The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-08
VAIN TRICKS EXPOSED.
r,~C EXPERTS WORK Is NOT
nULL AND PROsY AFFAIR.

to Are Manifold, and Fortunes
IA regulations Oftentimes De-
Il IJpon Results of the Investi-
CATION.
from the philadelphia Times.
,,.v York-Technical, dry, and alto
her undressing seems the career
.hs handwriting expert when he is
.1.a stand in a murder trial. But
is another story to the work of
nrofessor of pothooks. From start
" enisb it is an interesting chapter of
human ingenuity and cunning. of
-.oedv and comedy, involving as it
80 MANY instances of strange cases
ut which the public never hears.
mo of the most noted New York
,ordwriting experts, who will again be
fonnd in the court room when the Mo-
wrsaux case comes up for retrial, talk
= of his peculiar profession in his
ace on the SEVENTEEN floor of a Park
I,ou, slzvscraper. He was hard at work
...r couple of letters sent for ex-
ornination by a secret society in one Of
tho suburbs over in New Jersey.
sIfck Trick.
,,Tbat's one of the slickest tricks
over came across said the expert,
a.oLinq a speck of dust from a lens of
| microscope and producing a case
| sttb walls of acids for a test to aScer-
,oin if the kinds of inks used in the
letters were Identical
"Here's a fellow with enough STRAIT
.ov in him to make a general. He
6nds il necessary to prevent a pair of
enemies from attending a certain meet
ing on a certain evening, and he gets
nd of them so easily that he might as
we'll have played the same trick on a
whole regiment of hostiles.
rThe case was this: A fellow, call
him. Thompson, wanted to get back in
IN a secret society from which he had
been dropped for non-payment of dues.
He knew that five blackballs were
awaiting him, four of which were
enough to exclude him. 1t was up to
Two Of the blackballers from attend
ing the meeting at which his admis-
sion would be decided upon.
If you had twenty guesses you
could not tell how cleverly he man
aged the scheme. In a disguised hand
he wrote a letter to one of the known
backballers, a young mechanical en-
eneer named, say, Smith. The writer
said that he had heard Smith was a
promising young engineer and a fell
ow-member of the order, and that I'M
der the circumstances a certain job
which the writer had to give out
would be offered to Smith rather than
10 rank outsider. Smith was to call
the next night at o'clock to meet his
new friend at a Broadway hotel.
1T was a beautiful letter-one that
tcked Smith from the roots of his
hair to the soles of his feet. He knew,
Of course that there was the black
balng, which he would like to attend
to personally, but even without him,
he argued, there was enough to ex-
clude Thompson, and, anyWay-busl-
ness before pleasure.
Second Enemy Falls.
but, even with Smith out of the
way there was another blackballer to
be gotten rid of. Jones, let US call him,
a contractor, was selected. Jones re-
ceived letter much like Smiths, on
y Jones was to get a half dozen new
houses to build from the loyal fellow
member who LIVED up in Y, and
who asked Jones to call on him next
night at o'clock at 222 Lewis street.
Jones also received a lot of taffy in
the way of making him think that his
fame and reputation had gone abroad.
He thought of course. of the fun he
would miss by not blackballing
Thompson, but decided that Smith
would be there, and so would three
others, pledged to pepper him, and
that Thompson had no chance of get
ting into the organization.
| That night, to make matters worse,
1t rained-well, about as hard as it
could rain.
Jones found his town all right, but
no Lewis street, and no one named
Jeptha Brown lived there. Therefore
he tramped through mud and rain for
two hours visiting streets of similar
names and eXhausting his vocabulary
on the cussedness of hard luck.
Not much better off. Smith sat in
the hotel corridor watching the rain
spatter on the pavement of Broadway
and swearing softly to himself. Not
until II o'clock did he give up hope. At
mat hour he quit and decided on the
way home to stop at the house of Jones
10 see how the blackballing had come
OH. Jones was not in. But Mrs. Jones
was and she told Smith of the per-
lectly lovely letter her husband had re-
ceived from a very kind fellow-member
OF the order away UP in Y. Then a
Ight dawned on Smith, for he realized
that Thompson must have sailed
straight into membership.
l think got one of those perfect
lovely letters myself he said, and
WIN that in came Jones, fresh from
ue Wllds of Y. Then there were
ordinations.
Meanwhile only three blackballs had
/ peen registered against Thompson, and
.e was declared duly elected. And now
mt ae sequel. All five wanted to eXpel
thompson when they heard the stories
VI smith and Jones, but Thompson de-
nieg having written the letters, and
Sdiu ne was party to no conspiracy.
~ tne letters were sent to me to see
.nether they were written by one hand,
asu whether they correspond with the
III. unlled handwriting of Thompson. Do
s 10y correspond? Well, he's a strate-
gst I told you.
$4,000 on Three Letters.
Other queer cases?" asked the expert
a. answer to question. Il should say
~ have one now where 5000 de-
wor GS upon the three letters in the
Tbat tWo written on typewriter.
a' IS Just $4,000 letter. The case is
.! an altered contract where a
H. III contract was left blank for
tbs Insertion of an amount in front of
tb,. "ord per cent The contention is
ma! lhe contract was written on one
flina leaving blank space for the
4 dIar u me amount, and that swim
chin uI me document on another ma
v vrlne and filed in the space with the
9 sT. TWO instead of one
Esen1-" could we tell it was inserted?
c-o.no-Dy comparison through the mi
rwo Sope the letters in the forged word