ine of the writing underneath will then appear
sufficiently plain to enable it to be traced with pen or pencil, so as
to produce a very accurate copy upon the superimposed paper. If the
outline is with a pencil, it is afterward marked over with ink.

Again, tracings are made by placing transparent tracing-paper over the
writing to be copied and then tracing the lines over with a pencil.
This tracing is then penciled or blackened upon the obverse side. When
it is placed upon the paper on which the forgery is made, the lines
upon the tracing are retraced with a stylus or other smooth hard
point, which impresses upon the paper underneath a faint outline,
which serves as a guide to the forged imitation.

In forgeries perpetrated by the aid of tracing, the internal evidence
is more or less conclusive according to the skill of the forger. In
the perpetration of a forgery the mind, instead of being occupied in
the usual function of supplying matter to be recorded, devotes its
special attention to superintendence of the hand, directing its
movements, so that the hand no longer glides naturally and
automatically over the paper, but moves slowly with a halting,
vacillating motion, as the eye passes to and from the copy to the pen,
moving under the specific control of the will. Evidence of such a
forgery is manifest in the formal, broken, nervous lines, the uneven
flow of the ink, and the often retouched lines and shades. These
evidences are unmistakable when studied with the aid of a microscope.
Also, further evidence is adduced by a careful comparison of the
disputed writing, noting the pen-pressure or absence of any of the
delicate unconscious forms, relations, shades, etc., characteristic of
the standard writing.

Forgeries by tracings usually present a close resemblance in general
form to the genuine, and are therefore most sure to deceive the
unfamiliar or casual observer. It sometimes happens that the original
writing from which the tracings were made is discovered, in which case
the closely duplicated forms will be positive evidence of forgery. The
degree to which one signature of writing duplicates another may be
readily seen by placing one over the other, and holding them to a
window or other strong light, or by close comparative measurements.

Traced forgeries, however, are not, as is usually supposed,
necessarily exact duplicates of their originals, since it is very easy
to move the paper by accident or design whil