The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-05

fourth class has appeared. To the
| first belongs the man who works with
! the CON- before him, reproducing it line
for lin& Then there is the man who
practices the signature until he is able
to write it with free hand or from
memory TO the third set belong the
| men who trace the signatures by plac-
ing the original underneath. The for
gers who might be catalogued in the
/ fourth class are those who resort to
the Photographic process, and experts
say that to those who are familiar with
this method, it tells it's own story The
most common way, and the one which
is usually. adopted by professionals, is
that of learning the signature "by
heart," This method calls for the
| least human skill of any, and thus the
chances of detection are corresponding
ly lessened.
Professional forgers commonly use
India ink on which the two acids usual
ly employed have no effect. Aniline and
nigrosin when in solution are sometimes
employed, the latter, when placed on
paper, being very permanent 1t is not
affected by acids but is by alkalies, One
of the most famous cases which ever
came into the courts and i'm which
handwriting experts played a promi-
nent part was that of the disputed will
of Andrew J. Davis, the Montana mil
lionaire, which case is not yet finally
settled. The will itself, as well as a
large amount of other writing. was sub
mitted to an expert for examination,
and though the will was a brief docu-
ment four days We're spent in eXaanin-
ing it. When an opinion was asked, the
expert declared it to be a forgery and
gave twenty-five reasons why in his
opinion it should not be admitted to
probate. AT the present time there are
pending in the courts many cases of
questioned handwriting, into which one
well known Handwriting expert has
been called to testify, Involving a total
of some S17,O0O,OO0.
By way of illustrating one method OF
forgery, interesting material which had
played an important part in a court
case was carefully examined 1t con-
sisted of five or six graded photo
graphic engagements of the duplicate
signature. The original had been made
by an elderly person and the forger had
used the tracing process. To the naked
eye 1t appeared to be atcapital copy; in
fact, it seemed to bear every semblance
of being genuine. In the first enlarge
ment of several diameters certain in
accuracies of tracing could be dis
cerned, only, however, after attention
had been called to them by an expert.
In the next enlargement these same err
rors were more apparent, and so on
through the series. The largest photo
graph was magnified several hundred
diameters greater than the original and
stretched across quite an area of paper.
From an examination of this largest
one it was evident that the forger first
had traced his copy with pencil, after
wards going over it with ink but so
irregularly had his pen followed the
pencil lines that in certain portions of
this enlargement there was room for
a mans fist between the first tracing
and its inky covering.
In the prosecution of such a work the
utmost secrecy has to be preserved and
every expert therefore has his own lit
tie laboratory and Photographic outfit.
The business of an expert in hand
writing is not one which is followed to
any great extent and in the whole coun-
try there probably are less than a dozen
who enjoy any marked reputation and
there are even fewer on the other side
of the water.