sessive sign in such words as
"men's," "writer's." If accurately placed, the writer may be presumed to
understand punctuation, and will give evidence of it in a long writing.

CHAPTER IX.

PAPER AND WATERMARKS.

The brownish tint of old age which paper needs to help out a fraud is
obtained in various ways--sometimes by steeping in a weak solution of
coffee, but in other cases by holding it before a bright hot fire. This
latter device is, fortunately, not easy of accomplishment, considerable
care, judgment and even luck being needed to ensure a satisfactory
result. In our own case we have failed persistently in the attempt, the
paper becoming tinted so unequally as to excite remark at first sight.

All the old pattern of letter paper was almost uniform in size--post
quarto, and the watermark is invariably very distinct, explainable by
the fact that the art of close weaving the wire mould was not then
brought to its present state of perfection.

The watermarks are very fairly imitated by means of a pointed stick
dipped in a solution of spermaceti and linseed oil melted in water and
stirred till cold; or, equal quantities of turpentine and Canada balsam
shaken together. The same result may be obtained by the use of megilp, a
mixture employed by artists.

The detection of this watermark fraud is simple and infallible. If the
suspected document be moistened with lukewarm water the spurious
watermark disappears immediately, but if genuine, it becomes plainer.

The worn and dingy appearance inseparable from age in a letter is
accentuated by rubbing it lightly with a dirty duster. The effect is
usually obvious under a strong glass, the passage of the dirty cloth
revealing itself in minute parallel lines.

Very little care is needed to distinguish between paper that has been
taken from books and the genuine letter paper of the period. To begin
with, such letters are always on single sheets. In genuine cases, the
sheet is as often as not a folio of four pages. In the majority of cases
the bogus sheet is of no recognised size. If taken from a book larger
than post quarto, it has had to be cut to conceal the tear. This
operation has made an irregular sized sheet--too small for post quarto,
too large for the next size. In the genuine writing paper, all four
edges are usually rough like those of a bank note. If the sheet has been
abstracted from a book, one edge must have been cut or trimmed.

Again, such paper is o