The Forest Republican

Not long since a case was tried in the Supreme Court in a neighboring county, says the Portland (Me) Press, in which the genuineness of the signatures to a number of promissory notes was contested. One witness, who witnessed the signatures to the notes, pronounced his name as appearing on one of the larger notes a forgery. The able experts declared that they could see no difference in the autographs. The witness stoutly persisted that the one he designated was a forgery. Careful tests were applied. The notes were shuffled and dealt to him, and he instantly picked out the fraudulent paper. Every test which the ingenuity of the lawyers could devise was applied, with the same result, and the case went to the jury. After the case was closed one of the counsel gave the papers a careful examination, when it was found that the disowned signature had been punctured with a pin between the letters, but the mark was so exceedingly small that it had escaped a score of prying eyes; yet to the witness' experienced vision it was "plain as a pikestaff."