This is a question which is naturally asked during the trial of a case involving the consideration of a guided hand.  From the comparatively small number of experiments made in this direction it would be too hazardous to answer it in the affirmative, but it may be said that some of the characteristics of each hand can usually be made apparent by the system of measurement, and the indications seem to point to the probability of being able to increase the number of characteristics elicited in proportion to the number of observations made.  If the significance of every part of every stroke could be properly interpreted, it follows that a complete separation of characteristics would be effected, but this would require an indefinitely large number of observations to be made and a quite unattainable skill in explaining them.

See specimens of guided signatures in Appendix.

CHAPTER XVI

TALES TOLD BY HANDWRITING

Telling the Nationality, Sex and Age of Anyone Who Executes Handwriting—­Americans and Their Style of Writing—­How English, German, and French Write—­Gobert the French Expert and How He Saved Dreyfus—­Miser Paine and His Millions Saved by an Expert—­Writing with Invisible Ink—­Professor Braylant’s Secret Writing Without Ink—­Professor Gross Discovers a Simple Secret Writing Method With a Piece of Pointed Hardwood—­A System Extensively Used—­Studying the Handwriting of Authors—­How to Determine a Person’s Character and Disposition by Handwriting.

It is possible for a trained expert in handwriting to tell with a fair degree of accuracy the nationality, sex, and age of any one who executes writing of any kind.  A study of the handwriting of the different nations makes it comparatively easy to recognize in any questioned specimen the nationality of the writer.  The aggregate characteristics of a nation are reflected in the style of handwriting adopted as a national standard.  The style most in use in the United States is the semi-angular, forward-slant hand, although the vertical round-hand is now being largely taught in the public schools and will affect the appearance of the writing of the next generation quite appreciably.

Frequently educational and newspaper critics compare unfavorably American writing with that of other nations.  The writer has investigated the subject by collecting from many countries copy-books and specimens of writing from leading teachers of writing, students in various grades of schools, clerks and business men.

America is so far in advance of any other country in artistic and business penmanship that there is really no second.  Americans as a whole write at a much higher rate of speed and with a freer movement than any other nations, and, consequently, many critics stop when they have criticized form alone, not making allowance for quantity.  Nervous, rapid writers (and such the Americans are) produce writing more or less illegible, but it is not the fault of the standard so much as the speed with which the writing is done.