Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-23
AUTOGRAPHS AS EVIDENCE.

The MClineuX trial. and the large part
which expert evidence on handwriting
played in it, ara likely to give to coliec-
tions of aItogra pms at his time a general
interest which such things ordinarily
possess only for the special class Ct auto
prapGl hunters and students of history. A
collection Of 1873 scraps of paper bearing
the writing of persons all more or less
knows TO fame is o. to be seen at the
auction rooms Of Banks & Co., in Fifth
avenue, n the n~on-expert may there
try to- convince himself either one way
or the other a sto the value of the
testimony.
Thus, for example, a couple Of sheets
of fine caligraphy. dated "Buma Park.
May, 1894" n signed by Eugene Field.
may very we'll seem to some more char
acte1tstic of that poet by THE thoughts
expressed, and uhe illusions, than by the
caligraphy itself. Yields writing was
of an unusua kind, but it certainly
seems that almost any one with a moder-
ate of p~ennlanship could imi-
tate it. On the other hand, a page of a
rough draft of a play by Wilkie Collins.
presenting a Geographical mess that
must have made printers profanc, with
it's endless and bewildering erasures and
additions. shows a formation Of letters
THAT could only be initiated after long
and patient study. Wiikie Collins would
have been i'll advised to address a poison
! package to any one. Wordsworth's writ
ing. judging by the specimen in this coli
lection, must have been the writing OF
hundreds of men OF his own class and
! time. THAT of Robert E. lee. a spees-
men written when he was Lieutenant
| Co.onel of 1.-The % United States Cavalry,
is neat and, to the n~on-expert. entirely
be said of the jefferson Davis auto
graph. Sherman's is not remarkably
Individual. or Sheridan's the specimen
| shown is only his signature to an order,
and a mans signature is likely to be-
| come i~ndividualized ever when his gem
eral writing is not. .
The lesson of a large humble or great
| mems autographs, like these, seems to be
| that a handwriting which cannot be
| easaly Initiated is more common among
the thinkers than among the men of ac-
ton. "Nelson and Rronte" IS one ex-
| ception, but as a rule the fighting men
appear to aim at something which they
regarded as suitable or a Regulation"
| IDENTIFY think less of the shapes OF their
letters than of their thoughts and
phrases, Field, the enthusiasts site amateur
of old manuscripts. being one striking
exception. Ruskin. of whom there is no
example here, did not seem to keep up to
the end OF his life his youthful neatness
and precision of casigraphy.
The more generally attractive side OF
the study Of handwriting. the attempt
to judge character by that means. would
find a delightful field in the comparison
of, say Specimen 1872, an order of the no.
torious Confederate prison keeper. Henry
Wirz. to bring in somebody dead or
alive" with the character Of an unpub-
lished gstanza, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
or with Grants writing in two official
l~etters to Halleck. or with Lees OF
Charles Dickens's. A school of "chiro-
gra phologv" ought tx be provided with
a large collection of facsimile reproduce
tions of writing by men OF more or less
known character; the originals would be
Goo costly for use In everyday study.