The Educator (Volume 45) - IAMPETH

18
School Penmanship Club Studies Many Phases
Is that signature on check, will,
deed or other important legal document
genuine, or is it a clever forgery?
If you do not know how many
such problems are solved and would
like to learn something about the
methods involved in their solution,
why not attend the Friday afternoon
meetings of the Peirce School Penmanship
Club ? These take place
from three to four o'clock in Room
71, under the direction of Mr. Henry
G. Burtner, the school's teacher of
penmanship, who formed this unusual
club several weeks ago.
Since then interest in the organization
has been cumulative. On
Story of the creation of the world
and of the deluge as written in the
cuneiform characters of Nippur in
2200 B. C. The original is a part
of the great treasure of this kind
in the University Museum, 33 and
Spruce Streets.
occasion a thrill akin to that evoked
by the modern detective story is enjoyed
at the club meetings, when
Mr. Burtner tells some of his own
experiences in solving the mysteiy
of "who done it". It is not always
a murder story he tells, but often a
tale about the right document signed
by the wrong person.
This same specialist in all matters
pertaining to chirography, also discusses
ornamental writing and lettering,
for which there is much more
demand in these days than is generally
supposed. Indeed the possibilities
and opportunities for advanced
work in penmanship are manifold.
Cases in which handwriting is a
cause for legal dispute present an
ever-widening field, especially in
view of the recent development of
scientific methods. The outcome of
many will contests and various criminal
cases often hinges upon decisions
concerning a signature, or in
other instances upon the identity of
typewriting, where a bit of crooked
work has been going on.
of Chirography
The scientific means involved in
detecting false signatures, was given
a great forward urge by a Philadelphian,
the late Dr. Persifor Frazer,
who lived in Spruce Street, not for
from Peirce School, and his scholarly
volume on the subject has for long
been a standard authority. His period
of greatest activity in this respect
was contemporary with the
famous Dreyfus case in France and
many of Dr. Frazer's methods were
employed in resolving the complexities
of that notorious instance of
political and military prejudice and
chicanery.
It should also be noted in this
connection, that the late Dr. Thomas
May Peirce, founder of the school,
was an expert in handwriting, and in
his day figured in many notable court
cases.
At later Penmanship Club meetings
the history of writing will be
taken up and then it will be learned
that some of the earliest instances
of writing, the cuneiform, made by
indentation upon soft clay tablets,
which were afterwards baked, are to
be found in the museum of the
University of Pennsylvania. There
will be talks about those days of
long ago when writing became fluent
or cursive; that is, when letters were
first joined and a word could be written
without raising the pen. Students
will hear about the world-famous
Rosetta Stone, now in the British
Museum of London, by means of
^1a(>A-_, /,fT^-,%rAy /-H!>fl^-o
An early specimen of fluent or
cursive writing, by the Contessina
Bardi. grandmother of Lorenzo the
Magnificent of Florence. The document
is from the middle fifteenth
century, when the joining of a word's
letters was becoming the accepted
mode of penmanship. This reproduc-
tion is from "The Women of the
Medici" by Yvonne Maguire, pub-
lished by the Dial Press.
Typewriter letters greatly enlarged
to determine details of authenticity
in disputed documents. Here the
upper line is authentic, the lower
questionable.
which it became possible to read the
theretofore mysterious hieroglyphic
symbols on Egypt's monuments. The
intricacies of the ideograph writing
of Chinese and the Japanese will also
be explained, together with many
another related subject.—From The
Peircetonian, a news magazine published
monthly by Peirce School,
Pine Street, West of Broad, Philadelphia,
Pa., C. H. Bonte, Editor.
THE PEIRCETONIAN
An eight page monthly school
magazine called The Peircetonian
reaches our desk regularly. It is published
by the Peirce School, Pine
Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Their November number is a "Commencement
Number" and publishes
the commencement address given to
their graduates by Dr. Frank Bohn
of Washington. The address is well
worth reading and doubtless anyone
writing to The Peirce School can
secure a copy.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
The school of commerce of Northwestern
university will receive the
sum of $1,000 annually for five years
from the Commercial Credit company
of Baltimore, Maryland, to be awarded
to graduate fellows for study in the
school of commerce.
The money is to be awarded annually
to one or two applicants of
high scholastic standing, according to
the terms of the gift agreement. For
the academic year 1940-41 one fellowship
will be awarded in the field of
finance, although this plan may be
altered if no suitable candidates
apply.
The holders of the fellowships will
be expected to carry on full-time programs
of graduate study.