The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-27
,The MnnuCacture OF rAutogrnphs.


Recently an old woman who called herself
the Mere Michel--the Mother Hubbard of
France, with q cat instead of dog-entered
the shop Of Paris publisher known as a
great amateur of autographs, and offered
him, at q comparatively low price, collection
of letters by Beranger. Rossini, Meyerbeer,
Rachel, Buchez, Talleyrand, and other nota-
bilities great and small, which she stated she
was commissioned to sell for collector who
had fallen into bad circumstances. The pub
Usher, already the possessor Of q great num-
Der Of autographs, some OF them very rare.
as rare as those offered by La Mere Michel
was delighted with such an opportunity Of
enriching his collection, and bought the
tempting documents O rare bargain. Charmed
with his acquisition, he rushed off with
the precious papers to an archiUiste- paJeotogu6
eIpert en- dut0graphes, M. Charavay, who,
after careful examination, declared the auto
graphs to be forgeries, but the work of some
one possessing the initiative faculty in a very
high degree. Away went the victim and the
expert to Mere Michels address, but no such
person was known at the house in question,
although she had been inquired for by many
persons. few days afterwards Mere Michel
called upon M. Charavay himsef-walked, in
fact, right into the lions mouth; for the ex-
pert guessed that his visitor and Mere Michel
were one and the same person; and Mere
Michel was introduced first to Sergent de
Vile, and afterwards to o Commissary of
Police. Mere Michel turned out to be Mere
H, living in a very out-of-the-way
little place on the edge of Paris, Sc
vallois-Perret; but in her apartment,
furnished with great taste and almost sump-
tuously, were found library containing a
good many rare books, q number of auto
graphs, genuine and forged-a complete col
lection Of specimens of old handwritings, fac
sinaiSes of the signatures of nearly every re-
markable person that had lived during the
last hundred years or so, a mass of parchment
and leaves Of paper taken out of old books; in
fact, all the plant and stock-in-trade of a
wholesale manufacturer of autographs of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries In the
presence Of such damning proofs Mere H
burst into flood of tears, and on little
pressure avowed that her son was the author
of all the autographs, and that he had pursued
the trade for long time because the modest
salary which he received from the assurance
company in which he was a clerk "did not
enable him to live and bear his numerous
charges they may be.
Young H was arrested at his desk in the
Office of the company, actually at work on a
copy of letter of Silvio Pellico, of which
four other examples were found in his house.
He is described as twenty eight years of age,
extremely intelligent, ''tres er1tdSt," and en-
dowed with calligraphic skill enough to entitle
him to rank among famous penmen.
Autographs have of late years been sold
publicly at very low prices in Paris, fact
accounted for by the knowledge or suspicion
of the activity of professors of the art of his
toric calligraphy. This fabrication of mate.
rials for biographical history is very abomins-
BILE; but who can be surprised at its existencs
when members of the Institut and libraries.
| 6i6liographes are so easily duped. By the
way, what has become of NJ. Chasles' friend
| We have never heard of him since he was
arrested. Will he meet Monsieur and Madame
| H and beguile their weary hours with
dissertations on the History and Progress Of
Calligraphy?