Appendix
Interesting Writings of Various Kinds for Study and Comparison
Four Ordinary Signatures With Descriptions
The above is a comparison of the students’ and criminals’ handwriting, the selections being made from the records of each class.
The tremor of feebleness is shown in this signature. This was written by a gentleman ninety-two years of age. Writing of one who is ill or feeble is usually characterized by a light stroke. The simulated tremor of a skilful penman is rarely successful in deceiving a trained eye.
This signature represents the tremor due to illiteracy. The tremors and angular features shown are by no means indicative of lack of power, but the power is misdirected.
The signature of Ivan Wilson, herewith given, will serve as an illustration of the tremor almost inseparable from forgery. The tremors of a simulating hand are never so numerous nor so fine as real tremors.
The first signature is the original. The second is a bungling traced forgery and the third is a forged freehand. Taken apart from one another they are clever enough to deceive, but studied together here the fraud and deception is readily apparent.
We give above a genuine signature with a forged tracing and a forged free-hand. You can readily detect the forgeries when these signatures are placed together and explained. It gives one points on how to study forged and disputed signatures.
We show herewith two enlarged finger-prints. These are taken from the index finger and are used in many cases instead of thumb-prints.
The above illustrations are fac-simile impressions of the dermal furrows of the right and left thumbs of four different persons. The left thumbs are in the top row, the right thumb being below. These are enlarged to bring out the distinctive points. You will note that no two are alike and it is absolutely impossible to forge or duplicate the thumb-print of any person.
“Thumb-prints Never Forged” on page 115.
Promiscuous thumb-prints taken at random, easily distinguishable in the original impression but not enlarged as in above illustration. A photographic reproduction showing the lines without enlargement almost impossible.
INTERESTING AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURES
This is a facsimile of Capt. Myles Standish’s handwriting found on the fly-leaf of one of his books. Capt. Myles Standish, known as the human sword blade, whose valor saved the Pilgrims at Plymouth from utter destruction at the hands of hostile Indians went back to England in 1625 on business for the colony. Before his return, in 1626, he bought this book and carried it back to America with him.
In this signature of the great Liberator of Italy, we have indications of energy in the angular form of the letters, and in the hasty and irregular dot to the small letter “i,” and originality in the curious angularly waved line below the signature. It denotes tenacity of purpose.
In this signature of Napoleon Bonaparte, which appears on a letter written by him when only a captain in the French army, we have the “vaulting ambition” which made him all but master of Europe. There is the dominant will in the strongly marked “t,” and in the hard, thick line which terminates the flourish; his egotism and self-assertion are evidenced in this flourish, his originality in the peculiar form of the capital letter “B;” but ambition is here “still the lord of all.”
GREELEY’S LAST LETTER
The signatures of this group are by well-known men, all leaders in a special line of activity. These autographs are original and typical of the men writing them. The general character, temperament and make-up of these gentlemen are well-known to all, and a study of these signatures will be found interesting.
CHARACTERISTIC WRITING OF SOME OF THE BEST KNOWN MEN IN THE BANKING WORLD OF THE UNITED STATES
CURIOUS AND FREAKISH SIGNATURES OF WELL-KNOWN BANKERS AND BUSINESS MEN
HOW SOME CELEBRATED WOMEN WRITE
THREE OF AMERICA’S BEST-KNOWN MEN
THREE FAMOUS MILITARY MEN
We present a group of signatures of famous military men. The autograph of General Grant is plain and simple in its construction, not an unnecessary movement or mark in it—a signature as bare of superfluity and ostentation as was the silent soldier and hero of Appomattox. In the autograph of R.E. Lee we have the same terse, brief manner of construction as in Grant’s. It is more antiquated and formal in its style, more stiff and what might be called aristocratic. Its firm upright strokes, with angular horizontal terminal lines, indicate a determined, positive character. In somewhat marked contrast with the two last-mentioned autographs is that of General Beauregard, in that he indulges in a rather elaborate flourish, which is a national characteristic.
CHARACTERISTIC WRITING OF A FEW OF THE WORLD’S BEST-KNOWN LITERARY MEN AND AUTHORS
AUTOGRAPHS OF SOME WELL-KNOWN MEN. THEIR WRITING IS AS DIFFERENT AS THEIR CHARACTERS
AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES
Footnote
[1] Note illustrations of various kinds of forged, simulated, and genuine handwriting in Appendix, with careful descriptions of same.