Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-11-14
$4,000 SIGNATURES.
Augusta Man Who Makes Greatest
Number Of Signatures.
General seId. Conner, United States Pension
Agent. Has That Honor.

signs his name the most times in a day.
and in the run of year. With all the
business houses and banks and places
where men have to do writing. there
is probably not place in the State
where one man has to sign. his own
name more times than ex-governor Sell
den Common, the United States pension
agent for the State Of Maine.
General Conner signs his name to
about Il, 900 checks in the of a year. It.
would seem in case of this sort where
so many have to be signed, that
stamp bearing a facsimile of the gens
erals hand writing would be the bes.
thing possible, but this is not allowed
In large departments where it would
be impossible for man to sign all the
checks, there are duly authorized
clerks who do the work, but here Gen
eral Connor does it all.
When one thinks of a man signing
his own name SO many times, he natur-
ally thinks that it will be done with
such a rush that it is no matter
whether the letters are all there or not,
for no one can read it. This is not the
way in General Connor's case. There
is probably not a business man in the
whole country whose signature will ex-
na1 Iof f,fC r,, tn TO dali
cate curves and plainness. 1t is as
plain as print, and has all the round
ness that makes the beauty. The gen.
eral run of business men have a sigma
ture that resembles fight with pen,
more than anything else, but there is
none of this in the writing Of this
United States representative.
Seventy-five thousand signatures in
the course Of a year means quite
little work. To a slow writer it would
mean hours of agony, yet General Con-
nor does not mind it very much. He
sits down and takes the large check
books and signs each check before it is
made out. His ordinary rate of writ
ing is 300 signatures per hour, which
means 600 words and 5000 letters.
Every curve is the same, and to the
observer there can be but little differ
ence seen in the different signatures.
If the general should sign 250 checks
each working day of the year, he
would accomplish his work. 1t has to
be done differently, however, as each
set of quarterly checks has to be
looked after, and then there are many
days when he cannot get about the
work. One day recently he worked
four hours steadily, and succeeded in
signing 1900 of them. To the laborer
this may not appear to be a great
work, but let any man try writing his
name at the rate of 300 times per hour
for four hours, and there will be
WEAKNESS both in the mans mind, eyes
and muscles.
The signature of the general is large,
being nearly two inches long, and in
good proportion. These signatures
placed one after another would make
quite little string. They would be at
least two and one third miles long.
The signature if one straight mark
would be at least seven inches in
length. and the $4,000 of them would
be over eight miles long. The sigma
sible, would cover 926 pages of a book
with 100000 letters, whose pages are of
the ordinary size, 9 by inches. This
would be equal to about $4,000 square
inches of space. They would cover a
sheet of paper little over Is feet
square, as closely as they could be
written.
1t is hard to see the difference in the
signatures, yet General Connor can
himself select from among his check
books, some where the writing is more
even than in others, and where the
WTllluS Is HlOTe ueliCdlt. I1e Says Tie
appearance of a mans writing de-
ponds largely upon the way that man
feels when he is writing. If he is
nervous and anxious to get through, his
work will have hurried and sighted
look. On the other hand when he is
working along nicely, his work will, in
look much better.
The general tells of an expert who
says that not once in a million times
does a man make a signature that is
exactly like another.
There are many men of many duties.
who have to sign their names many
times, but of all General Conner doubt
less leads.
Harry Reid and Harry Brooks have