That the professional forger eventually profits but little by his ill-gotten gains is well illustrated by the fate of the most of them, who end their days in prison.

In the case of a forgery there are a dozen methods for detecting it—­in the quality of the ink, in the quality of paper, in microscopic examination of the irregularities in penmanship, in “labored” tracings that show exaggerated tracings, in composite photography, and by a dozen little common-sense observations that scarcely can be controverted.

Some forgeries have been detected by the mere water-mark in the paper.  Sittl of Munich is quoted as having had referred to him a possible forgery of a document dated 1868.  Holding the paper to the light, he found as a water-mark in it the figure of the eagle of the German Empire—­a symbol which had not been adopted at all until after the French war of 1870.

The magnifying glass is depended upon for many disclosures of forgeries.  The unduly serrated edges of the ink lines are quickly marked in a forgery, though under certain circumstances a situation may be such as to force a person into this laborious writing; he may be cramped up in bed, writing on a book held in his lap, or he may be in a mental strain that produces it.

There are minds so easily impressed with a sense of responsibility that the writing or signing of any paper important in its bearing on the writer or his property will cause him to disguise his hand to some extent involuntarily, as many persons disguise their features involuntarily when being photographed.

As to signatures especially, attention is called to the “tremor of fraud,” which is to be detected by the microscope, and stress is laid upon the necessity of observing just where this tremor falls.  If it is in a difficult flourish of the signature and not elsewhere it indicates fraud; or if it be tremulous to the eye, in imitation of the signature of an aged person, a smooth, curved line may be the index of “the difficulty experienced by a good penman in feigning to be a bad one.”

The microscope is useful and valuable in determining whether erasures have been made on paper.  Also it will discover which of two crossed lines was last written.  It may determine whether the ragged edges of the ink lines are those of fraud, illiteracy, or old age.

The practice of forging the names of depositors in banks to checks, drafts, notes, and in fact to all papers representing a money value, has been practiced, probably, since the creation of man.  Of course the law recognizes forgery as a serious crime, and everywhere the punishment is severe.  In the seventeenth century it was a capital offense in England, and there were more persons executed for that crime than there were for murder.  Notwithstanding the rigorous penalty prescribed in every state in the Union, forgery is carried on to an alarming extent, sometimes by trusted employees, as well as professionals.