The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-30
HANDWRITING coNVIcIs SMITH
Man Who Wrote Herald Letter Sent
the Dynamite.

Experts are ready to assert that the
boxes sent to Judge Powers and War
den Dow were addressed by the same
hand that penciled the letters to The
Herald and Warden Dow, one the day
before yesterday and the other last
June. They point out similarities in
! letters and words that the author has
vainly tried to conceal, and the hand
writing in the case will form a very
material feature of Smiths prosecution.
a number of bankers who were seen
yesterday SHE'D at fac SMILES of the
letters, etc, and were not inclined to
express an opinion, for fear of being
called into. court. All, however, ad-
mitted that there were powerful indl-
cations that Smith addressed the
death-dealing instruments.
David Mckenzie, a bookkeper at the
presidents office, who is an engraver
by trade. is probably the man best
qualified in the city to pass upon the
question. After studying and compar-
ing all specimens of Smiths writing
with the addresses taken from the
boxes, he gave The Herald the follow
ing statement:
Comparing the Handwriting.
Comparing first the address on the
Dow box adm the address on the Dow
glance at the word penitentiary,' as 1t
appears in each, is sufficient to show
that the same man wrote them, with
clumsy effort to disguise his hand in
the box address. The first letter p Is
the same style, the only difference
being in the last stroke, a difference
that means the writer was more de-
liberate in addressing the box The
'es' and ms are just alike, and the
. o. q.
The tale of the Y extends beyond the
letter in each, and the same obtains
throughout the specimens.
The word warden is ill-disguised.
The first section OF the W. the precise
"a again. and the half completed loop
of the d are telling. In fact, his CAPT.
tai VS. in all are commenced with the
same inflex, even in Powers initials,
where the great effort to disguise has
been made. C. NJ the warden's ini-
tials, have been written in pencil and
redrawu with ink, and he has made the
c. painfully unnatural. After writing
C. he started to write warden being
nervous, and at discovering his mis-
take wrote the other initial-'N'-above,
without scratching out the half-fin-
ished W. which again shows the pre-
dominating irhex.
Smith Was Nervous.
I'm addressing the Powers box his
hand was cramped and it shook. The
detection that routs the disguise is in
the word Lake The last two letters
are precisely the same as he has writ
ten them in The Herald letter and on
the Dow box. He has crossed his It's
extremely high, as in the other speci-
mems, and the "a is perfect for COM
parison in the word Utah., though in
the others he has been more careful.
Utah was the last word written, and
he seemed to be more free. p In
Powers is not complete, denoting the
unsteady hand. Incidentally, it fur
nishes the world a new system of pen
manship. The letters are nearly all
unnatural. d. in Dow, has been re-
traced. and it is probably the letter he
would disguise more than any other, as
his offhand d is distinct and peculiar.
-P' in Powers, and p in penitentiary
the former in The Herald's letter. are
just the same, Notwithstanding his
flourish in the former.
Damaging Similarities.
lone of the most damaging similari-
ties 1 find in the letter u in Utah, on
the Dow box and in The Herald letter.
In the first it was not whole. owing to
a poor pen, but the two are neverthe-
less exactly the same.
summing up the Wnole, would say
that the most damaging evidence
against Smith, so far as the writing is
concerned, is found in the letters in
warden, Lake and Utah as con-
tanned in the addresses on the boxes
and Smiths letter to The Herald"
Mr.. McKenzie's statement will carry
great weight. While in the engraving
business in London, he became so ex-
pert that he could tell the work of any
engraver in England simply by the tail
of the letter "r,' and he was often
called upon by banking houses to de-
tect forgeries.
Mr. Mckenzie is very modest over his
ability, however. and at first declined
to examine the Smith instruments say
ing he laid no claim TO being a hand
writing expert. He paused in his work
and studied the specimens for a few
minutes. then gave the foregoing, with