Ben, but that IS a connection, and an important one. It helps to put him, along with Reg's recollections which cannot be summarily dismissed, and signatures, and age, and social class, at the very fore of Hutchinson possibilities. There really is no one else. Surely, even with all the refutations you make, you have to admit this.
Hi Fish,
Interesting points, but caution is urged on two grounds here:
1) We have to be careful not to infantilize 22-year-old Toppy. I'd observe that the average voyage of personal discovery and the attendent moulding of one's personality happens at an earlier age. Teens, most likely.
2) As Crystal observes, we want to steer clear of graphology, as a rule; the discipline wherein the writer's personality is assessed based on his/her handwriting. Melvin Harris made the interesting observation about the various "experts" called in to assess the diary: "(Feldman) tells us about the judgements made by Reed Hayes, Anna Koren and Sue Iremonger. The only authentic Questioned Document Examiner of the three is Sue Iremonger; the other two are disciples of the psuedo-science known as Graphology. (It claims to be able to predict and unveil the personality behind the writing. Palmistry claims the same for the hand.)"
When applied to Toppy, I can't see how it would be applicable: "Gone are those uncertain wilderness years of my youth, encapsulated by the open "G" loop in my name. I'm a family man now! With a job! Goodbye open-looped G's! A confident older Toppy is damned well going to close his G-loops. And heck, the sky's the limit now, so that's how I'm going to tail off my signature - skywards!
What that light-hearted monologue is intended to illustrate is that uncertainty and indecision is unlikely to manifest itself in different handwriting quirks, not that we have any reason to suspect that Toppy was remotely lost, delicate or unsettled in 1888. If anything, you're more likely to be care-free in that period in life.
The only things we KNOW is that signatures do change over time, and that these changes will vary from individual to individual.
All the best,
Ben
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