“Abraham Lincoln wrote at first a plain running hand with letters well made and words well spaced. As years passed it became more upright until at the end it was straight up and down. “Ulysses S. Grant wrote an unformed school-boy hand when he left West Point. This improved and became firm, but was never a good hand. Of late years it was a running hand, with letters incomplete and other marks of haste. On the whole, one of the poorest hands of the lot. “James A. Garfield wrote a handsome running hand when a general in the army. The letters were well formed and the words well separated. Altogether a fine, clerkly hand. Later it became irregular and tended towards the upright, and lost its beauty. “Grover Cleveland began with a large, angular, running hand, and gradually changed to a small, lady-like hand of great regularity. At first it was like Madison’s. “William McKinley wrote a fine plain running hand, with letters well formed and a tendency not to lift the pen between words. “Theodore Roosevelt has written the worst hand of any of the Presidents. The letters are badly formed, the lines in poor alignment and altogether they have a very scratchy appearance. They bear marks of haste, of a mind outrunning the pen. “William H. Taft has a fine, handsome, regular, large running hand. Altogether a handsome letter. “Woodrow Wilson writes a very handsome hand, with letters well made, freely running in straight lines--altogether of the copperplate order. His letters seem to be written with deliberation and care. “Washington and Polk wrote the handsomest letters, and Roosevelt and Grant the scratchiest.” Mr. Benjamin is the great pioneer in his chosen field, the prince of the autograph-dealers. The money he makes in autographs he invests in real estate. He owns a magnificent summer home, and all because he knows how to buy and how to sell letters of dead and living celebrities. The Market Price of Some Autographs S. L. Clemens $11.50 Thos. De Quincey 18.00 George Eliot 23.00 Eugene Field 31.00 Alex. Hamilton 50.00 John Paul Jones 280.00 Rudyard Kipling 24.00 R. L. Stevenson 100.00 Alfred Tennyson 28.00 Wm. Wordsworth 21.00 Ben. Franklin 132.50 Geo. Washington 227.50 John Adams 57.50 Thos. Jefferson 37.50 W. H. Harrison 24.00 Zachary Taylor 90.00 Andrew Johnson 120.00 Wm. McKinley 67.50 Theo. Roosevelt 12.00 W. H. Taft 55.00 A. Lincoln 210.00 Mr. Madigan’s Interesting Shop A complete change of scene. The most fashionable shopping district of New York, just around the corner of Fifth Avenue in Forty-fifth Street.