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