The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-02-12
Prosecution Claims That the Guilt
or Innocence of Accused Hinges
on That Question.
BATTLE OF EXPERTS BEGUN.
Witness Testifies That Certain Sig
natures Were Forgcries on
Their Face-Defense Makes
Effort to Counterfeit.

REPUBLIC SPECIAL.
New York. Feb 1.-THE gist OF an ad-
dress to the court made this afternoon by
Assistant District Attorney Osborne In the
Patrick case, is that the guilt or innocence
of the accused hinges on a question of
handwriting
These were Mr.. Osborne's words:
The prosecution CLAMPS that the whole
point OF this case depends upon .Ir. Rices
handwriting and we may as well announce
that now. We Will place before the jury
various signatures of Mr.. Rice-genuine sig
natures-and we will place before the jury
the four signatures In the 1900 will. We will
show by placing these four signatures un-
Gerneath each other. that d line drawn
through a fixed point in on. Will rr' each
of them at exactly the same point. They
claim that no man could sign his name
four times in succession alike
The first witness to-day was Paying
Teller Wallace of tn, Swenson Bank. Mr..
Osborne attempted to have him tell of a
telephone conversation lie had with Valet
Jones. but 1t was not admitted.
Handwriting Experts battle.
The big legal battle of the handwriting
experts was precIpitated when Albert 5.
Osborne. the first handwriting expert. was
called by the State. An effort to bar out his
testimony on a most important point was
made by Patrick's counsel as soon az
he attempted TO testify, and for half
hour he was not allowed to answer a ques-
ton, while the triangular legal discussion
went on by Lawyer Moore. Assistant Dis
trict Attorney Osborne and Recorder Gorf
District Attorney Osborne placed in the
witnesSs hand the four signatures of Rice
to the alleged forged will Of 1900 Without
allowing the witness TO compare the sig
natures. the Assistant District Attorney
asked him if he could not tell from their
very appearance that they We're forgeries.
The expert declared he could. and was al
lowed to explain why. when the batteries
OF the defense were turned on him. Pat
rick's lawyers saw how damaging this tes-
timony would be-that the forgeries were
apparent without the aid of the genuine
handwriting.
Patricii's counsel invoked the aid Of the
common law in efforts to bar out the testi-
the Recorder refused to allow the witness
to testify further until he had made a com
parison between the genuine and alleged
forged signatures.
Comparisons of Handwriting.
Expert Osborne then told how he had
made comparisons of specimens of hand
writing. THE signatures of the 1885 will and
those of the 1900 will he said "are evi-
IDENTIFY not the products of the same hand
and brain The Rice writing is of the round
hand. taught in the schools up to 1850 A
man who writes one style finds it doubly
difficult to initiate writing of an entirely
different style. man. unless he has made
a close study of his own handwriting. is NOT
familiar with his own peculiarities Thus
he finds II difficult to escape using thes+,
characteristics in attempting a forgery.
"A popularity of Mr. Rice's handwriting
Is the shading OF the down stroke Another
is the peculiar line Of the down stroke in
the W. IA
ct, Ihe last lines of signature are the most
slgnincant- man abandcns effort at th,.
END OF signature. and lets his hand 20
iree. The genuine Rice signatures show this
lack or attention at the end.
In the questioned signature the pen was
evidently held at almost right angles to
the down stroke, so that II was almost i'm
possible TO get shading as characterizes
the genuine handwriting"
During the testimony of Expert Osborne
a number of photographs were submitted
showing the genuine and alleged forged
Signatures of W. NJ. Rice. and an immense
pen, specially made for the purpose was
shown to the Jury In order to impress the
different points of the experts testimony
graphically upon their minds.
Just before court adjourned the prosecutor
asked the expert:
'1n all the genuine signatures to Mr..
Rice's checks that You examined. did YOU
find single one in which the shading was
absent?"
Not one.'' Expert Osborne replied