Part 11 (1/2)
All the United States notes are printed in sheets of four notes of one denomination on each sheet. Each note is lettered in its respective order, in the upper and lower corners diagonally opposite, A, B, C, and D, and this is the system for numbering notes: All numbers, on being divided by 4 and leaving 1 for a remainder, have the check letter A; 2 remainder, B; 3 remainder, C; even numbers, or with no remainder, D. Any United States note the number upon which can be divided by 4 without showing the above result is a counterfeit, and while this rule is not infallible in all instances it will be found of service in the detection of counterfeits.
Compared with a dozen or so years ago, there is nothing like the counterfeiting going on in this country. Shortly after the war the country was practically flooded with it, but so perfect is the machinery of the secret service and so successful have its officers been in recent years in unearthing the big plants and their operators, and placing the latter behind the bars, that counterfeiting has almost ceased.
The receipts of subsidiary counterfeit coins at the subtreasury at New York have been in recent times inconsequential. Some time ago an Italian silversmith, who was an expert coin counterfeiter, was captured, and the destruction of his plant and his subsequent conviction had a wholesome effect upon his fellow countrymen, some of whom have come over to the United States for the express purpose of counterfeiting its silver coins. Only five counterfeit issues of notes made their appearance during the year in question, and of these three were new and two were reissues of old counterfeits.
This shows how well the counterfeit situation, as it were, is kept in check and under control by the government. By some it is supposed that most of our counterfeiters come from abroad, but this is not strictly accurate, though many of those who attempt to imitate our silver dollar and the subsidiary coin issues hail from Italy and Russia.
In order to set up a first-cla.s.s counterfeit shop for the turning out of good paper counterfeits, there are so many indispensable requisites on the part of the spurious money-makers that they get discouraged or caught in most instances almost at the very outset of their would-be easy money-making careers. All of the good engravers who are capable of turning out good plates are more or less under the constant supervision of the secret service officers, while the paper supply, or its possible supply, is equally well watched.
Because gold and silver coins pa.s.s current out on the Pacific coast, where notes do not yet circulate freely as in the east, California has more counterfeiting cases than any other state in the Union, with Pennsylvania, with its large foreign population in the mining regions, a close second.
A moderately deceptive $5 silver certificate was made in Italy, imported into this country by various gangs of Italians and pa.s.sed quite extensively in the eastern states, but the secret service officers quickly got on to the source of issue, and made many arrests and secured convictions. So closely did they hit the trail of a fairly good counterfeit note issued in the west that they got the maker and pa.s.ser arrested and convicted and the plates captured so quickly that it must have caused him acute pain. It was the same with a $10 note of deceptive workmans.h.i.+p which appeared in New York. Only three of these notes were circulated.
Of course there are plenty of counterfeit notes and coins in circulation--if there were not the secret-service officers would have an easy time of it--but the output has largely decreased as compared with former years, and, unless all signs fail, it is likely to go still lower, as the secret service officers become each year more expert in detecting this cla.s.s of crime and putting the criminals away where they will serve the state the best. Gold certificates issued below the denomination of $20, are numbered the same as treasury notes and are check-lettered in their order upon each sheet.
The only denominations of the gold certificates which have been counterfeited are the issues for $20 and $100, respectively, as the gold certificates present a pretty tough counterfeiting proposition, though most of the denominations of the various issues of the silver certificates have been more or less extensively counterfeited, perhaps the issues for $5 and $10, respectively, being the most favored at the counterfeiter's hands, by reason of the ready circulation of these two issues.
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 a.s.sembling of first-cla.s.s 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 Vanis.h.i.+ng--Two Divisions of Handwriting--Fas.h.i.+on 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 relations.h.i.+p 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.
Like speech or gesture, handwriting serves as a means for the expression of thought; and in expressing our thoughts we give expression to ourselves. When once the art of writing is learned we are no longer conscious of the mental and manual effort required to form the letters. It becomes, as it were, a second nature to us. We do it mechanically, just as we form our words when talking, without realizing the complex processes of mind and muscle that it involves.
Of course, the style of handwriting does not in every case remain the same throughout the entire life of a man or woman. A man of fifty may not write the same hand that he did when he was eighteen or twenty, and if he lives to be eighty or ninety it will in all probability show further indications of change. This fact only emphasizes the relations.h.i.+p between handwriting, character, and personality; for it will always be found that where there is a change in the style of penmans.h.i.+p there is a corresponding change in the person himself. Very few of us retain the same character, disposition, and nature that we had in youth. Experience and vicissitudes do much to modify our natures, and with such modifications come alterations in our handwriting. In some persons the change is very slight, while in others it is noticeably evident.
When a man attempts to change his style of handwriting he simply alters the princ.i.p.al features of it. If his writing normally slopes to the right, he will probably adopt a back-hand. He may also use a different kind of pen; may change the size of the writing, alter the customary formation of certain letters, and add certain unfamiliar flourishes. But knowing nothing about the many minor characteristics of his natural writing he unconsciously repeats them, notwithstanding his best efforts to veil the ident.i.ty of his chirography. In this respect he resembles the actor, who, while he may a.s.sume all the outward characteristics of another individual, still retains certain personal peculiarities of which he is himself unaware and which render it impossible for him to completely disguise his own individuality.
The introduction of cheap postage and the immense increase of every-day correspondence has ruined handwriting and banished forever the art of composition. The short, modern, business-like letters of to-day will not bear comparison with the neat, voluminous letters full of graphic scenic descriptions, which our forefathers were wont to compile, and were worth keeping and rereading. Now, when similar correspondence is undertaken, it is dictated to a stenographer, copied on a typewriter, or printed, for few people will take the trouble to read ma.n.u.script composition of any kind. Looking backward, we find a marked paucity of ideas and carelessness of writing in correspondence, getting worse the farther back we go. Few letters are preserved these days, except those on business, which is a pity, for a letter is always a unique production, being a correct reflect of a writer and his times.
There are always two divisions of handwriting, the formal hand employed for clerk's work, and a freer, less mechanical, less careful style, used for private correspondence. Writing was a profession only understood by a few, and as late as the sixteenth century, when it was necessary to communicate with persons at a distance, a professional scribe was employed to write the letter. But letter-writing was rare and did not become general till after the close of the sixteenth century, and even then it was restricted to the upper cla.s.ses of society.
Fas.h.i.+on changes in everything. Every generation had its own particular type of writing. Compare, for instance, any bundle of letters taken at random, out of an old desk or library. It is quite easy to sort them into bundles in sequence of dates, and also guess accurately the age and position of the writers. The flowing Italian hand, used by educated women early in the nineteenth century, has now developed into a bold, decisive, almost masculine writing.
It will be found that most professions have special characteristics in writing and these are all liable to change, according to circ.u.mstances and writing is the clearest proof of both bodily and mental condition, for in case of paralysis, or mental aberration, the doctor takes it as a certain guide.
The most noticeable movement by which cultured people recognize one another are the play of the features, the gait, talking and writing.
Of these evidences the last named is the most infallible, for by a few hasty lines we may recognize again a person whom we neither see nor hear, and enjoy in addition the advantage of being able to compare quietly and at our leisure the traits of one individual thus expressed with the characteristics of another. There are not many men to be found in any walk of life who do not endeavor to conceal to some extent, however slight, their true views and emotions, when brought into close contact with their fellow-beings. But the mind photographs itself unsuspectingly in the movements of the hands, by the use of pen and ink away from all alien observation, and with the rigid unchangeable witness in our possession the character of the author of the ma.n.u.script lies open to the gaze of the intelligent reader.
In this way handwriting becomes much more individual than any other active sign of personality. It varies more, it is more free, it represents the individual less artificially than voice or gesture.
There must exist between the form and arrangements of letters in words and lines, on the one hand, and certain individual peculiarities of the writer, on the other, some kind of connection. It is strange that no scientific writing has ever yet been undertaken, for it seems conclusive that handwriting is a kind of voiceless speaking, consequently a phenomenon, and therefore an operation which lies within the province of physiology.