The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-09-27
A CLEVER SWINDLER.
HOW A FAMOUS AUTOGRAPH COL
LEcToR WAS puPEp.


There saemed to Be No Limit to the I'm
aginative vagaries of yrnin Lucas. and
None to tho Blind CreduIity of His Vic
tim-Tssts of Forgery.
Falsi6ed letters and papers at various
times have played a conspicuous part, II
not actually in history, at least in contem.
poraneous annals and in certain circles Of
society.
Either the autographs in question have
been confessed to be forgeries or discovered
to be such, but at n given moment they
bore a character of authenticity which in
measure exonerated their dupcs. Perhaps
none at least at first was SO convincing as
those which completely and successfully dc.
ceived the very clever member of the Insti
tute Of France, M. Chasles, who was taken
In by one of the most astute and unprin'
cipled of forgers.
According to experts, shortsighted PEG
pie are better qualified to detect falsified
writing than those who are gifted with a
more perfect vision, but the faculty of dis
cernment is chiefly conferred by nature and
cannot be judged by ordinary and invarin
BILE rules. Some persons have q diagnosis
as unerring in the matter of autographs a,
the cleverest physicians in cases of illness.
Everything Ia clew for them-tbe texture
of the paper, the quality of the ink, the ma
ture of the pen, whether steel or quill, and
rs the use Of the former began at a certain
date the employment of 1t for documents
pretending to be of earlier production has
frequently led to detection. The seals, tht
fashion in which the sheets are fashioned
together, are so many guides not neglected
by the expert.
There is vast difference between forger,
les proper and facsimiles; the latter arr
much easier to detect. An engraved, litho
graphed or photographed document may
even after minute examination, be takeI
as genuine, but there is material test
which invariably proves fatal to u fraud
When pen is dipped into an acid and /
drop allowed to fall on the tail of u letter
the ink will disappear IL it Is an autograph
but will not be affected II It is only an i'm
preston or fac-simile Formerly to pre-
duce the latter the genuine document wa.
transferred by tracing and the copy oh
] tanned was engraved on wood or stone; theI
/ lithography came into common use, ant
\ finally photography superseded it. Toda,
the art of facsimiles is carried to singnla
degree of perfection with the assistance o
! the heliotype and photogravure.
4 The ancient kings of France kept Mt the
court secretaries whom they allowed t,
/, sign for them all brevets, circulars and Off
cial communications. Under Louis XIV
\ the habit had become absolute rule, and tn
4 monarch signed personally only his privat
correspondence. One of his secretaries 20
hand" us they were called, Toussaint Rose
initiated his masters writing so accuratel.
that whole letters, purporting to be writ
ten by the king himself, could easily b
taken as having been in reality penned b.
him.
The custom of keeping secretaries
main was continued under his successor
and was also practiced by their consorts
Sometimes, however, the royal treasure
insisted upon having the genuine signatur
. of the sovereign on orders to pay larg
!, sums, and in that case the real signatur
, had to be appended beneath that previous
ly signed by the secretary. This account
for the number of documents still kept il
y the archives on which appear double an
apparently identical signature.
Napoleon / refused to conform to thi
+ tradition. He signed all papers and act
) himself, and by a curious idiosyncrasy h
!. heightened or abridged his signature nc
: cording to the rank of the person meI
toned in the brevet or concerned in tn
act. It varies greatly, ranging from til
! whole Napoleon to Napol., Nap, Mp, an
even the single N He, however, used
stamp especially for the convocations c
parliament. Charles X and Louis Philip
: did the same.
The institute has not forgotten the SIT
pendous hoax of which M. Michel Chasle
was the victim. 1t was perpetrated by
man called Vrain Lucas, who styled hin
self the agent Of wealthy autograph co
/, lectors and gained the confidence of n
) Chasles He after awhile brought to hii
and tempted him with letters supposed I
;, dato from the seventeenth century, but fal
n, ricated by him with considerable skill. FL
o couraged by his success, he created pc
"a feet factory of autographs, and becomin
Il reckless had the audacty to offer for sa
- letters written by Mary Magdalene an
= Cleopatra and some from Archimedes
d Nero, from Alexander to Aristotle, frol
Il Rabelais to Luther-impudent fabrication
which the old savant had become too ii
fatuated to detect.
Some of these apocryphal letters we
Enthusiastically eXtravagant. Vercingetor
wrote of Caesar; Joan of Arc appealed
the Parisians; Charles V TO Rabelais, prai
ing his subtle and delicate tact and pror
ising a thousand crowns to whoever wou
succeed in squaring the circle.
, There seemed ut one time no limit to Il
" imaginative vagaries of Vrain Lucas,
there was none to the blind credulity of h
dupe. NJ. Chasles, however, was not Il
only one who had been taken in. As lor
as the swindler contented himself vii
producing documents dating from the f
teenth, sixteenth and eighteenth Centuri
they were believed genuine, and a lor
and an earnest controversy was waged on
|. reputed correspondence between Pasc
' and Newton as to whether the former
the latter had discovered the law of unive
sal attraction.
But this very controversy created doub
as to the authenticity of the Chasles collie
ton. The later impositions. of the forger co
firmed them. and NJ. Chasles had the Rri
and shame of being openly declared du
!. and of seeing the years spent in enrichii
- his collection wasted. The forger was 6
rested, tried and punished to the highe
penalty OF the law. NJ Chasles lost Il
best part Of his fortune, for he had spe
10 over IS, 600 In the purchase of yalueless ?
Yaro II nndnn Chr Nav Ynrk Sun