r 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