The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-26

/ the identity Of the person who actually
wrote it, If specimens of his natural hand
are TO be had for comparison. II is i'm
possible for man to carry in his mind
and TO reproduce on paper oil the peculiar
! Characteristics OF another mans writing
and at the same time to conceal all his
own. AT some point there Is certain 20
come q slip when the habit of years as
sorts Itself and gives the testimony which
may fix the whole production on the foTg-
or beyond the shadow of a doubt
There was a good illustration of this
IN the Fair will case, which was one of
the greatest forgeres ever attempted in
this country, involving as it did the dis
position of an estate of 500 CO., The
forser was familiar with Fairs hand
writing. and had a number of examples
of it TO guide his work. In the main. the
forged Will Is a fair approximation 10 the
millionaire own hand, although full Of
tell-tale evidences of its true nature. But
If other evidence had been lacking, there
was a single letter in one word which
was sufficient to prove the spurious char
acter OF the document.
story of an Important 90"
When the forger came to write the let
ter "a" he evidently had no example Of
Fairs "a" to go by. He hesitated over
the matter, for there IS a distinct break
ter in the word "bequeath" At length
he made conventional %" and went on
with the imitation of Fair i'm the remain
ing letters of the word The same form
OF the 20" is repeated wherever the forg-
er had occasion to use the word in the
remainder of the document. This was
damnng evidence. 1t happened that Fair
wrote a peculiar "a" and never varied
its form. The difference is plainly evil
In, I,o mi
would never have written the "a" as it
appeared in the contested document, and
the contrast was made all the more start
ling by the close resemblance In the re-
mainder of the word.
stumbling on "T's'' and CPS"
The little things are the ones that count
most with the handwriting expert in max
ing his examinations, for the reason that
they are no less characteristic than the
more prominent peculiarites and the more
likely TO be overlooked by the person who
tries to disguise his hand. The crossing
Of is and the dotting of is become mat
ters OF large moment In making comparl-
sons of disputed handwritings, There Is
probably no matter in conjunction with
a mans ordinary writing to which he
gives less thought than the way he makes
these crosses and dots. For that reason
they are in the highest degree character
istic. And 1t Is precisely because of their
apparently eight importance that the
person who sets out to initiate anothers
handwriting or to disguise his own is like
ly to be careless about these little marks
| and to make slips which will be sufficient
to prove his identity.
How u Dot Saved the Presidency.
limitations of signatures are usually
written in a labcrious and painstaking
mo ,c+.,a H..
unlike mans natural signature. which
is usually written In an easy fashion. The
limitations show frequent pauses, irregu-
iarities in pen pressure and in the distri-
button of ink, and contain other evidences
of hesitation. Not infrequently the forger
tries to improve on his work by retouch-
ing some of the letters after he has com
pleted a word. Microscopic examination
brings out all of these things and makes
them tell-tale witnesses.
One common error of the forger who sets
out to initiate another's signature is in ex-
aggerating the peculiarities and unique
features of the original. There was a
striking instance of this in the Collom-
Blaisdell case, in Minneapolis. Blaisdell
was a wealthy contractor and COLON was
his lawyer Blaisdell had peculiar sig
nature, that of heavy, untutored hand.
little accustomed to writing. COLON was
4dIlliidI Win the signature. MlGn.
was charged, he set out to forge his eli
ent's name. he naturally initiated this pc
cuIiar writing as closely as he could But.
being a better writer than Blaisdell he
had difficulty in carrying out this attempt
In striving to reproduce the tremor which
appears in Blaisdells signature he over
did the matter.
A case in point is the celebrated Morey-
Garfield letter. As many doubtless remem-
Der the letter was sprung on the public
in the closing days Of the presidential cam
siderable excitement over the question of
Chinese labor competition and the labor
unions all over the country had taken
decided stand in favor OF Chinese exclu-
sion The Morey letter purported to be a
communication written by Candidate Gar
field in answer to an Inquiry regarding
his attitude in this matter. 1t committed
him to the position of favoring The gen
eral admission of Chinese laborers TO this
country. Its object was of course to Sc
cure Garfeld's defeat by aTaylng the
labor vote against him, and it babe fair
to succeed in this purpose, as it was made
public only few days before The date Of
election. AS soon as the letter appeared
il was pronounced spurious by the candi-
date and his friends.
The letter was submitted to me along
with q NUMBER OF authenticated specimens
of Garnelds signature. A cuTsory exam
inatlon revealed the fact that it was a
forgery, and a crude one at that. 1t is not
necessary to call attention here 90 all
points involved / will mention only the
one that Illustrates the matter discussed
above. In the forged signature an attempt
was made to initiate Mr.. Garfield's writing
| but the forger was careless about dottng
| the 81" and placed the dot before the "f'
| and above the 81" This is a mistake
| easy 70 make, but a man would not be
| likely 10 make It In writing his own name.
| As a matter of fact, I examined a large
! number OF Mr. Garfield's signatures, and
| In every one the dot of the q" was placed
squarely above the letter. There was
| plenty OF evidence to show that the Morey
| letter was a forgery, but II all else had
been lacking, the misplaced dot on that
al" would have been sufficient to save the
presidency to MIR. Garfield
As TO the value OF the testimony Of
| handwriting experts IL can be said only
| that. like al other circumstantial evidence.
| il Is valuable according to the crcum-
| stances Of each case. 1t depends, above