is point, or
he may prefer to exhaust one suspect of all its evidences before
proceeding with another; but practice and experience will decide the
best course in this matter, and influence the line of procedure.

Whatever method is pursued, all have the same object--the discovery of
the peculiarities of the original in one or more of the suspects, and
the student will be wise if he follow accurately the course laid down in
the chapter on "How to Examine a Writing."

It is generally safe to take it for granted that the writing in an
anonymous letter is disguised. There are occasions when the author
persuades another person to write for him, but only rarely; for the
perpetrator of a contemptible act is not usually brazen and indiscreet
enough to expose himself to others. The same reasons lend strength to
the presumption that the writing will, so far as its general appearance
goes, be as much the opposite of the author's usual style as his
ingenuity can make it. The extreme back hand occurs very frequently. It
seems to be the first impulse of the anonymous writer to avoid the right
slope. Even when the normal hand is a vertical, with a tendency to back
hand, the extreme left slope is often chosen. Fortunately, the assumed
back hand is one of the most transparent of disguises. If the student
has practised it, he will not need to be reminded how difficult it is
for a writer to conceal his mannerisms. By altering the slope he has
only stretched and lengthened his outlines, and the expert soon learns
to recognise them in their new form.

Another common disguise is the illiterate hand. This is quite as easy of
detection. It is no easier for the practised and fluent writer to
reproduce the shaky, irregular outlines of the illiterate, than it is
for the speaker of pure and cultured English to imitate the coarse
accent of the vulgar. However good the copy it always breaks down early,
and the sudden and unconscious firm, clear and geometrically accurate
stroke reveals the practised writer beneath the mask. Sometimes an
accurately placed punctuation mark supplies the necessary clue, for when
once the art of proper punctuation has been acquired it becomes almost
automatic. Even experienced novelists are caught this way occasionally.
They will introduce a letter, supposed to be the work of an illiterate
character. The grammar and orthography suggest the idea, but the more
difficult details of punctuation will be attended to, even to