Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-07-04
HAYES PARDONED.
CONTINUED from Page q

y
in its ramifications a series Of de-
partures from the ideal forms. These
departures in their differentiations in
the handwriting of the different in
diyiduals, constitute and make up
what is commonly termed sscharac-
teristics" of ones handwriting. If
it were possible to delineate these
departures in chart form, in case of
questioned writing, it would almost
Aseem unnecessary to bring together
Hthe known and unknown writing.
1t would almost seem unnecessary to
bring together the known and un-
known writing. The indicated de-
partures in a chart of each, when the
two charts are brought together,
would determine. If they agreed,
the writing is by one hand, if not,
per contra. Suoh plan if time per-
mitted would reduce the comparison
of handwritings to almost a mathe-
matical certainty in it's results. In
our case, however, we do not need to
go TO such extremes. We have ample
material to supply the information we
seek when we have learned the idio.
syncrasies of the several hand
writings-always keeping before us
the known fact; when one is writing
without thinking of the writing they
write natural hand; but when one
is thinking of the writing they are
drawing from recolleotions of the
ideal, travelling back towards school
master time. The constant diversity
indicated in the handwritings of a
single individual made at different
periods guarantees the truthfuluess
of this statement.
We are taught conventional forms.
No variety is allowed in the small
letters except in the sse" and "r''
which can be made in two ways. In
the making of capital letters their
variety becomes more extended and
hence it is not remarkable to find
that caprice governs them more than
in the matter of small letters.
Illustrative of some of these estab-
lished truths, take the "L. V. C."ex-
hibit testified to as having been writ
ten in 1897, and the letter dated
October, 1902, both concededly writ
ten by the same person. The differ
ence in time means one in five years
nearer to the schoolmaster. Observe
in the 1897 one, the small ct" en-
ployed as final letter and compare
it with final ct" in the 1902 letter.
Does the earlier one more closely
approach the ideal than the latter? |
Examine the capital letters in both
exhibits and note their capricious
variety even in their application of
the same forms. So much for identi.
fications by single letters.
As handwriting becomes more and
more settled, due largely to the edu.
cation the hand is receiving, 80 is its
work being affected by environment
and physical causes. The hand, not
like a machine on fixed track, often
changes its course and performs
curious things-these are termed
s'peculiarities," and while they do not
indicate their presence always in the
same relative position, deserve much
consideration. The other and regular
work it accomplishes constitutes the
"habit" of the hand and this habit if
found to be fairly fixed becomes the
most important of all for eonsidera.
tion. Included in "habit" is to be
found angle, pen. pressure, relation.
ship of bottoms of letters to a base
line, use Of initial strokes, length of
final strokes, crossing of t's, mechan.
ical layout of writing, spacing be-
tween words, proportioning of letters
and many more things unnecessary
to mention at this time. Their value
is to be estimated in about the same
order in which they have been given
and their application could be made
more apparent if the exhibits had
been written in ink instead of lead
pencil.