mmercial and Legal
Documents--Peculiarity of Handwriting--Methods Employed in
Forgery--Means Employed for Erasing Writing--Care to be Used
in Writing--Specimens of Originals and Alterations--Means of
Discovering and Demonstrating Forgery--Disputed Signatures--Free
Hand or Composite Signatures--Important Facts for the Banking and
Business Public--How to Use the Microscope and Photography to Detect
Forgery--Applying Chemical Tests--How to Handle Documents and Papers
to Be Preserved--The Value of Expert Testimony--Using Chemical,
Mechanical and Clerical Preventatives.

The following chapter is written by Mr. William C. Shaw, of Chicago,
the well-known handwriting expert and expert on forgery, whose
services are called in all important forgery and disputed handwriting
cases in the country. It is replete with facts and suggestions of the
greatest importance, and will be found not only interesting reading,
but an instructive article throughout.

The comparative frequency with which checks, drafts, notes, etc., are
being raised or altered, as well as deeds, wills, etc., forged and
substituted, has naturally created a widespread interest in the
subject of "disputed handwriting." The importance of practical
knowledge in this direction by those who are continually handling
commercial papers and legal documents is at once apparent, but others
engaged in any business pursuit may be saved considerable loss,
trouble and annoyance by observing the principles and suggestions
explained and illustrated in this article.

In approaching the subject of detecting forged or fraudulent
handwriting let it be understood as a fundamental principle that there
are hardly two persons whose writing is similar enough to deceive a
careful observer, unless the one is imitating the other. Hands, like
faces, have their peculiar features and expression, and the imitator
must not alone copy the original, but at the same time disguise his
own writing. Even the most skilled forger cannot entirely hide his
individuality and is bound to relapse into his habitual ways of
forming and connecting letters, words, etc. The employment of extreme
care can be detected by signs of hesitancy, the substitution of curves
for angles, etc., which appear very plainly when the writing is
critically examined with a magnifying glass. When a signature has been
forged by means of tracing over the original, the resemblance is often
so exact as to deceive even the supposed auth