As applied to the signatures of the ordinary individual, this pen scope will appear in some form in the signature. The writer may lift his pen before he has spelled out a long Christian or surname, he may indicate it in the placing of a middle initial or in the space which lies between the initial and the last name. In the case of the signature of one's name, too, it should be one of the easiest and lest-studied group of words which he is called on to put upon paper. In writing a letter, for example, the pen scope through it may show an average stretch of one inch for the text of the letter, while in the signature the whole length of the signature twice as long, may be covered. But if the writer covers this full stretch of his name in this way the expert may prove by the necessary short pen scope of the copyist that the studied copy is a forgery on its face. For however free of pen stroke the forger may be naturally, his attempts to produce a facsimile of the signature shortens it beyond the scope of the original signer.
If a search be made through a series of undisputedly genuine signatures, it will be found that one characteristic fails in one and another in another. Here is where the handwriting expert makes his service valuable. He studies all these important points, and is not long in arriving at a successful conclusion.
The introduction of the experimental method into all modern investigation has led to the hope that in this difficult subject means will be found to introduce simpler forms of determining regular or irregular handwriting.
As long as the steps by which experts reach their conclusions are so intricate or recondite that only the results may be stated to the jury, just so long will the character of expert testimony suffer in the opinion of the public, and the insulting charge against it be repeated that any side can hire an expert to support its case.
If a single competent expert could be selected by the court to take up questions of this kind and lay his results before it, the present system would be less objectionable than it is. Nevertheless, this solution is probably not the best, because no man is capable of always observing and judging correctly, and the most careful man may be led astray by elements in the problem before him of which he does not suspect the existence. It would seem, therefore, to be fairer and less open to objection if a plan of investigation were followed which can be clearly explained to those who are to decide a case and the resulting data left in their hands to assist them in their decision.
In such a manner of presentation, if any important data have been omitted, or if the premises do not warrant the conclusion, the errors can be detected without accusing the expert of lack of good faith or ignorance of his subject. The fact that he has testified in hundreds of cases and in every court in the world should not be allowed to influence the jury against a logical conclusion drawn from uncontroverted facts.
CHAPTER VIII
HOW TO DETECT FORGED HANDWRITING
Frequency of Litigation Arising Over Disputed Handwriting—Forged and Fictitious Claims Against the Estates of Deceased People—Forgery Certain to Be Detected When Subjected to Skilled Expert Examination—A Forger's Tracks Cannot Be Successfully Covered—With Modern Devices Fraudulent, Forged and Simulated Writing Can Be Determined beyond the Possibility of a Mistake—Bank Officials and Disputed Handwriting—How to Test and Determine Genuine and Forged Signatures—Useful Information About Signature Writing—Guard Against An Illegible Signature—Avoid Gyrations, Whirls and Flourishes—Write Plain, Distinct and Legible—The Signature to Adopt—The People Forgers Pass By—How to Imitate Successfully—How an Expert Detects Forged Handwriting—Examples of Signatures Forgers Desire to Imitate—Examining and Determining a Forgery—Comparisons of Disputed Handwriting—Microscopic Examinations a Great Help in Detecting Forged Handwriting—Comparison of Forged Handwriting.
Few persons outside of the banking and legal fraternity are aware of the frequency with which litigations arise from one or another of the many phases of disputed handwriting; doubtless most frequently from that of signatures to the various forms of commercial obligations or other instruments conveying title to property, such as notes, checks, drafts, deeds, wills, etc. To a less extent the disputed portions involve alterations of books of account and other writings, by erasure, addition, interlineation, etc., while sometimes the trouble comes in the form of disguised or simulated writings. A disproportionately large number of these cases arise from forged and fictitious claims against the estates of deceased people. This results, first, from the fact that such claims are more easily established, as there is usually no one by whom they can be directly contradicted; and, secondly, for the reason that administrators are less liable to exercise the highest degree of caution than are persons who pay out their own money.
In all instances where a forgery extends to the manufacturing of any considerable piece of writing, it is certain of being detected and demonstrated when subjected to a skilled expert examination; but where forgery is confined to a single signature, and that perhaps of such a character as to be easily simulated, detection is ofttimes difficult, and expert demonstrations less certain or convincing. Yet instances are rare in which the forger of even a signature does not leave some unconscious traces that will betray him to the ordinary expert, while in most instances forgery will be at once so apparent to an expert as to admit of a demonstration more trustworthy and convincing to court and jury than is the testimony of witnesses to alleged facts, who may be deceived, or even lie. The unconscious tracks of the forger, however, cannot be bribed or made to lie, and they often speak in a language so unmistakable as to utterly defy controversion.
Note illustrations of forged handwriting in Appendix at end of this book.
With the present-day knowledge of writing in its various phases, the identity of forged, fraudulent or simulated writing can be determined beyond the possibility of a mistake. Every year sees an increase in the number of important civil and criminal cases that turn on questions of disputed handwriting.
There is not a day in the year but what bank officials are at sea over a disputed signature and a knowledge of how to test and determine genuine and forged signatures will prove of inestimable value to the banking and business world.
Forgery is easy. Detection is difficult. As the rewards for the successful forgers are great, thousands upon thousands of forged checks, notes, drafts, wills, deeds, receipts and all kinds of commercial papers are produced in the United States every year. Many are litigated, but many more are never discovered.
Practical and useful information about signature writing and how to safeguard one's signature against forgery is something that will be welcomed by those who are constantly attaching their names to valuable papers.
Every man should guard against an illegible signature—for example, a series of meaningless pen tracks with outlandish flourishes, such as are assumed by many people with the feeling that because no one can read them, they cannot be successfully imitated. Experience has demonstrated that the easiest signatures to successfully forge are those that are illegible, either from design or accident. The banker or business man who sends his pen through a series of gyrations, whirls, flourishes and twists and calls it a signature is making it easy for a forger to reproduce his signature, for it is a jumble of letters and ink absolutely illegible and easy of simulation. Every man should learn to write plain, distinct and legible.
The only signature to adopt is one that is perfectly legible, clear and written rapidly with the forearm or muscular movement. One of the best preventatives of forgery is to write the initials of the name—that is, write them in combination—without lifting the pen. It will help if the small letters are all connected with each other and with the capitals. Select a style of capital letters and always use them; study out a plain combination of them; practice writing until it can be written easily and rapidly and stick to it. Don't confuse your banker by changing the form of a letter or adding flourishes. Countless repetitions will give a facility in writing it that will lend a grace and charm and will stamp it with your peculiar characteristics in such a way that the forger will pass you by when looking for an "easy mark." Plain signatures of the character noted above are not the ones usually selected by forgers for simulation. Forgers are always hunting for the illegible as in it they can best hide their identity.
It is said to be an utter impossibility for one person to imitate successfully a page of writing of another. The person attempting the forgery should be able to accomplish the following: First, he must know all the characteristics of his own hand; second, he must be able to kill all the characteristics of his own hand; third, he must know all of the characteristics in the hand he is imitating; fourth, he must be able to assume characteristics of the other's hand at will. These four points are insuperable obstacles, and the forger does not live who has surmounted or can surmount them.
To understand the principles on which an expert in handwriting bases his work, consider for a moment how a person's style of writing is developed. He begins by copying the forms set for him by a teacher. He approximates more or less closely to these forms. His handwriting is set, formal, and without character. As soon as he leaves off following the copy book, however, his writing begins to take on individual characteristics. These are for the most part unconscious. He thinks of what he is writing, not how. In time these peculiarities, which creep gradually into a man's writing, become fixed habits. By the time he is, say, twenty-five years old, his writing is settled. After that it may vary, may grow better or worse, but is certain to retain those distinguishing marks which, in the man himself, we call personality. This personality remains. He cannot disguise it, except in a superficial way, any more than he can change his own character.
It follows that no two persons write exactly the same hands. It is easy to illustrate this. Suppose, for example, that among 10,000 persons there is one hunchback, one minus his right leg, one with an eye missing, one bereft of a left arm, one with a broken nose. To find a person with two of these would require, probably, 100,000 people; three of them, 1,000,000; four of them, 100,000,000. One possessing all of them might not be found in the entire 14,000,000,000 people on earth. Precisely the same with different handwritings—the peculiar and distinguishing characteristics of one would no more be present in others than would the personal counterparts of the authors be found in other individuals.
It is more surprising, at first thought, to be told that no person ever signs his name even twice alike. Of course, theoretically, it cannot be said that it is impossible for a person to write his name twice in exactly the same manner. A person casting dice might throw double aces a hundred times consecutively. But who would not act on the practical certainty that the dice were loaded long before the hundredth throw was reached in such a case? The same reasoning applies to the matter of handwriting with added force, because the chance of two signatures being exactly alike is incomparably less than the chance of the supposed throws of the dice.
Probably many persons will not believe that it is impossible for them to write their own name twice alike. For them it will be an interesting experiment to repeat their signatures, say, a hundred times, writing them on various occasions and under different circumstances, and then to compare the result. It is safe to say that they will hardly find two of these which do not present some differences, even to their eyes, and under the examination of a trained observer aided by the microscope, these divergencies stand out tenfold more plainly.
Many cases of forgery hinge on this point, the forger having copied another person's signature by tracing one in his possession, but such attempts are always more easy to detect than those in which the forger carefully imitates another's hand. The latter is the usual procedure. The forger secures examples of the signature or writing which he desires to imitate. Then he practices on it, trying to reproduce all its striking peculiarities. In this way he sometimes arrives at a resemblance so close as to deceive even his victim. Still there is always present some internal evidence to prove that the writing is not the work of the person to whom it is attributed. Likewise it will reveal the identity of the person who actully wrote it, if specimens of his natural hand are to be had for comparison.
It is impossible for a man to carry in his mind and to reproduce on paper all the peculiar characteristics of another man's writing and at the same time to conceal all his own. At some point there is certain to come a slip when the habit of years asserts itself and gives the testimony which may fix the whole production on the forger beyond the shadow of a doubt.
The little things are the ones that count most in making examination and determining a forgery for the reason that they are no less characteristic than the more prominent peculiarities and are more likely to be overlooked by the person who tries to disguise his hand. The crossing oft'sand the dotting ofi'sbecome matters of large moment in making comparisons of disputed handwritings. There is probably no matter in conjunction with a man's ordinary writing to which he gives less thought than the way he makes these crosses and dots. For that reason they are in the highest degree characteristic. And it is precisely because of their apparently slight importance that the person who sets out to imitate another's handwriting or to disguise his own is likely to be careless about these little marks and to make slips which will be sufficient to prove his identity.
Imitations of signatures are usually written in a laborious and painstaking manner. They are, therefore, decidedly unlike a man's natural signature, which is usually written in an easy fashion. The imitations show frequent pauses, irregularities in pen pressure and in the distribution of ink, and contain other evidences of hesitation. Not infrequently the forger tries to improve on his work by retouching some of the letters after he has completed a word. Microscopic examination brings out all of these things and makes them tell-tale witnesses.
Comparison of handwriting is competent but is not itself conclusive evidence of forgery. Identification of handwriting is, if possible, more difficult than identification of the person which so often forms the chief difficulty in criminal trials. As illness, strange dress, unusual attitude, and the like, cause mistakes in identifying the individual, so a bad pen or rough paper, a shaky hand and many other things change the appearance of a person's handwriting.
This kind of evidence ought never, therefore, to be regarded as full proof in trials where a handwriting is in dispute. Generally the best witness in a handwriting case is one who often sees the party write, through whose hands his writing has been continually passing, and whose opinion is not the result of an inspection made on a particular occasion for a special purpose.
CHAPTER IX
GREATEST DANGER TO BANKS
Check-Raising Always a Danger—A Scheme Almost Impossible to Prevent—The American Bankers' Association the Greatest Foe to Forgers—It Follows Them Relentlessly and Successfully—Chemically Prepared Paper and Watermarks Not Always a Safeguard—Perforating Machines and Check Raisers—How Check Perforations Are Overcome—How an Ordinary Check Is Raised—How an Expert Alters Checks—How Perforations Are Filled—Hasty Examination by Paying Tellers Encourages Forgers—The Way Bogus Checks Creep Through a Bank Unnoticed—A Celebrated Forgery Case—Forgers Successful for a Time Always Caught—Where Forgers Usually Go That Have Made a Big Haul—A Professional Crook Is a Person of Large Acquaintance.
Raising checks has become the greatest danger to the banks. There is no comparison between raising checks with a genuine signature and forging the signature itself, so far as ease of execution is concerned. After many years of arduous work and after great expenditures of money the banks have to admit sorrowfully that if a man wants to raise a check he can do it; and the detection, while, of course, inevitable when the paid check returns to the depositor, is not immediate enough to prevent the swindler from getting away with the money.
That is why the most implacable enemy of the men who dare raise or falsify a check is the American Bankers' Association. This great concern in reality is a protective association, and it relentlessly hunts down all forgers first, last, and all the time. It never lets up, absolutely never, no matter time, money, or trouble. It bitterly pursues defaulters for the sake of justice, but it has still another object in its deadly trailing of forgers and check tampereus. That is because the whole banking structure hangs on signed paper. When it can be altered with impunity, away goes the financial system of to-day. Hence the unrelenting hunting-down of forgers who trifle with men's names. On the books of more than one large detective agency of the country are cases more than ten years old. The forgers never have been found, but the hunt still goes on. Reports of the chase come in regularly and the books will not be closed until the hunt stops at prison doors or beside a grave.
Yet with all this remorseless hunting, check-raising flourishes so well all over the United States that the banks fear to give even a hint as to the sums of which they or their depositors are robbed each year. The magnitude of the amount would frighten too many persons.
For a time it was thought that the use of chemically prepared paper would prove a safeguard, because any erasure or alteration would show immediately. The chemicals used in its composition would make the ink run if acids were used to change the figures. But among the check-raisers there were chemists just as clever as the chemists who devised the prepared paper.
Then paper with watermarks woven through it was used. But it, too, became an easy mark for the chemists who had gone wrong.
Finally, and until recently, the banking world thought that it had struck the absolute safeguard by using a machine to stamp on the check the exact amount for which it was drawn, the machine perforating the paper as it stamped it. Certainly it does seem that when the paper is cut right out of the check, leaving nothing but holes, no change is humanly possible. But the completeness of this supposed safeguard has offered a tempting field for the check-raiser.
A special detective in the employ of the American Bankers' Association, who has spent half the years of his mature life in running down forgers and check-raisers, said that it was "too easy" to raise checks, and that a good many more men than try it now would do it were it not for the well-known relentlessness of the association in running down offenders against any single one of its constituent members.
"Write me a check for any sum you want," said the sleuth, "and I'll show you."
A check for $200 was written and passed over to him. In less than two minutes, without an erasure of any kind, the check called for $500, and the work was done so well even in that short time that the writer would have been tempted to believe that he had made an error and really drawn the check for that amount had he not been sure to the contrary.
"That kind of raising is easy," said the expert. "You see it demands no interlining or extending of words. The check-raiser simply knows how well certain characters lend themselves to changes that cannot be detected. The capitalTin almost every man's handwriting can be changed to a capitalFwithout any trouble by even an unskilled crook."
A check for $2,000 was raised to $50,000 almost in the wink of an eye. "This is the easy and safer part of the business," said he. "But when a check is to be raised from a sum like $10 to, say, $10,000, and the drawer has written it so that there is no room between the word 'ten' and 'dollars,' chemicals must be used. There is always more danger of detection in that. In the mere alteration of a check there is little. Look here. I'll change your checks as fast as you can write them, and I bet a lot of my alterations will pass muster."
A pad was hauled out and the writer filled the sheets out with carefully written amounts. The expert was as good as his word. He altered them almost as fast as they were written. Some, to be sure, were crude and would have betrayed the fact of alteration to the eye of any careful banker. But many were almost perfect, and all were wonderfully deceptive and showed what could be done by a crook who had plenty of time.
"But how about the perforations?" he was asked. "How could a crook change them?"
"Nothing easier," was the reply. "The fact that checks stamped with the amount in perforated characters are considered safe aids the swindler. Really, to beat the perforations is so easy that it will make you smile. All the outfit that is needed is a common little punch with assorted small cutting tubes and a bottle of an invisible glue that every crook can make or that he can buy in certain places that every crook knows. Now, here is a check stamped in perforated characters $300$. I take my little punch and fit into it a cutter that will punch holes of the same size as the holes in the perforations.
"Now I punch out of the edge of the check a few tiny disks. I moisten the tip of a needle and press them carefully into the holes that make the upper part of the figure 3. See, even in my haste and without glue, they fill the perforations completely and I can shake and pull the check without disturbing them."
It was true. The little plugs fitted perfectly, and even with the knowledge that they were there it was almost impossible to see where they had been inserted.
"Now," continued the expert, "I merely take my punch and carefully punch enough holes to the right of the upper part of the figure 3 to make it a 5. And there you are. If I wanted to pass this check through the bank I would only have to complete the job by smearing a drop of the invisible glue over the back where I have plugged the original holes. This glue is wonderfully tenacious and will actually hold the edges of paper together. It needs only the smallest surface in order to get hold. After it is on not even the microscope could detect it readily. And no amount of pulling or shaking of the check will disturb it.
"You may suppose that a check that is stamped this way, for instance—$600$—would be hard to change into one of four figures. But it is almost equally easy. The crook simply punches out enough disks from the edge to fill up the last dollar mark completely, and after he has plugged it and the glue is dry he punches a cipher into the place and then punches a dollar mark after it. Of course, after punching the little disks out of the edge of the check it is necessary to trim that part of the paper, but that is done readily, for checks always have ample margin.
"The check-raiser does not depend on the fact that the scrutiny of checks in a large bank is bound to be hasty, but he knows that he need not fear if his work is at all well done, for the paying teller simply cannot spend much time in examining the many checks that are passed in.
"One New York City bank sends through the clearing-house daily an average of 3,100 checks, and as there are about sixty-five such banks in the clearinghouse the total number of checks handled in the few hours of business in a day is something enormous.
"It is this haste—which, by the way, is absolutely necessary in order to keep the books posted to date—that is responsible for the passing of one of the most peculiar checks that ever came under the notice of the detectives of America. In this case the check was neither falsified nor was the signature forged, but it was bogus just the same.
"It was a check made up of the parts of two checks, and all the implements necessary for falsification were a pair of scissors and that invisible glue. The clever swindler had got hold of two genuine checks from the same bank. One was for $1,000 and the other for $70. Placing these two checks together, one on top of the other, he cut them through neatly with the scissors. Then he pasted that portion bearing the word 'seventy' on the one check to that part bearing the word 'thousand' on the other. So the composite check read to pay to the holder 'seventy thousand' dollars. As the cutting was made through both checks in exactly the same place, the edges fitted perfectly. They were glued together and the check readily passed the bank cashier. The man was caught and made restitution without publicity, but the case gave bankers a shock. Other somewhat similar cases are known, but none involving such a large amount.
"A famous case was the celebrated Seaver fraud. He bought a draft for $12 from the Bank of Woodland (Cal.), and, although it was written on chemical 'safety' paper and perforated in two places with a check punch, he raised it to $12,000, and it was passed successfully and paid.
"But however successful they may be for a time, it is the fatal hoodoo of this 'most gentlemanly' way of making a living without earning it that a forgery is always discovered and the forger generally caught. That is because the forged check remains in existence and must be paid by some one, and sooner or later there will be an outcry. The best the raiser can hope for is to escape before the crime is discovered.
"Once the false check is passed and he has the money, his first idea is as to where he shall hide. Another fatality attaching to his peculiar business is that the same place that he thinks of flying to is the place that suggests itself to the mind of the thief-chaser. In other words, knowing their man, the man-hunters can guess well where to find him.
"If a forger wants to bury himself, he thinks of South America, because it is easy to get there, and apparently out of the world. Then, of South America, he probably only thinks of Venezuela, or closer home—of Guatemala or Panama. So the South American hunt is simplicity itself, as there are not so many large ports that strange Americans can pass through unnoticed.
"If a forger wants to continue in his crooked business he thinks of London, Paris, Berlin, and maybe Vienna. We guess at his calibre and whether he wants more money, and know where he probably will go to get it, for the professional crook has an international acquaintance, and he only goes among friends. So we follow him.
"If a forger is an adventurous spirit and committed the crime on impulse, and we could learn absolutely nothing more about him, we would look in that Mecca of adventurers, South Africa, for him. In fact, our first business is to learn what kind of a man he is, then shut our eyes and guess which one of a few places he will fly to. The guess often is so good that our men await him when the steamer lands there. If not, we don't forget the sailing vessels."
CHAPTER X
THUMB-PRINTS NEVER FORGED
Thumb-Print Method of Identification Absolute—Now Brought to a High State of Perfection—Will Eventually Be Used in All Banks—Certified Checks and Also Drafts with Thumb-Print Signatures—Absolute Accuracy of a Thumb-Print Identification Assured—A Thumb-Print in Wax on Sealed Packages—Its Use an Advantage on Bankable Paper of All Kinds—How Strangers Are Easily Identified—Bankers, Merchants and Business Men Protected by This System—Full Particulars as to How Thumb-Prints Are Made—Can be Printed by Anyone in a Few Minutes—How and When to Place Your Thumb-Print on Bankable Paper—Finger-Prints as Reliable as Thumb-Prints—Use to Which This System Could Be Put—Thumb and Finger Tips Do Not Change From Birth to Death—Department of Justice at Washington Has Established a Bureau of Criminal Registry Using the Thumb-Print System—Thumb-Print System Said to Be a Chinese Invention—Its Use Spreading Rapidly—How to Secure Thumb-Print Impression Without Knowledge of Party—An Interesting and Valuable Study.
How to detect the forger as one of the cleverest of operating criminals has been solved by the "thumb-print" method of identification, now spreading throughout the banks, business houses and public offices of the world.
It is quite as interesting as the suggestion that through the same thumb-print method in commercial and banking houses the forger is likely to become a creature without occupation and chirographical means of support. R.W. McClaughry, chief of the bureau of identification in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan., is one of the most expert in the thumb-print method of identification in this country, having been schooled at Scotland Yards in London, where the method first was brought to its present state of perfection. Mr. McClaughry sees for the system not only a great aid in preventing the forgeries of commercial brigands but the easiest of all means for a person in a strange city to identify himself as the lawful possessor of check, or note, or bank draft which he may wish to turn into cash at a banker's window.
Thumb-print signatures will eventually be used in all banks as a means of identification. It will be a sure preventative of forgery. For instance: A maker of a check desiring to take a trip around the world shall draw a check for the needed sum and, in the presence of the cashier of his bank, place one thumb-print in ink somewhere in one spot on the check—perhaps over the amount of the check as written in figures. Thereupon the cashier of the bank will accept the check as certified by his institution. With this paper in his possession the drawer of the check may go from his home in New York to San Francisco, a stranger to every person in the city. But at the window of any bank in that city, presenting his certified check to a teller who has a reading glass at his hand, the stranger may satisfy the most careful of banks by a mere imprint of his thumb somewhere else upon the face of the check.
With the ink thumb-print of the cashier of a bank placed on a bank draft over his signature and over the written amount of the draft, chemical papers and the dangers of "raising" or counterfeiting the draft would have no further consideration. The thumb-print of the secretary of the United States treasury, reproduced on the face of greenback, silver certificate and bank note of any series would discourage counterfeiting as nothing else ever has done.
But this thumb-print possibility in commercial papers has its greatest future in the positive identification which either thumb or finger print carries with it. Criminologists all over the world have satisfied themselves of the absolute accuracy of the fingerprint identification.
At the present time traveling salesmen, who spend much money and who wish to carry as little as possible of cash with them, have an organized system by which their bankable paper may be cashed at hotels and business houses over the country. But with the thumb-print in use, as it might be, such an organization would be unnecessary.
As between bank and bank, this use of the fingerprint in bank papers of large face value is especially applicable. A draft for $100,000 or $1,000,000 may be worth more consideration of the banks concerned than the penmanship of signer and countersigner of the paper.
In the shipment of currency where there may be question of either honesty or correctness in the persons sealing the package, a thumb-print in wax will determine absolutely whether the wax has been unbroken in transit, as well as establishing the identity of the person putting on the first seal. As to the protective value of such a thumb-seal, a case has been cited in which train robbers, discovering a chance seal of the kind in wax of such a package, left that package untouched when the express safe had been blown open; it was too suggestive of danger to be risked.
In the ordinary usage of the thumb-print on bankable paper the city bank having its country correspondents everywhere often is called upon to cash a draft drawn by the country bank in favor of that bank's customer, who may be a stranger in the city. The city bank desires to accommodate the country correspondent as a first proposition. The unidentified bearer of the draft in the city may have no acquaintance able to identify him. If he presents the draft at the windows of the big bank, hoping to satisfy the institution, and is turned away, he feels hurt. By the thumb-print method he might have his money in a moment.
In the first place, even the signature of the cashier of the country bank will be enough to satisfy its correspondent in the city of the genuineness of the draft. Before the country purchaser of the draft has left the bank issuing the paper he will be required to make the ink thumb-print in a space for that purpose. Without this imprint the draft will have no value. If the system should be in use, the cashier signing the draft will not affix his signature to the paper until this imprint has been made in his presence.
Then, with his attested finger-print on the face of the draft, the stranger in the city may go to the city bank, appearing at the window of the newest teller, if need be. This teller will have at hand his inked pad, faced with a sheet of smooth tin. He never may have seen the customer before. He never may see him again. But under the magnifying influences of an ordinary reading glass he may know past the possibility of doubt that in the hands of the proper person named in the draft the imprint which is made before him has been made by the first purchaser of the draft.
In the more important and complicated transactions in bank paper one bank may forward from the bank itself the finger-print proofs of identity. The whole field of such necessities is open to adapted uses of the method. Notes given by one bank to another in high figures may be protected in every way by these imprints. Stock issues and institution bonds would be worthy of the thumb-print precautions, as would be every other form of paper which might tempt either the forger or the counterfeiter. In any case where the authenticity of the paper might be questioned, the finger-print would serve as absolute guarantee. In stenographic correspondence, where there might be inducements to write unauthorized letters on the part of some person with wrong intent, the imprint of finger or thumb would make the possibility of fraud too remote for fears. For, in addition to the security of signatures in real documents, the danger in attempting frauds of this kind is increased.
As to the physical necessaries in registering fingerprints, they are simple and inexpensive. A block of wood faced with smooth tin or zinc the size of an octavo volume, a small ink roller, and a tube of black ink are all that are required. For removing the ink on thumb or finger a towel and alcohol cleanser are sufficient. A tip impression or a "rolled" finger signature may be used. Only a few seconds are required for the operation.
In giving big checks merchants and bankers would be protected by the thumb-print system. A merchant could place the print of his right index finger to the left of his signature on a check. The bank would have a print, together with the merchant's signature on file. Only a few seconds would be necessary to convince the paying teller as to its genuineness. The merchant, also, if necessary, could place a light print of the index finger over the amount of the check where written in figures. Any attempt to erase the figures would destroy the finger-print. If the figures were raised, the one doing so would be unable to place a finger-print in the same space that would correspond with the one at the bottom of the check beside the signature, and the raising of the check would immediately be discovered in the bank where the check was presented.
The finger-prints could be used also in all manner of documents filed for record, such as deeds to lands, mortgages, leases, and the like. Railroads could use it to prevent men once employed and discharged for incompetency obtaining employment on another division, thus doing away with inspectors. Each new employee's finger-prints could be kept in a central office and classified. Any man attempting to obtain employment again with the same railway, who had once been discharged for cause, would immediately be detected, and a high standard of personnel thus obtained.
Congress recently passed a law whereby the Bureau of Immigration is permitted to tax each immigrant four dollars; this sum to be used in detecting foreign criminals who come to this country; also to aid in ascertaining whether foreigners who come here commit crimes and get into prisons. If such are found they are to be deported. By the finger-print system the prints of each foreigner could be taken at all ports of entry. These could be kept on file in Washington, and from time to time compared with those sent to the Bureau of Criminal Registry in the Department of Justice building. Any foreigner located in a prison could be ascertained, and upon the termination of his sentence taken to some port and placed on board ship.
It has been demonstrated by experts that the ridges of finger tips do not change from birth until death and decomposition. Scars made on the finger tips remain throughout life, and are valuable for identification purposes. Criminals try to evade identification by the system by burning the tips of their digits with acid; but these are classified under the head of disfigured fingers, and a lawbreaker cannot escape detection. Even the removal of two, three, or four fingers or an entire hand does not prevent a criminal being traced if his prints were taken before he lost the five digits. In the case of one hand being amputated, the missing fingers are classified as they appear on the other hand. If a search fails to locate the person, then the missing fingers are classified first as whorls and then as loops, search being made after each classification. In this manner the search may be a little more tedious than it would be if all the fingers were there, but in time he would be identified.
The Department of Justice thinks so well of the system that it has recently established in Washington a Bureau of Criminal Registry. There the finger-print sheets, and for the time being Bertillon cards, of all criminals who have been convicted of violating federal laws are to be kept. The prints and Bertillon measurements of new arrivals at government prisons and jails will also be sent there for classification, none of this work being done at prisons as heretofore. The men held in federal jails, charged with crimes, are also to have their finger-prints taken, and these sent to the central bureau. If the expert in charge of this bureau ascertains that a man indicted for crime has served a previous term in prison, this fact is to be communicated to the United States judge and district attorney, and if convicted the criminal is to be given the full limit of sentence.
Although the system of identification by fingerprints has been in use in Europe for a number of years, it is not a European invention. As a matter of fact, it is one of those cherished western institutions that the Chinese have calmly claimed for their own, and those who doubt this may be convinced by actual history showing it to have been employed in the police courts of British India for a generation or so back. Just who was responsible for its adoption there is not certain, but Sir John Herschel, at one time connected with the India civil service, is usually mentioned in this regard. The British police experienced a great deal of trouble in keeping track of even the most notorious native criminals and it was a great deal more difficult to arrest a first offender, for the reason that all the natives looked so much alike and were such apt liars.
Ordinary methods, even the Bertillon system, were fruitless and finally the finger-print scheme was tried. It worked like a charm. Where more arrests had been the exception, they now became the rule and the power of the law began to merit respect. In case after case the police were enabled to track the crime solely by the chance print of a man's finger or thumb on an odd piece of paper, on the dusty lintel of a doorway or a dirty window pane. Some of the stories told of their accomplishments in this line rival the most thrilling detective stories.
In one case, that of the murder of a manager of a tea garden on the Bhupal frontier, half a dozen or more persons were at first suspected, among them the real murderer, who was, however, later regarded as innocent because he was supposed to have been away from the district at the time the crime was committed. Investigations and questionings did no good, and at last the local inspector decided to take the thumb-prints of all concerned and refer them to the central office of the province. After the records had been searched a messenger came with orders to arrest the discharged servant of the manager who had been first suspected and then exonerated, for his finger-prints tallied exactly with those of a bad character just discharged from prison. He was later convicted of burglary by a court of appeal, to which the case was carried, the court refusing to condemn a man for murder on such slight basis when the actual crime had not been observed.
At the present time in India the papers taken in the civil-service examinations must be certified to by the thumb-print of the competitor and wills must likewise be sealed in the same way, and all checks and drafts must be certified by a thumb-print in addition to a signature.
In India, also deeds of transfer, and records of sale of land in connection with illiterate natives are executed by the impression of a thumb-mark instead of an "X, his mark"; and recently this very superior system of signature has been applied to all kinds of transactions with the natives, such as post-office savings banks, pension certificates, mortgages, etc.
The success the plan met with in India led to its trial and speedy adoption by the French and English police. In Paris it is used as an adjunct to the measurement system of M. Bertillon, but at Scotland Yard the Bertillon system has been entirely done away with and full reliance is had on the prints. M. Bertillon claims to have 500,000 prints in his collection, although this is said by the authorities to be an exaggeration, and Inspector McNaughton of the convict supervision office has at least 100,000 criminals' hands catalogued in his office.
Finger marks do not change in any way through life, and any injury only temporarily affects the pattern. The pattern becomes larger as the youth develops into a man, but the arrangement of the lines remains absolutely the same.
Thumb-marks may be generally classified as loops, arches and ovals, or whorls; the ovals irresistibly remind one of whirlpools as well as the volutions of shells, while the majority of loops or arches resemble in their convolutions the rapid movement of rushing water.
Thumb-print identifications have been extended to commercial uses by the postal savings bank on the Philippines at Manila. This bank has recently issued a series of stamp deposit cards, on which are spaces for stamps of different values to be affixed. When the depositor has stamps to the value of 1 peso (50 cents) on the card it is exchanged at the bank for a deposit book, showing the amount to his credit. Opposite the lines for the owner's signature and address is a square ruled off for the reception of his thumb-print, so that even if illiterate, depositors may readily be identified.
If any one wishes to get a thumb-print impression without the suspect's knowledge, simply hand him a piece of paper, asking him to identify it or examine it for one reason or another, afterwards sprinkling some special black powder over it which brings out the impressions as clear as life. Another sort of white powder is used for bringing out impressions on glassware.
Once the impression is secured, the fingers are classified according to a regular plan. The lines on them are divided into loops, whorls, arches, and composites, the latter class made up of a collection of the first three. Each pair of fingers as the index, little and ring fingers has a special valuation which is used to identify them and facilitate classification. One pair will be classified according to the number of little ridges between the delta, or point where all bifurcate, and the outer ring. If there are more than nine on one finger, it is classed as an over-nine.
It is seldom that two similar fingers are alike and the other finger usually would be an under-nine finger, say six. So there is the first pair classified thus, 9-6. The next two fingers may have rotary lines and are merely classified as R, the next two may not have many lines at all that will count, so are marked 0, while perhaps the last pair is unmatched, a point being allowed to one and nothing to the other.
Thumb or finger-prints are absolutely serviceable and certain in the detection of crime or in establishing a person's identity.
That this system may be most effectively employed as an adjunct to the rogue's gallery for fixing the identity of criminals there can be no doubt, since, from various experiments made it has been demonstrated that impressions made from the dermal furrows of the thumb or finger of no two persons can be sufficiently identical, when inspected under a microscope, to be mistaken one for the other; and that it is a powerful agency for the detection of criminals.
Very often, on the scene of a crime, finger marks are found on glossy surfaces (bottles, glasses, window panes, door plates, painted and varnished walls, etc.). By a comparison of such impressions, photographed by a special process, it is easy either to discover the maker of the finger marks observed at the scene of the crime, or to establish the innocence of a suspected person whose digital impressions have nothing in common with those marks.
Note and study fac-simile impressions of thumb-prints and finger-prints in Appendix at end of this book.
CHAPTER XI
DETECTING FORGERY WITH THE MICROSCOPE
Determining Questionable Signatures By the Aid of a Microscope—A Magnifying Glass Not Powerful Enough—Character of Ink Easily Told—The Microscope and a Knowledge of Its Use—Experience and Education of an Examiner of Great Assistance—An Expert's Opinion—The Use of the Microscope Recommended—Illustrating a Method of Forgery—What a Microscopic Examination Reveals—How to Examine Forged Handwriting with a Microscope—Experts and a Jury—What the Best Authorities Recommend.
In all examinations of questioned signatures to determine the individual habit of the writer the use of the compound microscope is a necessity to obtain the best field for study and analysis for the reason that the most important details are often so minute that they cannot be seen with the naked eye in sufficient size to determine their individual character and accuracy. A magnifying glass has but a limited field in this class of work, for it is not easily held in position steadily for continued observation and study, besides it has not the requisite power for the work. The lower powers of the compound microscope are but available for the examination of signatures for the reason that when the higher powers are used but little of the signature is in the field of vision, although the power of the lens may be increased when some particular point or feature in the writing requires greater enlargement for more perfect definition. The higher powers of the microscope are sometimes used to ascertain the character of inks with which the writing is done, and also to determine the character of the paper on which a signature is written, which at times becomes important. For all practical uses of the microscope in the examination of signatures the range of object enlargement occurring between a three-inch and an inch objective will be found to answer the purpose, as the various powers of the lenses become important in making the analysis.
While it is a fact that the microscope and a knowledge of its uses is of the greatest importance in ascertaining the character of the signatures, when the question of their being forged or genuine is the object of the examination, it does not follow that because a person is learned in the use of the microscope in other fields of research that he is therefore qualified to become an expert in handwriting. A peculiar education made practically applicable by experience in this latter field of study is absolutely necessary to determine with accuracy what the microscope reveals, and its importance to give value to any conclusions reached by its use. The connection of effect with cause, and the determination of the latter as a matter of individualism cannot be accomplished merely from what is seen under the microscope. The examiner must by experience and education be fitted to ascertain from personal characteristics manifested in the writing of a signature necessitated their appearance as a matter of individuality.
From one of the best-known European experts on handwriting and who has figured conspicuously in important cases some interesting facts relative to this subject recently were learned. To the question, "What is the primary requisite for a conscientious opinion on the genuineness of any submitted handwriting?" this expert unhesitatingly replied, "An utter and entire absence of either feeling or prejudice. In other words, one should be perfectly dispassionate when engaged in such a work and use a first-class compound microscope."
To make his analysis the expert uses a microscope of great power, and by a strict and close attention to the subject-matter he can determine the exact means or methods employed in making the individual letters and the formation of the words and also the several inks that were used. Handwriting as defined by this expert is a mechanical operation pure and simple. Its general excellence or the reverse is largely dependent on the education which the hand has received. When a man sits down to write he mechanically reproduces on paper what is in his mind, and this may be said to be his natural handwriting. Should he stop to think even for a moment, not of what he is transferring to the paper but of the writing itself, he instantly ceases to write his natural hand, the transcription becoming only a copy or drawing from memory.
In the opinion of the expert, emphatically expressed, a person never writes twice exactly alike. This is stated to be the point around which all his subsequent developments revolve when examining a manuscript. Let several examples of the natural handwriting of an individual be compared. It is true that there will be a general similarity, but, as has been asserted, when placed in juxtaposition or subjected to a careful comparison under a microscope no two words or letters will be found to be alike. Thus it is not the similarity between two pieces of writing that would arouse suspicion with some experts, but rather the natural dissimilarity. Based on this point such experts occupy a distinct position by themselves, since other experts take what is called the positive side. With the first-named class, however, handwriting is a science of negatives. A good microscope will always be found a good detective in determining the genuineness of handwriting.
By way of illustrating one method of forgery interesting material which had played an important part in a court case was carefully examined. It consisted of five or six graded photographic enlargements of the duplicate signature which were carefully examined with the aid of a microscope. The original had been made by an elderly person and the forger had used the tracing process. To the naked eye it appeared to be a capital copy; in fact, it seemed to bear every semblance of being genuine. In the first enlargement of several diameters certain inaccuracies of tracing could be discerned, only, however, after attention had been called to them by an expert. In the next enlargement these same errors were more apparent, and so on through the series. The largest photograph was magnified several hundred diameters greater than the original and stretched across quite an area of paper. From an examination of this largest one with a microscope it was evident that the forger first had traced his copy with pencil, afterward going over it with ink, but so irregularly had his pen followed the pencil lines that in certain portions of this enlargement there was room for a man's fist between the first tracing and its inky covering.
In trying to detect forged handwriting every letter of the alphabet, wherever written, may be examined with a microscope for the following characteristics: Size, shading, position relative to the horizontal line, inclination relative to the vertical line, sharpness of the curves and angles, proportion and relative position of the different parts, and elaboration or extension of the extremities. In scarcely one of these particulars can a man make two letters so much alike that they cannot be distinguished by microscopical examination.
Although a great deal can be determined in a general way by close observation with the naked eye, it is always best to employ some magnifying power—usually an ordinary hand lens or pocket magnifier will suffice—but the writer has found it better to use a microscope objective of low power (four or five diameters), which is provided with an easily slipping sleeve, terminating in a diaphragm which cuts out the light entering the outside rim of the lens. This sleeve may be pushed out for one or two centimeters, and the particular spot under examination isolated from the adjacent parts without undue magnification. It is one of the popular fallacies that a high magnifying power is desirable in all cases of difficulty, but usually the reverse is the case in questions of handwriting.
Experts have sometimes impressed the jury with the fact that they had employed on some thick and opaque document, powers of several hundred diameters without the lately applied illumination from the side, reflected by a glass plate, introduced obliquely into the tube of the microscope. Without such aid no microscopist need be told that the light would be wanting to illuminate the field under these circumstances. The best authorities prescribe a magnifying power of not more than ten diameters for ordinary observation. For special purposes higher powers are sometimes useful. An ocular examination of the ink in the various parts of a written paper, document or instrument of any kind will generally decide whether it is the same.
CHAPTER XII
SIGNATURE EXPERTS THE SAFETY OF THE MODERN BANK
A New Departure in Banks—Examining All Signatures a Sure Preventive Against Forgery—The "Filling-in" Process—How One Forger Operated—Marvelous Accuracy of a Paying Teller—How He Attained Perfection—How Signature Clerks Work—A Common Dodge of Forgers—Post Dated Checks—A System That Prevents Forged and Raised Checks—Not a Forged or Raised Check Paid in Years.
[The following article has been kindly contributed by the manager of one of the largest English banks, located in London.]
One of the most trying positions in our business, is that of signature expert—the man who has to examine daily every draft that comes in through the clearing house and vouch for its genuineness. Our bank, one of the largest in London, employs six clerks who do nothing all day long but examine checks, and when I tell you that it is no uncommon thing for 10,000 drafts to come in during a single day you will understand that the job is not altogether the sinecure it is popularly supposed to be.
These clerks have not only to scrutinize the signatures both of drawer and drawee, but also examine the "filling-in," the latter being just as important, perhaps more so from a monetary point of view, as the signatures. As a matter of fact, the commonest forgery with which we have to deal is the "raising" of checks, and a forger of this nature generally chooses a check bearing a genuine signature but having very little "filling-in."
For instance, he knows that it would not be difficult to raise a check from £3 to £3000, for all he has to do is to erase the word "pounds," insert the word "thousand," and then add the erased word again. I have seen plenty of this kind of work during the time I have been examining checks.
One of the most impudent pieces of forgery, however, that I ever came across was a check raised from £5 to £500. The forger had evidently relied on colossal impudence carrying him through, for he had simply added a couple of ciphers and then between the words "five" and "pounds" had placed an omission mark and written the word "hundred" above, adding the initials of the drawer of the check just to give the thing a look of careless genuineness.
It was so astounding a piece of cool audacity that we had bets on the check, two of my assistants declaring it to be O.K., while the other three and myself declared it to be a forgery. Further inquiries, of course, proved that the opinion of the majority was the correct one.
It is marvelous what a vast number of signatures some paying tellers will carry in their mind's eye, as it were, and thus be able to pass checks by the thousand without once having to refer to the signature books. We had a paying teller here a few years ago who was little less than a wonder. He knew perfectly the signatures of at least 5000 customers, and could detect the alteration of a stroke in any one of them in an instant.
More remarkable still was the fact that he recognized with equal facility the signatures of those customers whose checks only came in once or twice a year. But he made an art of his work, and I afterward discovered that most of his evenings were spent in studying and learning the signatures of the customers, for he was a wonderful hand at copying writing, and whenever a new signature would come in, one with which he was not acquainted, he would at once facsimile it in his pocket-book, and by the next morning would be able to recognize it among 10,000.
Signature clerks are not, as a rule, supposed to make copies of customers' autographs, but many of them do, and some men are clever enough at the work to even deceive themselves.
Of course, it is understood that when the signature clerks are not examining checks they are studying the autograph books in order to familiarize themselves with the calligraphy of every customer. Each check, you must understand, passes through the hands of each clerk in turn, so that if one should pass a forgery or a "raised" draft it is very unlikely that the entire staff would do so. All these checks, of course, come through the clearing house, and if we should pass a forged draft and not find out our mistake before three o 'clock in the afternoon our bank would be held responsible. One of the commonest dodges adopted by the modern check-forger is to get a customer of some small country bank to introduce him to that institution as a likely depositor. On the recommendation of the friend (who is probably quite unaware that the acquaintance he made some few months ago is a "wrong'un") there is no difficulty in accepting their new client's check for £2000, and the following day, when the same customer calls and withdraws £100 to £500, as the case may be, he is politely handed the cash, and then, of course, loses no time in skipping the town. After the bogus customer's check has passed through the clearing house it is returned to the bank on which it has been drawn and the fraud is at once discovered.
Another part of a signature clerk's duties is to see that no checks are post-dated, as of course no drafts must be paid until they fall due. On occasions a careless man will post-date a check, but as a rule the mistake is purposely made. This spotting of post-dated checks, however, is the easiest part of a signature clerk's work, and it is very seldom that a check so dated escapes him. Then, again, we are often notified that payment on certain checks has been stopped, and the clerks have to be on the lookout for these, and it must be a very careless staff indeed that lets them slip by. We are held responsible for all checks passed after we have received notice to stop payment.
But it is very seldom now, owing to the cleverness of the experts, that any forged checks, "raised" checks, post-dated checks, or stopped checks pass the vigilant eyes of our staff without being detected, but when one does—well, although the signature clerks are not held monetarily responsible for the loss, it means a bad mark against them in the future, and they feel its effects next time promotions or "rises" are being handed out.
Altogether, though the work is interesting, and even fascinating in a way, the responsibilities are so great that the effect on the nerves is often very trying at times. One thing we are particular about, and that is to take no chances. If we have the slightest doubt about the genuineness of a check we at once communicate, either by telegraph, special messenger, or telephone, with the supposed drawer of the check, and in this way turn doubt into certainty. During the last three years not a single wrong check has passed our vigilant optics, and, though I say it who should not, I do not believe there is a cleverer set of experts any where than those who compose my staff.
CHAPTER XIII
HOW TO DETERMINE AGE OF ANY WRITING
The Different Kinds of Ink Met With—Inks That Darken by Exposure to Sunlight and Air—Introduction of Aniline Colors to Determine the Age of Writings—An Almost Infallible Rule to Follow—To Determine Approximate Age of Ink Possible—The Ammonia System a Sure One—A Question of Great Interest to Bankers and Bank Employes—Thick Inks and Thin Inks—So-called Safety Inks That Are Not Safe—How to Restore Faded Inks—An Infallible Rule—Restoring Faded Writing—Restored by the Silk and Cotton System That Anyone Can Arrange—Danger of Exposing Restored Writing to the Sun.
The inks in common use over the United States at the present time, and for some years past, are not as numerous as one might be led to conclude. They are probably fifteen or at most twenty in all, including the most popular blue, red, magenta, and green inks. But among these there is a notable difference in character. Some are thick, heavy, and glossy, in character, and flow sluggishly from the pen. Few of these become much darker by standing. In this class will be found the copying inks and those in which a large quantity of gums or similar thickening agents are used.
Other inks are pale, limpid, and flow easily from the pen, and this class usually shows a notable darkening by exposure to sunlight and air. It will be unnecessary here to refer more particularly to the intermediate varieties or to discuss their various composition.
It should be, remembered here that in the last twenty years, or since the introduction into general commerce of aniline colors, which Hofmann discovered in 1856, these latter have been employed more and more in writing fluids; not only in mixtures of which they are the principal ingredients, but to a greater or less degree in all inks. Their presence, even in small quantity, in the gallo-tannate of iron and logwood inks can be generally detected by an iridescent and semi-metallic luster.
To assist in determining the ages of writings by one and the same ink, it is to be observed that the older the writing the less soluble it is in dilute ammonia. If the writing be lightly touched with a brush dipped in ten-per-cent ammonia, the later writing will always give up more or less soluble matter to the ammonia before the earlier. In case of inks of different kinds this test is not serviceable, for characters written in logwood ink, for instance, will always give up their soluble material sooner than nutgall inks, even if the last named be later applied. To estimate the age of writing from the amount of bleaching in a given time by hydrochloric or oxalic acid is very precarious, because the thickness of the ink film in a written character is not always the same, and the acid bleaches the thinner layer sooner than the thicker.
The determination of the age of a written paper is a problem difficult of solution. According to F. Carré the age can be approximately determined if the characters written in iron ink are pressed in a copying press and a commercial hydrochloric acid diluted with eleven parts of water is substituted for water; or, if the written characters are treated for some time with this diluted acid.
The explanation is that the ink changes in time, its organic substance disappears little by little, and leaves behind an iron compound, which in part is not attacked even by acids.
An unsized paper is impregnated with the described diluted acid, copied with the press, and a copy from writing eight or ten years old can be obtained as easily as one by means of water from a writing one day old.
A writing thirty years old gives, by this method, a copy hardly legible, and one over sixty years old, a copy hardly visible. In order to protect the paper against the action of the acid, it should be drawn through ammoniacal water.
To determine the exact age of writings by the ink is not easy. The approximate age may be determined with some degree of certainty. If ink-writings are but a few days old, it is easy to distinguish them from other writing years old. But to tell by the ink which of two writings is the older, when one is but two months and the other two years, is, as a rule, impossible.
Where during the progress of a trial a document purporting to be years old is introduced in evidence, and it can be shown that it is but a few days old, having been prepared for the occasion, ordinarily the age of the writing will be comparatively easy of demonstration by the expert. Oxidization will not have set in to any extent, if the ink is very fresh, and this, with a careful watching of the color for any darkening, will determine whether or not the ink is fresh. This ink study should be a question of the utmost interest to bankers and bank employes.
A ten-per-cent solution of ammonia applied to two inks in question will show which is the fresher. The older ink will resist the action of the ammonia longer and give up less soluble matter than the newer writing. Nutgall, and logwood inks, of course, should not be tested comparatively by this method, as the logwood ink will respond to the ammonia sooner than the nutgall ink.
F. Carré also gives another method for determining, approximately, the age of ink-writings. If the writing is in iron ink, and is moistened with a solution of one part of hydrochloric acid to eleven parts of water and put in letter-copying press and copy transferred to copy paper it should give a strong copy, if but ten years old; a hardly legible copy, if thirty years old; and if sixty years old, a few marks will be copied, but they will not be legible.
If the same solution be used in place of water, as in the ordinary letter-copying process and the copying paper be saturated with it, the result will be the same.
To determine the age of writing by applying bleaching acids and watching results and counting the seconds is a dangerous method. Thick inks will respond to the acids slower than thin, and the time comparisons are misleading.
Safety inks, so-called, designed to resist the action of acids and alkalies have been repeatedly put upon the market, but no such ink has ever successfully challenged the world and proved its title of safety.
Many chemicals are recommended as restorations for faded writing, but these should be avoided as far as possible, as they are liable to stain, disfigure the paper, and in the end make matters materially worse. Familiarity with particular handwritings after some practice will enable the reader to make out otherwise unintelligible words without any other assistant than a powerful magnifying glass.
If the ink is very faint, the simplest and most harmless restorative is sulphate of ammonia, but its loathsome smell once encountered is not easily forgotten. The experiment in consequence is very seldom repeated for the result is scarcely good enough to risk a repetition of so horrible a smell.
The writing on old and faded documents may be restored, by chemical treatment, turning the iron salt still remaining into ferrous sulphate. A process which will restore the writing temporarily is as follows: A box four or five inches deep and long and broad enough to hold the document, with a glass, is needed. A net of fine white silk or cotton threads is stretched across the box at about one half the depth. Two saucers containing yellow ammonium hydrosulphide are placed in the bottom of the box. By means of a clean sponge or brush, moisten the paper with distilled water; then place it on the net with the writing side down. The action of the vapor of the ammonium hydrosulphide will cause the obliterated writing to slowly turn brown, then black. But within a short time after removal from the box the writing will again disappear.
Another method is to wash the document carefully in a solution of hydrochloric acid, one part, and distilled water, one hundred parts. Dry the moistened paper somewhat, leaving it just moist enough to hold a uniform layer of fine yellow prussiate of potash. A plate of glass with a light pressure should be placed on this. In a few hours dry the paper thoroughly, and carefully brush off the yellow prussiate of potash. The writing should come out a Prussian blue. This restored writing will be permanent unless exposed too much to the light.
The hydrochloric acid must be thoroughly removed; otherwise, it will destroy the paper. Crystallized soda, two parts, and distilled water, one hundred parts, in solution, will counteract the hydrochloric acid, if the document is allowed to float on it for twenty-four hours.
CHAPTER XIV
DETECTING FRAUD AND FORGERY IN PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS
Infallible Rules for the Detection of Same—New Methods of Research—Changing Wills and Books of Accounts—Judgment of the Naked Eye—Using a Microscope or Magnifying Glass—Changeable Effects of Ink—How to Detect the Use of Different Inks—Sized Papers Not Easily Altered—Inks That Produce Chemical Effects—Inks That Destroy Fiber of Paper—How to Test Tampered or Altered Documents—Treating Papers Suspected of Forgery—Using Water to Detect Fraud—Discovering Scratched Paper—Means Forgers Use to Mask Fraudulent Operations—How to Prepare and Handle Test Papers—Detecting Paper That Has Been Washed—Various Other Valuable Tests to Determine Forgery—A Simple Operation That Anyone Can Apply—Iodine Used On Papers and Documents—An Alcohol Test That is Certain—Bringing Out Telltale Spots—Double Advantage of Certain Tests—Reappearance of Former Letters or Figures—What Genuine Writing Reveals—When an Entire Paper or Document is Forged.
The art of detecting forgery or fraud, in checks, drafts, documents, seals, writing materials, or in the characters themselves is a study that has attracted handwriting experts since its study was taken up. There are almost infallible rules for the work and in this chapter is given several new methods of research that will prove of the utmost value to the public.
It is not an uncommon occurrence that wills and other public documents are changed by the insertion of extra or substituted pages, thereby changing the character of the instrument. Where this is suspected careful inspection of the paper should be made—first, as to its shade of color and fiber, under a microscope; second, as to its ruling; third, as to its water-mark; fourth, as to any indications that the sheets have been separated since their original attachment; fifth, as to the writing—whether or not it bears the harmonious character of the continuous writing, with the same pen and ink, and coincident circumstances, or if typewritten, whether or not by the same operator or the same machine. It would be a remarkable fact if such change were to be made without betraying some tangible proof in some one or more of the above enumerated respects.
Books of accounts are often changed by adding fictitious or fraudulent entries in such spaces as may have been left between the regular entries or at the bottom of the pages where there is a vacant space. Where such entries are suspected, there should be at first a careful inspection of the writing as to its general harmony with that which precedes and follows, as to its size, slope, spacing, ink, and pen used, and if in a book of original entry, the suspected entry should be traced through other books, to see if it is properly entered as to time and place, or vice versa.