long explanation of the systt m of mis-
method of arriving at conclusion in re-
gard to disputed writings, Attorney Heg-
gerty objected, saying that he did not
think it proper to have such lectures on
penmenship during a trial of this kind.
Judge Coffey said the greater part of
the trial appeared to have been given up
to such lectures, and when Mr.. Heg gertv
again objected that no foundation had
been laid for the offering of this testi-
mony, the court suggested that it would
be the same thing In the end. and that il
was something like the eating of in
merit would not materially change the
result whether the pudding or the soup
should be taken first
So Mr.. Carvalho first gave an analyst s
of his method of arriving a decision and
then told why he thought the will to be
genuine. There are three tests, he said.
First IN regard to the habit of the writer
In regard to keeping to or varying from
the base line; second, the slant of the
stem letters, and third, the peD-pressure
In forgeries it was possible for the forger
to get one of these peculia-ities or he
m llcyh c m n LOT n nf hnn hIIt yua
not possible for him to attain all three.
In the Davis will all three OF the elements
of genuineness are present.
10 explain his meaning the witness told
Of the different kinds of forgery. There is
the copying plan, whore the forger places
the writing i'll front of him and makes the
best imitation that his skill will allow; !;
tnen there is the free hand forgery that is
made by practicing the imitation of the
writing that is 10 be forged, and there is
also the tracing method, as well as the
Photographic process, which is more COM
pllcated and one seldom resorted to for
the production of ordinary documents.
Mr. Carvalho said that while forger
was trying 10 get the slant just right he
would be sure to neglect the pen-pressure,
and II he was attending to the pen-press-
ure he could not properly regulate the re-
latlon OF the genuine writing to the base
line. his explanation was much simpler
than any of the other theories hitherto
advanced by the experts on the witness
stand.
Further testimony will be heard to-day.
Application was made by the attorneys on
both sides yesterday for an adjournment
in the afternoon for the purpose of allow
ing the lawyers and jurors 10 attend the
funeral of the late Colonel e.. F. Crocker,
but Judge Coffey refused the request. He
saiG there had been too many delays in
this case already, and that hereafter it
must go on without interruption till it is
ended. He signified that ne would expect
the lawyers to go ahead even on Fridays
and Saturdays in order to bring the trial
to a close, as 1t is inierrupting much other
important business OF the department.