The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-05-23
sHARPERs' SCHEMES
How They Are Brought to Naught
By Handwriting Experts.
TYPEWRITER FoRGER1Es EXPOSED
Fortunes and Regulations Often De-
pendent on Results of In
vestiEation.
New York Correspondence Philadelphia

eSting seems he career or the nandWrlt-
ing expert when lie is, on the stand In a
murder trial. But there is another story
to the work Of the professor of the pot
hooks. From start to finish it is an In
teresting chapter of human ingenuity, in
volving as, it does many instances OF
strange cases about which the public
never hears -... .s....2.
One Of the most noted New York hand
writing experts, who will again be found
in the court room when the Molineaux
case comes up for retrial, talked of his
peculiar profession in his office on the
seventeenth floor of Park Row sky
scraper. He was hard at work over a
couple of letters sent for examination by
secret society In one of the suburbs
over in New Jersey.
That's one of the slickest tricks I ever
came across" said the expert. fiecking
speck of dust from a lens Of microscope
and producing a case with walls of acids
for test to ascertain if, the kinds of inks
used in the letter were Identical.
Here's fellow with enough strategy
IN him to make a general. He finds it
necessary to prevent pair of enemies
from attending certain meeting on a
certain evening, and he gets rid of them
so easily that he might as we'll have
played the same trick on a whole regi-
ment of hostiles.
''The case was this: A fellow, call him
1uoIlpSOu, wanted TO get DaCk INTO a Sc
cret society, from which he had been
dropped for non payment of dues. He
know that five hlackballs were awaiting
rim, four of which were enough to ex-
clude him. 1t was up to him., therefore,
TO prevent at Eco st two of the blackballers
from attending the meeting at which his
admission would be decided upon
III you had twenty guesses you could
not tell how cleverly he managed the
scheme. In a disguised hand he wrote a
letter to one OF the known backmailers,
young mechanical engineer named say,
Smith. The writer said that he had
heard Smith was a promising young en-
glneer and fellow member of the order,
and that under the circumstances a Ger
tain job which the writer had to give out
would be offered to Smith rather than to
q rank outsider. Smith was to, call the
next night at 9 o'clock to meet his new
friend at a Broadway hotel
1T was beautiful letter-one that
tickled Smith from the roots of his hair
to the soles of his feet. He knew, of
course, that there was the Matchmaking,
which he would like to attend to PERSONAL
~, but even without him, he argued, there
were enough to exclude Thompson, and,
anyway-business before pleasure.
But even with Smith out of the way,
there was another blackmailer to be got
ten rid Of. Jones, let us call him, con-
tractor, was selected. Jones received. a
letter much like Smith, only Jones was
to get 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 9 o'clock at 222
Lewis street. Jones also received 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,
~ p1oI -
pepper him, and that Thompson had no
chance Of getting into the organization.
THAT night, to make matters worse, it
raned-well, about as hard as it could
rain. -- - -: 4 -
Jones found his town all right, but no
Lewis street, and no one. named Peptha
Brown lived there. Therefore he. tramped
through mud and rain for two hours, Wis
iting streets of similar names and ex
hausting his vocabulary on the cussedness
OF hard luck. 49,
"Not much better off, Smith sat in the
hotel corridor watching the rain spatter
on the pavement of Broadway and swear
ing softly to himself. Not until II o'clock
did he give up hope. At that E.our he
quit and decided on the way home to
stop at the house of Jones to see how the
blackmailing had come off, Jones was
not in. But Mrs. Jones was, and she
told Smith of the perfectly lovely letter
fellow member Of the order away up IN
Y Then a light dawned on Smith, for
he realized that Thompson must nave
sailed straight into membership.
Il think l got one of those perfectly
lovely letters myself, he said, and with
that in came Jones. fresh from the wllds
of Y. Then there were explanations.
"Meanyhile only three blackmailers had
been registered against Thompson, and he
was declared duly elected And now the
SEQUEL. All five wanted to expel Thomp-
son when they heard the stories Of smith
and Jones, but Thompson denied having
written the letters, and said he was a
party to no conspiracy. So the letters
were sent to me to see whether they were
written by one hand, and whether they
corresponded with the admitted handwrlt-
ing of Thompson. Do they correspond?
Well, he's strategist / told you.
.Other queer cases?" asked the expert
in answer to question. II should say
So I have one now where $4,000 de-
ponds upon the three letters in the word
two written on typewriter Ihat is
Just $4,000 letter. The case is one OF
an altered contract where space In a
contract was left blank for the insertion
of an amount in front of the words per
cent The contention is that the con-
tract was written on one machine, leaving
blank space for the filling in Of the
amount, and that swindler put the docu-
ment on another machine and filled In the
space with the word two instead of one.
"How could we tell it was inserted?
Easily-by comparing through the micro
scope the letters in the forged word two
with the is and the WIS and the 'o's'
in the body of the contract. In one case
! the type was a trifle more worn than in
the other, and it was therefore thinner
In it's mark Also, the microscope showed
one Of the letters in the forged word to
be strictly in alignment, while the same
letter in the body of the contract was
somewhat out Likewise, the entire word
was written a hairs breadth higher on
the line than it ought to have been. There
are. many ways of determining forgeries
by typewriters; as many, almost, as for
the ordinary handwriting.
Speaking of typewriter forgeries re-
minds,me of a peculiar case in the circles
of exclusive society which was recently
settled out of court because Of counter
charge which would have been brought on
the strength Of the typewriter's evidence
One man was suing another when the
defendant got hold of an discriminating
letter written by the plaintiff. The let
ter, signature and all, had been written
on a machine, and 1t was supposed, from
the evidence in the case, that it had been
written on a 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 of
fcas until the narticli1ar machine wa