The herald., 1898-10-25
The Detection Of Forgery

The Detection Of Forgery
Forgery is easy; detection is difficult. As
the rewards for the successful forger are
great, thousands upon thousands of forged
checks, notes, drafts, wills, deeds, receipts
and all kinds of commercial papers are
produced in this country every year. Many
are litigated but many more are never dis
covered.
An article in the New York Financier
says: Being desrous of getting some prac
tical information about signature writing
and how to safeguard ones signature, the
writer called upon William j. Kinsley, the
handwriting expert.
Mr. Kinsley deprecates the use of an il
legible signature-for example, series of
meaningless pen tracks with rubrics of
hourishes, such as are assumed by many
bankers with the feeling that because no
pne can read them they cannot be
successfully initiated. He holds and says
that his experience has demonstrated this,
that the easiest signature to successfully
forge are those that are illegible, either from
design or accident. The banker who sends
his pen through series of gyratons, whirls
intoxicated or irresponsible man who has
but little idea in his mind of what he is to
form and scarcely any control over his hand,
both produce signatures at once illegible
and easy of stimulation.
The normal handwriting of the adult is
full of characteristics that ditferentate it
from all other handwritngs. lllegible hand
writing lacks these characteristics, and
hence, if the same or nearly the same pic
torial effect is produced in the simulated
it will likely pass muster. Mr.. Kinsley says
that he has never been obliged to admit
that he was bafhed in determining which
of two signatures was the forged but twice,
and in both these cases the genuine sigma
ture was illegible and vacillating-really
presenting no normal hand as a basis of
comparison.
BY far the best signature to adopt is one
that is perfectly legble, clear and written
rapidly, with the forearm or muscular
movement. If possible, and it is generally
possible, unite the initials of the name;
that is, write them in combination without
lifting the pen. 1t will help if the small
letters are all connected with each other and
the capitals. Select one style of capital let
ters, study out il neat combination of them,
practice this until it can be written easily
and rapidly. Once Il signature is adopted
stick to it. Don't confuse your banker by
changing letter here dropping or adding
flourish there, writing it George b., an
other time G. B., or G.. Benjamin, etc
Countless repetitions will give facility in
writing it that will lend grace and charm
and will stamp it with your peculiar char
uctcristics in such way that forger will
pass you by when looking for an "easy
mark Signatures of this character are not
the ones usually selected by the forger for
stimulation. He is hunting for the illegible,
the conventional or schoolboy hand, as in
ilegibility and conventionaity he can hide
his own identity best, and at the same time
be more likely to pass the simulated for the
genuine.
The professional expert places but lit
tic reliance upon the opinion of the average
banker, because the banker gives SNAP
shot" or oifhand opinion, and not pains
taking, analytical one. But it is not their
business to make more than cursory exam
nation OF piece OF writing-thcy haven't
the time. The professional expert doesn't
value even SO highly the opinions of friends
and relatives and others who are ''acquaint-
ed with the handwriting of the person
whose signature is questioned. These per.
SONS are supposed to have carried menta!
picture for long time ia case is on record
where court allowed witness to give ex-
pert (?) evidence when this witness had
seen the person write but once or twice and
that twenty years before!), and give their
opinions from memory. The professional
expert doesn't believe in memory, hut
rather in judging by comparison. Bankers
and memory experts judge from pictorial
effects, or their remembrance of what the
pictorial effect was. Nothing is more dan
gerous than to form conclusions on pictorial
effect. If the stimulation was not passably
good one, if the picture in the forged did
not have some points in common with the
genuine, of course there could and would
be no question raised. To see how easily
anyone may be deceived by pictorial effect
in handwriting, it is only necessary to COM
pare these deceptions with those in make
up, voice and manner used by actors, nota-
bly, Frigoli, in giving limitations of we'll
known statesmen, actors, etc. At first
glance the imitation seems to be perfect
facsimile of the original, but if we were to
make scientific examination by means of
the 5ertillon system of measurements we
would find hundreds of points of dissimlar-
ity.. How frequently one of twins is mistak-
en- for the other when alone but when both
are present many little differences in size,
voice, manner, habits, ETC., are noticed.
Experts who have natural aptitude
coupled with experience that produces skill
are able, by system which they have re-
duced to science, to detect the spurious
from the genuine handwriting with almost
unvarying success. But their conclusions
are not reached by any second sight or
sleight-o f-hand methods, but rather by
painstaking, scientific investigation.
California Wine Exports
The exports of California wine from San
Francisco by sea in September and for the