The main deterrents to counterfeiting nowadays are, first, lack of good engravers who will take the risk; second, the difficulty in the making and the assembling of first-class plates, and third, the difficulty in the securing of suitable paper.  As to the last, the fiber paper now in use with the two silk threads running through the note lengthwise presents a hard proposition for imitation, and lastly, and an important provision, is the fact the public is now pretty well educated on the question of counterfeits, and know how a spurious bill both looks and feels.  As for the bank tellers, they scent counterfeits by instinct.  Things have changed for the counterfeiter, too, and they are not for the best from his point of view.

The secret service of the United States is without a question the best in the world.

CHAPTER XVIII

CHARACTER AND TEMPERAMENT INDICATED BY HANDWRITING

A Man’s Handwriting a Part of Himself—­Cheap Postage and Typewriters Playing Havoc with Writing by Hand—­Old Time Correspondence Vanishing—­Two Divisions of Handwriting—­Fashion Has Changed Even Writing—­Characteristic Writing of Different Professions—­Handwriting a Sure Index to Character and Temperament—­Personality of Handwriting—­Handwriting a Voiceless Speaking—­A Neglected Science—­Interest in Disputed Handwriting Rapidly Coming to the Front—­Set Writing Copies no Longer the Rule—­Formal Handwriting—­Education’s Effect on Writing—­Handwriting and Personality—­The Character and Temperament of Writers Easily Told—­Honest, Eccentric, and Weak People—­How to Determine Character by Writing—­The Marks of Truth and Straightforwardness—­How Perseverance and Patience Are Indicated in Writing—­Economy, Generosity and Liberality Easily Shown in Writing—­The Character and Temperament of Any Writer Easily Shown—­Studying Character from Handwriting a Fascinating Work—­Rules for Its Study—­Links in a Chain That Cannot Be Hidden—­A Person’s Writing a Surer Index to Character Than His Face.

A person’s handwriting is really a part of himself.  It is an expression of his personality and his character and is as characteristic of his general make-up as his gait or his tone of voice.

There is always a direct and apparent connection between the style of handwriting and the personality of the writer.  Another familiar evidence of this is the fact that no two persons write exactly alike, notwithstanding that hundreds of thousands of people learned to write from the same copy-books and were taught to form their letters in precisely the same way.  Thus, it will be seen, if handwriting bore no relationship to personality and temperament and was not influenced by the character of the individual, we would all be writing the beautiful Spencerian copper-plate we were taught in our school days.  But, as it is, not one in fifty thousand writes in this manner five years after leaving school.