The San Francisco call., 1897-05-19
The Expert Encounters a
Formidable Rival in
Mr.. Foote.
Component Parts of Manufac.
tured Adherents Discussed
at Length.
Then Notary Cooney's Ink Was the
Theme, and Finally the Deeds
Are ConSide red.


as being wise enough when it comes to
giving dissertations on handwriting and
inks, but he has a formidable rival in
Attorney w. w. Foote when paste and
corn starch are under consideration.
The New York handwriting wonder
blundered at yesterdays session of the
Fair Craven trial when he presumed to
intrude upon Mr.. Foote'S domain in this
regard. He was listened to with gaping
wonder and admiration as long as he
delved into the mysteries OF ink making
and ink singing, ink vagaries and ink
analyses, for it was profound and BRAIN
cIouding. But as to paste-well, that was
another story. True, Carvslho started off
to wade into this particular branch of
service, but it happened that Mr.. Foote
used to make kites, and, necessarily, his
own paste, when youngster, and III after
wears expanded his knowledge OF the ad-
discriminating art from this nucleus un-
til he can now talk huently about subtle
mixtures of the pulverized 1nnermost
kernel of o corn grain with preparation
of wheat and mysterious fluids; about
the infinitesimal com ponent parts of glue
and gelatine and wherein they differed /;
and about the scientific possibilities of
dissolving fy-paper aud other mucilag-
inous substances with spirits.
1t all came about when the high-salaried
expert was asked by George A. knight,
who is now acting as chief counsel for the
heirs and executors of the Fair estate, to
explain how Notary Cooney's official ac-
acknowledgements had been attached to
the deeds said to have been given Mrs.
Nettie r. Craven by Senator Fair. This
means that, in order to answer intelli-
gently, Mr.. Carvalho should know all
4 a.oA
from the stand that he did know this, and
then Mr.. Foote asked for the simple priv
ilege OF testing the witness efficiency as
an expert in this respect. This granted
he proceeded to wind Carvalho up into a
knot The expert said he had made thou
sands of pots of paste and mucilage for
use in his business as photographer and
knew what ingredients he had resorted to.
Yes, and he had made paste for kites too,
and his recollection was that -four and
water comprised the secret of that recipe.
The fine art of paste making had, he must
confess, progressed somewhat since his
kite days. Corn starch is now the chief
ingredient.
Mr.. Foote wrung another confession
from the expert and that was that there
were some brands of mucilage and paste
that he had never manufactured, and
after all, knew but little about. Carvalho
was compelled to qualify his original as
sertiou that he knew everything, or even
as much about sticky substances and
compounds as MIR. Foote, and that was
lust what the attorney was aiming at.
He will find that l know something
else besides paste and mucilage, when /
get at him on cross-eIaminatlon," whis-
pered Mr.. Foote to one of his associates
after his victory over Carvalho.
But this was only an incident of the
session.
The New York expert occupied the wit
ness-stand all day and continued 10 give
direct testimony regarding the so-named
''pencir' will and the disputed deeds. He
testified in great detail. For instance,
during the morning session he called at
tention to the word "to' appearing on
the fourth line of the pencil will, and said
that his microscopical study of the same
seemed to indicate that there had been an
erasure, and the word written twice. The
word shared" on the fifth line had been
written in pieces and had been retouched.
He found further alleged discre pancies in
the word "brother" located on the six
tsenth line, claiming that it was jsrky
and written with Thought and effort. 4"
He found another ''brotner" in an ad-
mittedly genuine writing OF Fairs, and
said there were no evidences of hesitancY
shown in it's writing. The word "dollars,"
on the nineteenth line of the will, was
similarly picked TO pieces and then COM
pared with a like word in one of Fairs
business letters. The words "Legisla-
ture" and Estates" were also alleged by
by the expert to show signs of retouching.
Carvalho was, at the opening of the aft
ernoon session, again picking out words
here and there in the disputed will, which
he opined, were tracings and not written
by Senator Fair. This lasted for some
time, and then the expert wound up by
saying that altogether he had found over
a hundred instances in the will where, in
his opinion, the words had either been
piecsd or retouched. On that he based
his blanket opinion that the will was
fabricated document
Continuing and branching off on lee
turing tour, Carvalho said he had made q
careful study of Senator Fairs handwrit-
ing, and found that it was replete with
idiosyncrasies, vagaries and oddities.
"Still," said Carvalho, II find that Sem
ator Fair was consistent In his inconsist-
encies, whereas the writing IN this will is
inconsistent in its inconsistencies"
"Whewl What's all that?' said Mr..
Foote, scram bling to his feet in q dazed
manner. Inconsistent in inconsistent
cies, idiosyncrasies, vagaries and oddities
why, object to all this because it's un-
Ineligible"
81 understand it very clearly" said Mr..
knight. loftily.
''Oh, but you're brainy," was the retort.
The court thought that Carvalho's evil
dence was bordering too much upon an
argument or lecture and smoothed m at
ters down by instructiug the witness to
limit himself to simply answering ques-
tions.
There was but little more ado about the
will after that, and the disputed deed to
the Mission street property was produced.
Carvaiho said he had made several re-
full examinations of this document and
had reached the conclusion that the body
of it was not simulated handwriting. 1t
was fairly natural specimen of some
Dody's writing"
When asked if he had noticed ANYTHING
peculiar about the body of the deed-that
is, the writing filled in between the
printed phrases-Carvalho said he had
found what appeared to have been an
erasure where the name of the grantee,
Nettie r. Craven, waa located. In other
words, what he was endeavoring to tell
the jury was that the name was written
over the erasure.
While this was going on Judge benson
OF counsel for the defense scrutinized the
Photographic copy of the deed and re-
marked that it did not look the same as
the original. The attorneys for the other
side took this as meaning that the docu-
ment had been tampered with and raised
fuss about it. The affair subsidized, how
ever, when Carvalho denied that he had
ever had the deed actually in his hands
previous to the trial. and there fore could
not have mutilated 1t.
The expert next devoted his attention
to the acknowledgment of this particular
deed. He said he was of the belief that
the writing thereon was in two different