appear in different measure of prominence in different forgeries, and there is no rule as to their measure or appearance.  With some forgers the pen rests with considerable emphasis and with others it is lifted from the paper and returned to the paper while the eye of the writer goes back to the copy.  With others there will appear but little hesitancy.  Some forgers, well skilled in the art, will, by practicing the simulation until they have the form of the genuine signature well fixed in the mind, become enabled to produce a forged copy of a genuine signature that will show no pauses—­hence the absence of pauses is not proof of the genuine character of a signature.  Another common characteristic of forged and reproduced signatures and particularly such of them as are not traced and are produced by persons not skilled in the art is found in the studied appearance which they have, as if written under restraint, and without the apparent freedom consequent upon habitual writing.  Another characteristic of forged signatures that are not traced from a genuine signature is that they are written with greater length in proportion to the width and height of the letters, than occurs in the genuine signature from which they are copied in imitation.  This want of proportion occurs generally from making the lines connecting the letters of the signature longer than those of the copy.

At the same time, while these characteristics are common to forged writing, to make them available in formulating an opinion from an analysis they must be substantiated by every other occurring in the writing.  It must be clearly kept in view that general impressions derived from a cursory examination of a disputed or reproduced signature should have no weight in the mind of the examiner before proceeding with the analysis, as such an impression is apt to lead the investigation into a particular line of research and it should be understood that the work of the examiner must relate to the comparison of the details in each of the writings as to their correspondence or difference.

As before stated in this chapter, and a fact that should be remembered in studying fraudulent signatures, that one of the commonest and easiest means of reproducing a signature is to put the genuine signature on a piece of glass, lay another piece of glass on top of it and fasten the piece of paper that is to receive the forgery on top of that.  Then by holding the glass strips to a bright light, the original signature casts a shadow through, which may be traced in pencil.  From this tracing the ink forgery is completed.

But when a forgery done in this way is put under a strong magnifying lens it will not bear scrutiny.  If the original has a strong down stroke on the capital letters the movement will be free and will leave the pen lines with smooth edges.  The man who is tracing such letters cannot trust himself to the same free movement of the pen and the result under the glass shows hesitancy and uncertainty.  Also if other lines in the signature be lighter than the forger naturally uses the same hesitancy will be shown.  When the lines have passed scrutiny, too, there is another “line” test which will show that the impossibility of one’s writing two signatures alike has been accomplished.