[Illustration:  Who has not heard of that eccentric woman in man’s garb, Dr. Mary E. Walker.  She is egotistical, seeks after notoriety, and her signature is a correct portrayal of a petulant and whimsical nature.]

[Illustration:  This signature of Marie Antoinette was taken from a letter written while she was in prison under sentence of death.  This is a despondent signature.  Misfortune, separation from her husband and children, and humiliation had crushed her pride, and the whole of this signature is descendant, the four last letters remarkably so, which indicates a thoroughly despondent condition.]

THREE OF AMERICA’S BEST-KNOWN MEN

[Illustration:  Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, of the United States.]

[Illustration:  P.S.  Grosscup, Chicago, Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States.]

[Illustration:  John Hay, formerly Secretary of State, is a versatile man.  The most remarkable point in this autograph is its extreme clearness, indicative of lucidity of ideas.  Cultivation is shown in the form of the capital letters in both Christian and surname.  No obstinacy is shown in this nature, only sufficient firmness to hold his own when necessary, the signature showing also a strong literary leaning.]

THREE FAMOUS MILITARY MEN

[Illustration:  We present a group of signatures of famous military men.  The autograph of General Grant is plain and simple in its construction, not an unnecessary movement or mark in it—­a signature as bare of superfluity and ostentation as was the silent soldier and hero of Appomattox.  In the autograph of R.E.  Lee we have the same terse, brief manner of construction as in Grant’s.  It is more antiquated and formal in its style, more stiff and what might be called aristocratic.  Its firm upright strokes, with angular horizontal terminal lines, indicate a determined, positive character.  In somewhat marked contrast with the two last-mentioned autographs is that of General Beauregard, in that he indulges in a rather elaborate flourish, which is a national characteristic.]

CHARACTERISTIC WRITING OF A FEW OF THE WORLD’S BEST-KNOWN LITERARY MEN AND AUTHORS

[Illustration:  Shakespeare’s writing shows a strong, intuitive observation—­that quick movement of the mind which seizes character at a glance—­is shown by the want of liason between the curiously formed letter “h” and the “a” which follows it.  With a poet’s disregard of order, Shakespeare puts no dots to either of the small letters “i” in his Christian name, nor is there any full stop at the end of the signature, so suggestive, when seen in an autograph, of caution, and that attention to minutiae which seems almost incompatible with the poetic nature.  No flourish of any kind disgraces this thoroughly characteristic signature of England’s greatest poet.]