FAMILY HAXDWRITIXG. 



Bv K. H. chaxi)li:k. 



The likeness which exists between the writing 

 of various members of the same family is often 

 exceedingly strong, and for the purpose of a just 

 comparison it is necessarv- to have the same words 

 \\ ritten b\' related people. The names and addresses 

 on envelopes are \-ery useful, though as these are 



b. Brother. 



Figure 1. 



The words are joined in both cases and there is a great 

 similarity in style. 



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may show itself b\" the colour of the ej^es (a very 

 frequent one), shape of the nose, general outline of 

 face, or eccentricitv of manner, but more often it is 

 the tout ensemble (something that we could not put 

 into words and define accuratel\>. which causes old 

 friends of parents to exclaim, when meeting the 

 children after some \ears, — "Isn't he like his father?" 

 or, '" He is just like his father as a boy." 



This brings us to another point of agreement 

 between handw riting and ourselves, viz.. likeness at 

 corresponding ages. It would be absurd to expect 

 a grandfather of seventv to write like his son of 

 forty-five, or his grandson of twenty, but there may 

 be made a just comparison between the grandfather's 

 writing at middle-age and his son's at the present 

 time, or between that of the son and grandson 

 at corresponding ages. 



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b. Brother. 



a. Sister. 



I'iGfKi: 2. 



The style ol this handwriting should be compared with that of the three brothers, seen in Figure 3. 



written carefully when they are unknown, it would 

 be better to lia\e a few familiar words written 

 without any hesitation. The family likeness in 

 the illustrations which we give is apparent to 

 an\-one, and if we were not intimately ac(iuainted 

 with the handwriting of all of these it would 

 be eas\' in some instances to mistake one for 

 the other. Take higure 3 ia and /)i, two 

 brothers ; Figure 4 (a and b). father and son : I-'igure 6 

 {ii and b). two brothers: Figure 7. two sisters or 

 Figure 9 (n and /)) two brothers, which are hardh" 

 distinguishable one from the other ; and even where 

 the likeness does not approach almost to identitv 

 (as in the instances just given) there is a \-er\- 

 strong famil}' likeness in formation and st\le — take 

 Figure 2, showing brother and sister w here the st\Ie 

 is pronounced and very similar, or Figure 3. Figure 5 

 shows the round handwriting of a father and son 

 (if it were possible to show the signatures the like- 

 ness would be very much stronger) and Figure 9, 

 which shows a strong likeness in the angularit\' (or 

 acuteness) of the handwriting of three brothers. 



Familv likeness in handwriting follows the same 

 general principles as family likeness among human 

 beings, which may be defined as an accumulation of 

 indescribabh' faint suggestions of similarit\' rather 



Another point of agreement (a sub-species of 

 "family likeness") is what ma\- be called "peculi- 

 arities," and the father who has a stvle of 



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a. Brother. 



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b. Brotlier. 



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c. Brother. 

 FiGURK 3. 

 a and h are hardly distinguishable. 



handwriting that shows these peculiarities will 

 frequently bequeath them, more or less unaltered, 

 to his son. 



thanany strong identity; for instance, a familylikeness Bearing in mind these suggestions, that is, the 



302 



