Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-05-13

paper. MILLIONS IN cneckS went 10 gen.
eral delivery addresses or were handed
about or forwarded through boarding
houses. Large numbers of these Fed
eral promises to pay fell into the hands
of those who had no title to them.
This has led to great Justification. TeS-
tifying against forgers throughout the
United States now occupies much of Mr.
FarrarS time. In addition to serving
the Treasury Department, as an inter-
departmental courtesy he also helps the
Department of Justice, Navy Department
and Veterans Bureau with their hand
writing enigmas This Government ex-
pert also does much private work, as
there are but few authorities of his di-
versified experience and skill in the
country today.
Beginning as a bank clerk in st.
Louis, Mr.. Farrar worked up to the post
of teller and subsequently was sta
toned for several years in the old Sub
treasury in that city.
II have always been interested in
handwriting" he says, and some 35
years ago thought I was pretty good
bogus specimens. One day two checks
came to my desk apparently Endorsed
by the same person, despite the fact
that one carried the signature of John
Doe and the other Richard Doe l gave
the checks back to the runner with the
request that he have each man indorse
in person. The comeback arrived sew
eral days later in the form of an affi-
davit executed jointly by John Dee and
Richard Doe. 1t stated that they we're
twins, educated at the same school and
taught to write by the same teacher and
that they had always worked together
at the same job. 1t certified that each
OF the twins had Endorsed his respective
check in the form in which they had
been presented originally to me-
That experience taught me that I
knew very little about handwriting. It
provided the impetus which led me to
undertake serious study of the subject,
a subject which am still studying after
two-score years of active experience.
There are very few text books available.
Most of them are now obsolete. There
is no highway to degree in this science,
as in the study of medicine or law. But
it is an intriguing quest. What I have
picked up thus far has convinced me
that I still have much to learn.
I'VE resort to neither mystery work
nor crystal gazing in identifying for
gerieS. Usually they are easy to detect
by the person who knows what to look
for. The forger usually holds his pen
too tightly and writes slowly, which
results in relatively wide strokes. The
ink is not spread as evenly over the
paper as in natural, normal signature.
We examine the similarity of the let
tiers, uniformity of spacing between the
letters, how the upstrokes and down.
strokes are made and any peculiarities
in the formation of the last pen stroke,
or extra pen flourish in completing the
forgery. When a capital u is written,
if the upStroke is shaded, it usually indi-
Gates that it was written by a left
handed writer. Shading in writing is
always made toward the palm of the
writer's hand If a small letter It. is
crossed from right to left, it also is
significant of 'Southpaw' penmanship.
When man learns to write he prac-
tees from copy. Thus certain nerve
paths are opened and furrowed to the
brain. Subsequently, in his writing
tasks, these paths are used again and
again. Writing is really a SubconScious
action.
"A person who suffers mental break
down from such a disease as paranoia,
for example, develops tremor agitans,