it. The average person would be surprised to know of the great number
of cases that find their way to the office of the handwriting expert.
The man who has made a success in this line is constantly in demand,
and makes frequent trips to distant points to appear as witness in
courts.

Though nearly every large town has some one who devotes some attention
to handwriting, there are but five or six men in this country who give
to it practically all of their time, and who have gone very deeply
into the subject.

To allow any person to qualify as an "expert" and to testify as such
is a matter wholly within the discretion of the court. Unfortunately,
courts frequently are lax in determining this question. Almost any one
who can write is permitted to give alleged "expert" testimony
regarding handwriting. In one well-known case, a case, too, involving
life and death--the court unwittingly accepted the "expert" testimony
of a witness who, it was afterward proven, was unable to write even so
much as his own name. In the litigation attending the disposal of
large mining interests held at Butte, Montana, the court permitted
testimony in regard to the handwriting of the testator from a witness
who admitted that he had seen the testator write but once, and that in
lead pencil over twenty years before.

Any one accustomed to writing is usually allowed to qualify as an
"expert." To the lay mind it is natural to confound experts who have
studied the subject deeply in all its various phases with those who
have had occasion to examine it casually, or who may possess uncommon
facility with the pen without ever having had occasion to investigate
scientifically just those little illusive points upon which the