It was a feature of all Smith's productions that the letters were extremely brief—a feature common to literary forgeries. The circumstance which first gave rise to suspicion was that the letters attributed to Scott, Burke, Burns, General Abercrombie, Grattan and Thackeray all began and ended with the same words. Those signed by Sir Walter Scott all began "I have your letter," and ended "I remain," a form of phraseology the reputed writer never used, but which, according to Smith, was common to all the distinguished men whose handwriting he had counterfeited with considerable success.

On the strength of the partial guarantee provided by the sale of some of these documents at a reputable auction room, Captain Caddell purchased a parcel of alleged Scott letters without prior inspection. A brief examination disclosed their fraudulent nature, and Smith was arrested. The Edinburgh police took the matter up, and the impostor was convicted in June, 1893, and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment.

Thackeray and Dickens are favourite subjects with most literary forgers, Washington and Benjamin Franklin running them very close for favouriteship. American collectors are particularly keen on procuring specimens of the last two-named, and there is grave reason to believe that many fall easy victims.

Fortunately the facilities for comparing and testing the genuineness of the autographs of every distinguished person whose holographs are most in favour with the forger, are numerous. In addition to the splendid collection of specimens extant at the British Museum Library, there are many facsimiles available.

The excellent work on Autograph Collecting by Dr. Henry T. Scott (Upcott Gill, London) is indispensable to the collector. It contains some hundreds of specimens, specially selected for the purposes of comparison, and gives besides many very valuable rules and hints for detecting the real from the sham.

Dr. Scott, writing of the autographic letters of his distinguished namesake, says:

"Of Sir Walter Scott's autographs it may be observed (1) the paper is generally letter size, gilt edged, with a soft, firm feeling to the touch, and an unglazed surface. (2) The date and residence are placed on the top and right hand, with a good space before the 'My Dear Sir,' uniform margins on the left side of the paper of a quarter of an inch, but on the right side no margin at all, the writing being carried close to the edge. The folding is done with the precision of a man of business, forming the space for the address into a nice oblong almost in the centre of the sheet, and the first line of the address is written nearly in the centre of the space with the remainder below.

"The watermarks found on the paper are one of the following: Valleyfield, 1809; C. Wilmott, 1815; J. Dickinson and Co., 1813; J. Dickinson, 1816; J. Dickinson (without date); J. Whatman, 1814; J. Whatman (without date); Turkey Mill, 1819; Turkey Mill (without date); G. C. & Co., 1828."

The paper used by Burns for his correspondence was always large in size, rough in surface, never glossy, and all four edges had the rough edge that is the peculiarity of a Bank of England note.

It is worthy of remark that in the case of the A. H. Smith Burns forgeries, suspicion was first excited by a simple but significant matter. The paper contained several worm holes. These had been carefully avoided by the writer, he knowing that if his pen touched them the result would be a spluttering and spreading of the ink.

Now it is safe to assume that these worm holes, being the effect of age, did not exist at the time the letter—if genuine—was written; as the worm did its work long afterwards, it must be regarded as a fortunate circumstance that in perforating the paper it refrained from destroying the writing, carefully selecting the wider spaces that the poet had, with commendable foresight, left for the insect's depredations.

The letters of Thackeray are in two styles of handwriting, the earlier sloping slightly, the latter vertical, round, neat and print-like, the capital I being invariably a simple vertical stroke. His is the most neat and uniformly readable hand of all the great literary characters. It is somewhat unfortunate that he was not anything like so uniform in his choice of paper. Letters are in existence on an extraordinary variety of material, from a quarto sheet to a scrap torn from half a sheet of note paper. On many of these letters is neither address nor date, but when once the characteristics of the charming handscript have been mastered, they are never forgotten, and are recognisable amid the closest imitations.

There are extant a number of forged Thackeray's. Their distinguishing features are that they are invariably very short, as if the forger feared to provide sufficient matter to supply material for comparison; most are on single half sheets of note paper, many on quarto sheets of varying texture and quality, and the characteristic vertical I, Thackeray's trade mark, always occurs. It is shaky and often out of the perpendicular, as the genuine rarely is. In the forgeries we have seen and suspect to be the work of A. H. Smith, a very significant sign is a sudden thickening of the downstrokes of tailed letters like y, f, g, producing a tiny diamond-shaped excrescence in the middle of the letter. The glass reveals that ragged-edged stroke which is inseparable from the writing of the nervous copyist.

It is generally safe to be cautious about very short letters. The forger well knows how difficult is the task of maintaining an assumed character. Just as the mimic may succeed in reproducing the tone and manner of a person with sufficient closeness to deceive even the most intimate acquaintances of the subject, yet fail to carry the deception beyond a few words or phrases, so the literary forger invariably breaks down when he attempts to simulate handwriting over many sentences. So conscious is he of this great difficulty that he often avoids it by boldly copying some genuine letter. We have had offered to us "guaranteed" Thackeray letters which we immediately recognised as such. In one particularly glaring case the forger had copied the original letter very fairly so far as the penmanship was concerned, but while the original was written on a half sheet of note paper, the forgery was on a different size paper, and the writing across the length of the paper instead of the breadth. This naturally disarranged the spacing between the words, which in all Thackeray's writings is a pronouncedly regular feature, and this variation was in itself sufficient to excite suspicion.

The popularity of Dickens among collectors grows steadily. Despite the fact that he was an industrious correspondent, and that a very large number of his letters appear from time to time in the market, the demand is ever in excess of the supply. As a consequence he has suffered perhaps more than any of the literary immortals at the hands of the forger. Yet it is safe to say that there should be no writer so safe from fraudulent imitation, for there is a peculiar distinctiveness about his caligraphic productions that once seen and noted should never be forgotten. Specimens are easily available. The catalogues of dealers are constantly presenting them, and most public libraries possess examples, either in the original holograph or in some form of reproduction.

Probably no writer preserved his style with such little change as Dickens. His signature in later years varied somewhat from that of his literary youth, but the body of his handscript retained throughout the same characteristics. It was always a free, fluent, graceful hand, legible as that of Thackeray when its leading peculiarities have been mastered, but less formal and studied than his. It was always remarkably free from corrections or interlineations. He wrote with the easy freedom of the stenographer; indeed it is easy to recognise in the delicate gracefully formed letters the effect of years of training in the most difficult and exacting form of handscript.

Perhaps the leading peculiarities in the Dickens holograph are these:—

The date of the month is never expressed in figures, but always written in full; in fact, abbreviation in any form he never countenanced.

The letter y, both as a capital and a small letter is a figure 7 except in the affix "ly," when the two letters become an f or long stroke s.

The letter t is crossed by the firm downward bar, which the character readers claim as a sign of great resolution.

Letter g is invariable in form.

Capital E consists of a downstroke with a bar in the centre.

The hook of many final letters has a tendency to turn backwards.

New paragraphs are marked by beginning the line about an inch from the left-hand margin.

A very marked peculiarity noticeable in many letters is that the left-hand margin gradually grows wider as the lines approach the bottom of the page. The narrowing is wondrously regular, a line drawn from the first letter on the first line to the corresponding position on the last will touch nearly every other line. This peculiarity appears to have escaped every forger whose work we have examined.

If the signs relied upon by the readers of character in handwriting are to be accepted, self-esteem was a pronounced characteristic of the great novelist. His writing abounds with those subtle symptoms of the prevalence of that weakness.

His signature is perhaps the best known of any with which the British public are familiar. It is remarkably uniform, and remained precisely the same from the time he adopted it after the Pickwick period until his death. That which he used in youth was less striking, but none the less self-conscious.

After the Pickwick period Dickens adopted the use of blue paper and blue ink. Letters in black ink, if undated, may safely be attributed to the earlier period.

His note paper was in later years of the regulation note size. The address, Gads' Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent, was in embossed black old English letter. His paper was hand-made, and of good quality. The envelopes were blue, of the same quality paper, but without crest, monogram or distinctive mark. Dickens' vanity expressed itself in the habit of franking envelopes, i.e., by writing his name in the left-hand bottom corner, after the fashion in vogue when Peers and M.P.'s enjoyed the privilege of free postage.

His letters of the pre-envelope period—before 1842—were on quarto sheets. These are exceedingly rare.

There is one feature about autographic forgery which may always be relied upon to assist greatly in the work of detection. As a general rule there is sufficient matter in a literary forgery to supply the necessary material for comparison. It must of necessity be a copy, if not of an existing original, at least of the general style. The process of imitation must be slow and cautious, and the signs remain in shaky, broken lines, and a ruggedness entirely absent from the writing of the real author, which is fluent and free. Even the shakiness of age noticeable in a few distinguished handwritings is different to the shakiness of the forger's uncertainty.



CHAPTER XV.

FORGED SIGNATURES.

The most difficult phase of the art of the handwriting expert consists in the detection of forgery in signatures. It will be obvious to the student who has followed the instructions and illustrations already given that this difficulty is brought about by two principal causes: first, by the paucity of material for comparison; secondly, because of the very important fact that a forgery must, by its nature, be a good and close copy of an original. This means that the unconscious tricks and irregularities that often abound in a long letter, written in a more or less disguised hand, are almost entirely absent from a forged signature. It follows, therefore, that the student must have some other clues and rules to guide him, for he cannot rely upon the chance of a slip or accidental trick occurring in a signature that contains at most perhaps a dozen letters.

The first step in the examination of a suspected signature is to master thoroughly the various characteristics of the genuine signature. These must be studied in every possible relation, and from as many specimens as can be obtained. The magnifying glass must be in constant use and the eye alert to detect the angle at which the pen is habitually held, the class of pen used, and the degree of pressure and speed employed. These last-named points can only be discovered as the result of practice and observation, and though at first sight it may appear impossible to form a correct estimate of the pace at which a pen has travelled, the student will, if observant, soon learn to detect the difference between a swiftly formed stroke and one written with slowness and deliberation. By making a number of each kind of stroke and carefully examining them through a glass, the student will learn in an hour more than can be taught by means of verbal description. The study of the genuine signatures must be continued until every stroke and its peculiarities are as familiar as the features of a well-known face, for until one is thoroughly impregnated with the original it will be useless to proceed with the examination of the suspects.

At first sight the student will probably perceive very little, if any, difference between the original and the suspect. It would be a very clumsy forgery if he could. Gradually the points of dissimilarity will become clear to him, and with each fresh examination they grow plainer, until he is surprised that they did not sooner strike him; they are so obvious that the eye cannot avoid them; they stand out as plainly as the hidden figure, after it has been detected, in the well-known picture puzzles. There are few faculties capable of such rapid and accurate development as that of observation. Thousands of persons go through life unconscious of the existence of certain common things until the occasion arises for noticing them, or accident forces them upon the attention; then they marvel that the thing should have escaped observation. This is a truism, no doubt, but the force of every platitude does not always present itself to every one. The comparison of handwritings is so essentially a matter of cultivating the powers of observation, that even if turned to no more practical account than that of a hobby its value as a mental exercise is great.

There are two principal methods by which a signature may be forged: first, by carefully copying the original as one would copy a drawing; secondly, by tracing it.

The first process is referred to as copied. The forger will, most probably, have practised the signature before affixing it to the cheque or other document, thereby attaining a certain degree of fluency. But however well executed, close examination with the aid of the magnifying glass will reveal those signs of hesitancy and irregularity that one may reasonably expect to find in a copy.

There is no part of a person's handwriting so fluent and free as his signature. Even the most illiterate persons show more freedom and continuity of outline in their signature than in the body of their writing. This is explicable on the ground of usage. A writer may feel a degree of momentary uncertainty in forming a word that he does not write frequently, but his signature he is more sure about. He strikes it off without hesitancy, and in the majority of cases appends some meaningless flourish, which may be described as a superfluous stroke or strokes added for the purpose of ornamentation, for adding distinctiveness, or, in some cases, and particularly with business men, with the idea that the flourishes help to secure the signature from forgery. Such writers will probably be surprised to learn that there is no form of signature so easy to forge as that involved and complicated by a maze of superfluous lines and meaningless flourishes. The most difficult signature for the forger is the clear, plain, copybook-modelled autograph. A little thought and examination will make the reason for this clear.

Let a signature be enveloped in a web of curves and flourishes, making it look like a complicated script monogram. The lines are so numerous that the eye cannot take them all in at a glance, and, if copied, any slight irregularity or departure from the original is more likely to pass undetected amid the confusing network of interlaced lines. If, on the other hand, the signature be simple and free from the bewildering effects of flourishes, the entire autograph lies revealed, a clear and regular outline, and the slightest variation from the accustomed figure stands out naked and plain. Most of the successful forgeries will be found to be on signatures of the complicated order. Their apparent impregnability has tempted the facile penman to essay the task of harmless imitation; his success has surprised and flattered him, and the easy possibilities of forgery opened up. More than one forger has admitted that his initiatory lessons were prompted by an innocent challenge to imitate a particularly complicated "forgery-proof" signature.

It must be remembered that the eye of the casual observer takes in a word as a whole rather than in detail. This explains why an author can rarely be trusted to correct his own proofs. He knows what the word should be, and in reading his work in print he notices only the general expected effect of a word. It needs the trained eye of the proof-reader to detect the small c that has taken the place of the e, the battered l that is masquerading as an i. So long as the general outline of the word is not distorted the wrong letters are often passed; and it is much the same with a signature with which one is fairly familiar. The trained examiner of handwriting, like the proof-reader, knows what to look for, and discovers irregularities that would escape the notice of the untrained eye.

The first part of a genuine signature that should be examined is the flourish, which includes all fancy strokes appended to it, and any superfluous addition to the body of the letters. A close scrutiny through the glass will show that the lines forming the tail-flourish are generally clear, firm and sharp in outline, being formed, not only without hesitation, but with a dash and decided sweep that are strongly at variance with the broken, saw-edged, unsteady line of the copy. It will also generally be found to follow an almost fixed rule in the matter of its proportionate conformation: that is, supposing the writer finishes up with a horizontal line under his signature, it will be seen, on averaging a dozen or so of them, that the distance of the line from the feet of the letters is proportionately uniform. If the line be begun with a spur or curved inward hook, that feature will be repeated. The end of the flourish or final stroke, at the point where the pen leaves the paper, should be very carefully examined. One writer finishes with an almost imperceptible dot, as if the pen had been stabbed into the paper; another finishes with a curve, either upward or downward; a third with a hook turned upward, either a curve or an angle; while a fourth continues the line till it becomes finer and sharper to vanishing point. Some writers are fond of concluding with a more or less bold and expansive underline running horizontally with the signature. A close examination will show a variation in the degrees of thickness of such a line, which should be carefully noted and looked for in other genuine signatures.

In this connection it will be found extremely useful and instructive to study strokes, either horizontal or vertical, with a view to discovering whether they were struck from right to left, top to bottom, or vice versa. The glass will render it easy to detect beginning from end after a few failures, which, by the way, should not be allowed to discourage, for every minute devoted to the study of handwriting is so much gain in experience, and represents so much more learned, which will never be forgotten.

The flourishes that occur on and about the signature proper must be treated as exaggerated loops, and their shoulders, arcs, hooks and toes carefully measured and noted. For this purpose an average genuine signature should be selected and gauged, which is done in this way: Place over it a sheet of transfer paper. With the scale-rule and a fine pencil draw horizontal lines that will touch the tops and bottoms of the bodies of the letters, lines that touch the tops and bottoms of the tailed and topped letters, and vertical lines that follow the shanks of every topped or tailed letter, including the capitals. The gauge, when completed, will represent a framework fitting the signature, and its use is twofold. It helps the eye to detect the variations in the general contour of the signature, and, when placed over another, brings out the points of difference. Due allowance must be made for proportion. It is obvious that the distance of letters will be greater in a signature written larger than another, but the proportionate distances will be preserved. The difference in the size of a letter is not very important, except that it offers more scope for examination. For example, a looped l may be very small or half an inch long; but, if made by the same writer, the proportionate width at top, bottom and middle will be preserved, and compare with the same measurements in the smaller letter. Signatures of the same writer do not often vary much in size, though they may be thicker or finer according to the character of the pen used; but observation will show that the difference in a handwriting caused by the use of different pens is much more imaginary than real.

The traced signature is produced by placing the paper over the genuine autograph, holding it to the light, generally on a sheet of glass, and tracing it with a fine point. Such forgeries are often more easily detected than the copied signature, for the reason that signs of the tracing process can generally be found by careful examination. The fine, hard point used to trace the autograph leaves a smooth hollow, which can be seen through the glass on examining the back of the cheque or document. If the paper be held in a line with the eye in a strong light, the ridge will be more clearly perceived. The difference between a mark made by a hard point and a pen can be tested by experiment. The hard point must of necessity be pressed with a degree of force to make the desired impression on the paper, and the result is a smooth hollow. But if a pen be pressed hard, it produces two parallel lines, and, instead of a hollow, a ridge is formed between the parallels. Of course, it will be so slight as to be hardly perceptible, except through a strong glass, but it will be there nevertheless, and knowing what to look for, the expert will generally have no difficulty in satisfying himself whether the forgery has been traced or copied, a very valuable piece of evidence when once settled, for it is within the bounds of probability that the genuine signature from which the tracing was made may be discovered. It is possible, and has often occurred, that the writer of the original may have some recollection of having written to the suspected person, or in many ways a clue may be suggested. There is a well-known case of a forgery being brought home to the perpetrator through the accuracy of the tracing. It is a fact easily proved, that no man can write a word twice, so exactly, that if the two are overlaid they fit. If two such signatures be produced, it is safe to assume that one has been traced or otherwise mechanically produced. In the case mentioned a signature on a cheque was pronounced a forgery by the person supposed to have signed it. In examining specimens of the genuine autograph, the experts came upon one which, when placed upon that on the cheque, proved a perfect replica, down to the most minute detail, showing beyond question that it had been used to trace the forgery from. It was further proved that the original had been in the possession of the supposed forger, and the jury were asked to decide whether it was probable that a man could reproduce his signature in exact facsimile after a lapse of time, and without the original before him. As the chances against such a contingency are many millions to one—a fact the student can verify—the jury decided against the forger.

At the risk of appearing tautological to a tiresome degree it is necessary to accentuate the fact that the comparison of handwriting, and more particularly of signatures, is essentially dependent on cultivating the faculty of observation. This art cannot be taught; it can only be acquired by practice and experience, like swimming or riding. The teacher can at most indicate the method of study and some of the leading principles of conducting an investigation. Most men are not naturally observant, and the habit can be best fostered by having an object; but when once a person has been taught what to look for he almost instinctively notices details that previously never struck him. This is specially true of the study of handwriting.

The best method of practice that can be adopted by the student is to begin by making a careful study of his own signature and writing. He will be surprised at the number of facts hitherto unsuspected that will be revealed to him. The value of using his own handwriting as a subject of examination lies in this, that the student can satisfy himself how and why certain strokes are made. This he can only guess at in the writing of others.

The preliminary exercise should consist in studying the effect produced by the different methods of holding the pen. The signature supplies excellent material for this class of practice. Begin by holding the pen with the top end pointed well towards the left shoulder, in the absurd and unnatural position taught by the old school of writing masters. Repeat the signature with the pen held a trifle less acutely angular, and go on till six or eight signatures have been written at a decreasing angle—until the top of the penholder points well to the right, producing what is known as a backhand. The effect of these angles must be carefully noted, and in a short time it will be found possible to arrive at a very accurate opinion as to how the writer of a particular signature habitually holds his pen—an important and valuable piece of knowledge. The practice should be extended to long sentences, and a frequent repetition of all the letters, capital and small, the magnifying glass being always used to examine the effect of the various and varying strokes.

In examining a signature for comparing it with a suspected forgery it should be copied very frequently, as the clues and suggestions the experiments will produce are of much greater service than will at first appear, and of more practical value than pages of theory, as the how and why will be revealed for much that would be obscure without this assistance. As experience grows, it will not be necessary to adopt this copying process so often, for the eye soon becomes alert at detecting slight shades of difference in strokes, and a glance will convey more than could be explained in many pages.



CHAPTER XVI.

THE EXPERT IN THE WITNESS-BOX.

When the expert has been called upon to give an opinion upon the genuineness of writings he embodies his conclusions in a report of which the following may be taken as a fair example:—

To the Chief of Police.

SIR,

REX versus JONES.

In accordance with your instructions dated —— I beg leave to inform you that I have made a careful examination of the document marked A, and attached hereto, and compared it with the documents marked B, C, D, E and F, also attached.

I have arrived at the conclusion that the document A was written by the same hand as produced B, C, D, E and F.

The main reasons which have led me to form this opinion are these:—

First, although the writing in A bears at first sight no resemblance to that of the other documents, the difference is only such as experience leads me to expect in a writing which has been purposely disguised, as I believe this has been.

The writing on the five documents B to F I take to be the normal hand of the author, and that on A to be the same writer's hand altered so as to present a different appearance. I will call the specimens B to F the genuine examples, and A the disguised.

Experience shows that the person who writes an anonymous letter generally seeks to disguise his hand by departing as much as he deems possible from his normal writing. The usual hand of the writer of the genuine document is a free rounded hand sloping upwards towards the right. The writing of A presents exactly the features I would expect to find when, as appears to be the case here, the writer has adopted the familiar trick of sloping his writing in a direction opposite to his normal hand. While the result of this change is to alter the apparent style and general appearance of the writing, the alteration does not extend to certain tricks and characteristics which are plainly obvious in the genuine letters and are repeated in the anonymous letter A.

The writing in the genuine letters contains fourteen very distinctive peculiarities, or tricks of hand, which I find repeated in the anonymous letter A.

(Here describe them, as for example.)

1. The figure 4 in the dates is always made like the print form of that figure.

2. The small e is always of the Greek form.

3. The small t is always crossed by a bar thick at the beginning, tapering to a point, with its longest part behind the shank of the t [and so on].

The various points of resemblance are set out in detail, a separate paragraph for each, and each paragraph numbered.

It is extremely important that a report should be fully descriptive and written in plain, non-technical language, easily understood by the jury, who will have to decide whether the resemblance has been made out.

Too many handwriting experts spoil the effect of their evidence by employing technical language and presuming on the part of the jury an acquaintance with the methods of comparing handwritings.

Do not be satisfied by saying that certain letters resemble each other. Show by an enlarged diagram how and where, indicating the parts to which attention is called by arrows. Place the single letters to be compared in parallel columns, headed with the alphabetical letter distinguishing the document in which the particular letter occurs. Use foolscap paper, and write on one side of the paper only.

The usual method of dealing with the handwriting expert in the witness-box is shown in the following extract from a report of an actual case.

Mr. D. B—— was called by counsel for the prosecution and duly sworn.

Q.—You have had considerable experience in examining handwriting.

A.—Over twenty years.

Q.—Look at these documents. (Hands documents to witness.) Have you seen and examined these?

A.—I have.

Q.—Have you formed any opinion upon them?

A.—I have, and have prepared a report.

In some cases the expert is allowed to read his report in full. In others he is requested to give a verbal report, but if the point be insisted upon, the judge generally permits the report to be read, either by the expert or by counsel. A copy of the report, together with the documents in dispute are then usually handed to the jury for examination. The expert may proceed to illustrate his point with the aid of a blackboard and chalk, but much depends upon the attitude taken by the judge and counsel. Some judges insist that the expert shall confine himself to expressing his opinion, leaving counsel to deal with the explanation and comparison; others give the expert every opportunity of showing how he has arrived at his opinions.

The examination in chief is usually a very simple matter. The trouble for the expert begins when counsel for the other side gets up to cross-examine.

In nearly every case the object of the cross-examining counsel is to ridicule the art and get the expert to admit the possibility of other writers possessing the same peculiarities which are said to distinguish the letters before the Court.

Counsel's favourite trick is to select some letter and ask the expert if he is prepared to swear that he has never seen something just like it in some other person's writing. The expert who knows his business will insist on keeping well to the front the bedrock basis of handwriting comparison, which is the application of the law of probability to cumulative evidence. It is not a question whether some other person may be in the habit of making a t or a k similar to those cited as evidences of common origin, but whether it is probable that two persons should make a dozen or more letters in precisely the same way under similar conditions and exhibit precisely the same peculiarities of style. He should reply with the unanswerable postulate that millions of persons possess red hair, snub noses, a scar on the face, blue eyes, bent fingers and a stammer; but it is millions to one against any two persons possessing all six of those peculiarities.

In the course of his replies the expert may justifiably help his own case by repeating, when opportunity occurs, such irrefutable axioms as, No writer can say off-hand what peculiarities he may exhibit; that there are scores of ways of dotting an i, or crossing a t, and that few persons know which form they mostly affect. Fifty such points may be gathered from this little volume alone, while acquaintance with the works of other writers on caligraphy will supply ample ammunition for meeting and repelling the customary form of attack on the handwriting expert.

Another method of discrediting a witness is to remind him that experts have differed, the Dreyfus case being usually cited. The answer is obvious. First it is essential to be assured that those experts were all competent, for there are degrees of competency in judging handwriting as in every other subject on which opinion may be called. It is a notorious fact that in the Dreyfus case the most competent experts testified that the Henry letters were forgeries, the authorities called on the other side being in most cases unknown men or amateurs of no standing. A number of these self-styled experts possessed no other qualification than presumed familiarity with the handwriting of Dreyfus. It is also worthy of note that several of the experts on both sides proved most inefficient witnesses, obscuring their explanations by the employment of technical phraseology which conveyed little meaning to the lay mind.

Exactitude and regularity in the choice of the words used in describing the parts of letters should be strictly observed by the student. The rules given in the chapter on "Terminology" should be mastered and adhered to. In most cases the terms there applied to letter-analysis will be found to be self-explanatory.



CHAPTER XVII.

HANDWRITING AND EXPRESSION.

No work dealing with the study of handwriting would be complete unless it recognised that phase of it which touches on the delineation of character by an examination of the caligraphy.

That many valuable clues can be picked up by the expert who applies the principles on which the graphologist works is indisputable, nor is it necessary to accept all the theories claimed as reliable by those who practice this interesting branch of the art of writing-analysis.

There is no doubt that many persons have attained a remarkable degree of proficiency in deducing from the hand-gestures of an unknown person a very accurate estimate of his or her character, and this fact should prove that the principles of the art of graphology are based on scientific grounds, or at least that the rules on which the student works are regular and not, as some suggest, mere guess-work or coincidence.

The elder d'Israeli, in his fascinating work, the "Curiosities of Literature," devotes considerable space to the subject. Among other things, he says:—

"Assuredly nature would prompt every individual to have a distinct sort of writing, as she has given a peculiar countenance, a voice, and a manner. The flexibility of the muscles differs with every individual, and the hand will follow the direction of the thoughts, and the emotions and the habits of the writers.

"The phlegmatic will portray his words with signs of labour and deliberation, while the playful haste of the volatile will scarcely sketch them; the slovenly will blot and efface and scrawl, while the neat and orderly-minded will view themselves in the paper before their eyes. The merchant's clerk will not write like the lawyer or the poet. Even nations are distinguished by their writing; the vivacity and variableness of the Frenchman, and the delicacy and suppleness of the Italian, are perceptibly distinct from the slowness and strength of pen discoverable in the phlegmatic German, Dane, and Swede.

"When we are in grief we do not write as we should in joy. The elegant and correct mind, which has acquired the fortunate habit of a fixity of attention, will write with scarcely an erasure on the page, as Fenelon and Gibbon; while we find in Pope's manuscripts the perpetual struggle of correction, and the eager and rapid interlineations struck off in heat. Lavater's notion of handwriting is by no means chimerical; nor was General Paoli fanciful when he told Mr. Northcote he had decided on the character and disposition of a man from his letters and the handwriting.

"Long before the days of Lavater, Shenstone in one of his letters said, 'I want to see Mrs. Jago's writing that I may judge of her temper.'

"One great truth must, however, be conceded to the opponents of the physiognomy of handwriting. General rules only can be laid down. Yet the vital principle must be true that the handwriting bears an analogy to the character of the writer, as all voluntary actions are characteristic of the individual."

* * * * *

Professor Foli, in his very useful work, "Handwriting as an Index to Character" (London: C. A. Pearson, Ltd.), says:

"The changes which handwriting undergoes as maturity is reached prove how directly it is influenced by the nervous condition of the writer.

"The writing proper to childhood is large, round and accompanied by a laboured pen movement; whereas that which is normal as manhood or womanhood is attained is smaller, and turned off by a more rapid and fluent motion of the hand.

"Illness, again, affects the writing. As the hand is charged with more or less of the nerve fluid, so the writing is stronger or weaker, firmer or feebler, as the case may be.

"This goes to show the important influence which the nerve current exerts in fashioning the handwriting. Small wonder that our handwriting alters day by day. Yet it does not alter either. So far as its general appearance is concerned I grant it seems to do so. But look at the really significant points of the writing written at different times. Give a glance at the height at which the 'i' is dotted, the way in which the 't' is barred, the manner in which the letters are, or are not, connected and finished off. These things will crop up with unerring uniformity time after time.

"You do, of course, get a studied handwriting now and then, just as you sometimes meet with a formed facial expression. But that does not express the true character, simply because the control over the feelings or the power of disguising what is felt is a salient point in the character; and this very fact will serve to show that there is truth in graphology.

"That the pen, whether it be a fine or a broad pointed nib, plays a certain part in determining the thickness or thinness of the strokes, I am willing to allow, but here again we have no argument against graphology, for most people have their favourite nib—just as they prefer one occupation to another—and this is the one which will best serve to define their characteristics. The same with the surface of the paper upon which they write; some will select a smooth, others a rough kind, but whatever that may be which is adopted with comfort, it will be typical of the writer."

The following are some of the more marked signs of the character they indicate. For a fuller exposition of their application it would be well to study the work of Foli, before mentioned, and of Rosa Baughan (Upcott Gill, London, 2s. 6d.), with the scholarly work of J. Crepieux-Jainin, entitled, "Handwriting and Expression," translated by J. Holt Schooling.

* * * * *

General Characteristic.—The fineness of an organism will be revealed by a fine light penstroke. Coarse, low natures make heavy blurred entangled lines.

Activity is denoted by the length of the letters. Where it is feeble the letters will be widely spaced and rounded.

Excitability is shown by sharp strokes and stops. The more acute and irregular the pen-strokes the greater the intensity of feeling.

Aggression, which is the inclination to attack, the destructive force, is indicated by the final strokes of letters and the cross-bars of t's advancing well forward, the dots of the i's placed well forward. In such a word as "time" the dot would probably be between the m and e. The style is angular and well and evenly spaced, altogether a forward, "go-ahead" writing.

Economy, or acquisitiveness, is shown by the finishing strokes being turned backwards, and inwards; by a cramped hand, a disposition to curtail strokes, particularly the endings of letters, as if the expenditure of ink was begrudged.

Secretiveness, or extra caution, has its sign in the narrow, tightly-closed form of the body of the letters a, d, g, o, q, the a and o often being merely a narrow v. The general tendency of the writing is to compression, the final strokes being very short. When very marked, the letters dwindle into an indistinct unformed condition. The substitution of dashes for punctuation is another symptom.

Insincerity.—Beware of the man or woman whose writing is a fine, wavy line, upright, with short, stumpy and indistinct tops and tails, words running at their end to an almost straight line, the letters merely indicated. The flatter, finer and more perpendicular this writing, the greater the insincerity. Such a writer would probably be a polite, pleasing and plausible person, but double-faced as Janus.

Love of praise, glory, ambition are shown by a tendency to write upwards, the lines of writing trending towards the right-hand corner of the paper. The signature will usually have a curved line below it, with a degree of flourish.

Self-esteem, to which is allied conceit and ostentation, shows itself in proportion to the size of the writing, the taller and more flourished the upstrokes and the longer the downstrokes, the greater the self-assertiveness. The flourish beneath the signature will be very pronounced, often an elaborate spider's web of interlaced lines. The writing is more or less angular with the finals turned backwards and inwards.

Will power is shown by firm bars to the t, with a tendency to descend from left to right, bludgeon-like downstrokes to tailed letters, writing rather angular than rounded, and the final strokes finished by a heavy pressure. Straight, firm, downward strokes take the place of the tails to y, g, f, q.

Sympathy, good nature, kindness of heart are shown by a flowing open hand, the finals of the letters being extended and thrown out with an expansive movement. The tailed letters are long and looped, and often turned up the right side of the letter. The letters are well apart but not necessarily unconnected, and the style is curved. As a general rule hard matter-of-fact natures incline to an angular style; the artistic and softer nature affects rounded, gracefully curved strokes, and avoids straight perpendiculars or horizontals.

Constructiveness, which implies the ability to combine and connect words and phrases, is shown by joining the words together, several being written without lifting the pen from the paper. The more simple and ingenuous the method of attaching the words, the greater will be the ability. When this joining of words is carried to extremes, it may be taken as a sign of good deductive judgment.

Observation, by which is implied the keen, penetrating, inquiring mind (which in excess becomes curiosity), is marked by angularity of the strokes and finals; a small, generally neat, handwriting, with the letters disconnected.

Punctuation affords a very valuable clue to character-reading, for reasons set out in the chapter "How to Study a Handwriting." They are the most mechanical and unpremeditated of hand-gestures, and are, therefore, the more valuable.

When, for example, a dot is thick and heavy, we infer that the pen has been driven across the paper with a strong, decided movement of the hand, which would be consistent with extreme energy and will power; whereas, when the dot is light and faintly indicated we may be certain that only a moderate force has been expended upon its production, which would be compatible with less resistance and endurance in the character.

Again, a dot whose outlines were blurred would show a certain sensuousness of character—strong passions and a want of restraint over the lower propensities; whereas, a dot whose edges were sharply defined would tell of refinement and a loathing against all that was coarse or vulgar.

Careful attention to punctuation indicates neatness, order, method and love of arrangement; nor is it necessary that the punctuation should be strictly correct, for the art is but imperfectly mastered by most people, even the best educated.

Stops that partake of the appearance of a comma indicate a degree of impetuosity; well rounded stops imply calmness and tranquility of temperament. When the full stops are fashioned after the form of a comma and droop towards the right hand they indicate a tendency to sulkiness. When they are merely angular we may infer impatience and a "peppery" disposition.

Flourishes are always indicative of a certain amount of assertiveness. The simpler the flourish the less artificial this self-insistence; the more elaborate, the greater the desire to seem what one is not.



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HANDWRITING.

Most of the works in this list relate to that aspect of the study of graphology which is supposed to bear upon the manifestations of character. But there is not one which the student of handwriting can afford to ignore, since, apart from the debatable question of character reading, they all contain numerous hints and observations of extreme value to the student whose objective is the acquisition of aptitude in the more practical art of detecting forgery.

AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING: A practical manual for Amateurs and Historical Students. By HENRY T. SCOTT, M.D. London: Upcott Gill. Price 5s.

A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS, LITERARY MSS. AND AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, &c. By Rev. H. T. SCOTT and SAMUEL DAVEY. (Out of print.) May be seen in British Museum and many public libraries.

THE AUTOGRAPHIC MIRROR: A monthly journal now defunct, but procurable at second hand.

HANDWRITING AND EXPRESSION. Translated and edited by JOHN HOLT SCHOOLING, from the third French edition of "L'Escriture et le Caractere," par J. CREPIEUX-JAININ. Kegan, Paul and Trench.

CHARACTER INDICATED BY HANDWRITING. By ROSA BAUGHAN. Upcott Gill. Price 2s. 6d.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HANDWRITING. By DON FELIX DE SALAMANCA. Macmillan.

HOW TO READ CHARACTER IN HANDWRITING. By HENRY FRITH. Ward Lock. Price 1s.

HANDWRITING AS AN INDEX TO CHARACTER. By Professor FOLI. C. A. Pearson. Price 1s.

A SYSTEM OF GRAPHOLOGY. By the ABBE MICHON. In French; no English translation. A valuable work.

A HISTORY OF HANDWRITING. Same Author.

A METHOD OF GRAPHOLOGIC STUDY. Same Author.

A MEMOIR UPON THE FAULTY METHODS USED BY EXPERTS IN HANDWRITING. Same Author.

A DICTIONARY OF THE NOTABILITIES OF FRANCE JUDGED FROM THE HANDWRITING. Same Author.

THE HANDWRITING OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE SINCE THE MEROVINGIAN EPOCH. Same Author.

LES MYSTERES DE L'ECRITURE. Preface by Desbarrolles. Same Author.

THE HANDWRITING OF JUNIUS PROFESSIONALLY EXAMINED BY CHABOT. Edited by the Hon. E. TWISTLETON. John Murray. 1871.

This work is the only one hitherto published in England explaining the methods of the handwriting expert. Mons. Chabot, for many years the leading English expert, was commissioned by Mr. Twistleton to examine the handwriting of "Junius" with a view to deciding the authorship of the famous letters. The result was an exhaustive volume in which the process of handwriting analysis is illustrated by thousands of examples. The conclusion arrived at was that the writer of the "Junius" letters was Sir Philip Francis.



Literary and Historical Autograph Letters and Manuscripts Purchased.

OPINIONS GIVEN AS TO

GENUINENESS OF DOCUMENTS.

ALSO ON

SUSPECTED FORGERIES

AND

ANONYMOUS LETTERS.

BY

BLACKBURN & CADDELL, 19, CHARLWOOD PLACE, LONDON, S.W.



Transcriber's Note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note, whilst more significant amendments have been listed below.

Page 37, 'analine' amended to aniline. Page 53, 'Alcebiades' amended to Alcibiades. Page 56, 'correspence' amended to correspondence. Page 56, 'addresss' amended to address. Page 68, 'four documents' amended to five documents. Page 78, 'MERORINGIAN' amended to MEROVINGIAN.

THE END