The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-26
ABOUT FORGED SIGNATURES.
WHY A FORGER CANNOT COPY A
SIGNATURE CORRECTLY.

TOrtupe-One FOrRer Who Wrote
TOO WeII-IIow Misplaced Dot
for an ii" saved the Presidency
for GnraeId-Danger for ForEers
in "t's" and ..I'S"-Dificulties BE-
setting the Expert in His Work.
New York. March 2f-Prof. Daniel T.
Ames Is regarded as the foremost author
fly in the country on questions of disputed
handwriting. In the thirty odd years over
which his experience extends he has been
consulted in some i, 800 cases, including the
most important ones that have turned on
questions of disputed handwriting. He
was one Of the experts called in to pass
upon the celebrated MoreyGarfield lstter
and the Cadet Whitaker case at West
Point, the Fair will case in San FRANCISCO,
which involved an estate of $40, 100000, the
Hunter-Long forger.es in Philadelphia the
recent Botkin murder trial in San Fran
cisco and the more recent MolineuX case
in New York He was also one Of the
eleven experts in different localities con-
suited in the Dreyfus case.
Mr.. Ames studied law IN his earlier
years. has been a teacher OF handwriting
and is himself an expert penman. He
therefore, has unusual qualifications for
giving expert testimony in legal cases in
VolVing matters OF handwriting. Mr.
Ames for a long time was a resident of
New York city but now makes his head
quarters in San Francisco. He is at pres
ent engaged in the preparation of book
on the Science of Handwriting and the
Detection of Forgery" in which he Is en-
bodying the results Of his long experience
and trained observation.
Every year sees an increase in the num-
Der of important civH and criminal cases
that turn on questions of disputed hand
writing. In the past twelve months my
own Office has been consulted in over 100
of them Two of those In which ! have
appeared recenuy-the Botkin trial in San
Francisco and the Molineux case in New
York-reated to the crime of murder In
the latter, 80 far as 1t has gone the only
convincing testimony brought out Is that
of handwriting experts, five of whom
agreed in pronouncing the address on
poison package submitted in evidence to
be IN the hand of the accused man.
In answer to the question, DO you con-
slider that the Identity of handwriting can
be determined beyond the possibility of
mistaken" / can say unhesitatingly II do"
If l could not say that 1 would not go on
the witness stand and give testimony
which may help to convict a man of crime.
To understand the principles on which
an expert in handwriting bases his work,
consider for a moment how a person
style OF writing is developed He begins
by copying the forms set for him by
teacher. He approXmates more or less
closely to these forms. His handwriting
is set, formal and without character. As
soon as he leaves off following the copy
book, however, his writing begins to take
on Individual characteristics. These are
for the most part unconscious. He thinks
of what he Is writing, not
how. In time these peculiaritles
which creep gradually into a
mans writing become fixed habits. BY the
time he is, say. %, his writing is settled
After that 1t may vary, may grow better
or worse but is certain to retain those dis
tinguishing marks which, In the man him
self we call personality. This personality
remains. He cannot disguise it, except in
q superficial way, any more than he can
change his own character.
No Man Signs His Name Twice Alike.
It follows that no two persons write OK
actly the same hands. u is easy to Illus
trate this Suppose, for example, that
among 10000 persons there i5 one hunch-
back, one minus his right leg, one with
an eye missing, one bereft of a left arm.
one with a broken nose. To find a per-
son with two of these would require. prob
ably, 1O0,000 people; three of them 1000. 900;
four of them 100 100000. One possessing
all of them might not be found in the
entire 1900 100000 people on earth. Pre-
cisely the same with different handwrit-
ings-the peculiar and distinguishing char
acteristics of one would no more be pies
ent in others than would the personar
counterparts of the authors be found in
other individuals.
1t is more surprising, at first thought. TO
be told that no person ever signs his name
even twice alike. OF course, theoretical
", 1t cannot be said that il is impossible
for. person to write his name twice in
exactly the same manner A person cast
ing dice might throw double aces hun
dred times consecutively. But who would
not act on the practical certainty that the
dice were loaded long before the hundredth
throw was reached In such a case? The
same reasoning applies TO the matter of
handwriting with added force, because the
chance OF two signatures being exactly
alike is incomparably less than the chance
of the supposed throws of the dice,
This point came up In the Rowland will
years ago. Three signatures In dispute
were exactly alike. Forgery was aneg-
ed. Prof. Pierce of Harvard, who was
called to give expert testimony in the
case, enterd into an elaborate mathemati-
cal calculation 10 find out how many times.
on the law of chance, It would be ueees-
sary for a man to write his signature be-
fore he would have three exactly alike.
He found the number TO be 1866 600 OO0, 0O0,-
900 000,000. This is a figure considerably
higher than q man could reach II he de-
voted himself exclusively to the task of
signing his name for an ordinary lifetime
OF course the number OF chances OF ideu-
teal repetition would be multiplied or d.
minished according to the number of char
acters in the signature. but in any event
the possibility of exact repetition would
be too remote to be taken into considera-
ton. 1t follows. therefore, that an lden-
tical reproduction of a signature is a pri-
ma facie indication OF forgery.
Probably many persons will not believe
that II Is Impossible for them TO write
their own names twice alike. For them il
VIII he an interesting experiment. 70 re-
peat their signatures say. 100 times. writ
Ing them on various occasions, and then
TO compare the result 1t is safe TO say