The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-08

R. V. Pierce, Buffalo. N. Y.
public typewriter If the machine
on which the letter had been written
could be located it would be easy to
trace the operator, and The culprit
| could then be legally connected with
the letter.
There was no alternative except to
search through the public Typewriter
offices until the particular machine
was found. Money was no object in
the case. But even at that the search
among the thousands of offices
throughout the city was not as serious
as might at first be supposed. To be-
gin with, the habits of the man We're
well known, and also in what section
of the town he would be most likely to
have a letter of this kind written. With
these suspected places recorded, men
were sent out, and on each typewriter
in the district a letter was written and
brought to me to examine in order to
find whether any of the peculiarities in
the type of the original letter could be
duplicated.
I'm the end the machine was found,
the operator who took the dictation To-
Gated, and both parties decided to call
the affair a draw battle and not to
take Things INTO the courts.
IAN extraordinary case of expert
work came to me one day through a
New York savings bank. They had an
account which had been on their books
for fifty years-originally an ordinary
f1fty-dollar deposit, but one which, in
the course of the elapsed time, had
footed up by compound interest to a
little fortune. Like all banks with ac-
counts of this kind, this particular
bank was very anxious to get rid of the
money, but did not know where to find
the owner or his heirs.
Finally, one Amos Williams was To-
Gated in Washington, D. C. The man
was then IS years old and in a strait
ened circumstances. But he was
honest enough to admit that he knew
nothing of ever having made a deposit
at the bank. But fifty years ago, he
said, he went to New York on a spree.
He had the spree all right, and when
he awoke he was out all the money.
Now whether he deposited the money
while intoxicated he could not say.
Then some one decided to give the
matter to handwriting experts.
THE bank had the original signature
of the depositor of fifty years ago, and
it was decided to compare it with the
signature of old Amos Williams. The
bank signature was not altogether
steady, and 1t looked as if it might
have been made by a man at least
but when the two signatures were
compared all doubt was dispeled.
Throughout all those years the man
had preserved in remarkable degree
all the little characteristics of his
handwriting while young. AS a rule
this is not the case, mans age and
habits influencing the characteristics
and the little idiosyncrasies of his ear
lier handwriting. Yet the two sigma
lures agreed in this case. That fifty
years was, think, the longest span
have even been asked to bridge over
in the course of my career
Tried to Break a Rival.
I'm Norfolk, Va, we had a queer
case not very long ago. There were
two wholesale clothing merchants in
that city, Eckstein and Goldschmitt,
and between them they sold to all the
retail clothing establishments in the
vicinity In an evil moment it oc-
Cured to Goldschmitt that he could
get all of the trade of his rival If he
could only manage to shut of the
sources that shipped the goods to the
merchant. Accordingly he sent several
scores of letters in various handwrit-
ings and signed with various names OF
manufacturers, warming them that
Eckstein was about to fail. That pre-
vented Eckstein from replenshing his
stock. and Goldschmitt for a while
was in high glee.
Before long, of course, Eckstein
found out the trick, and all the let
ters were collected and given into the
hands of experts to decide whether
thew had been written by one man, and
whether they. correSponded to the hand
of the suspect Goldschmitt. In time
the case was taken to court, and
damage verdict of $500 was awarded
to Eckstein.
among the extraordinary cases that
come to US are many professional men
who try to beat the civil service eX-
aminations or the various boards of
rublic examiners. Doctors and den
lists, for example, frequently give us
work. An applicant for a degree or
a. license may be perfectly fit from his
standpoint of professional knowledge,
hut he NAV realize that he could not
mass the regents examination. His
knowledge of medicine or of teeth
roay be all that is required, but 1t is
So long since he has studied history or
geography or grammer that he knows
he'd funk If he tried to pass. There
fore he gets some one else to take
the examination for him, and unless it
is noticed that there is a discrepancy
in the handwriting of the two men
who have taken the test a man is
ant to slip through by that means. We
are frequently asked TO decide as to
the handwriting in examination papers