Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1896-10-22
That Bogus forsythe Letter.

0AA~ANOS wv. .. "lopeClhl NOFFcS.
pondence. IA stupid and malignant
forgery has been widely circulated in
the form Of a letter purporting to have
been written by one j, Francis For.
sythe to Judge r. c. Bell of Fl. Wayne.
Ind. Mr.. Bell is an attorney, and was
chairman of the Indiana democratic
state convention. He is said to be the
leading silverite in northern Indiana.
But who is FOrsythe? Bell saws that
he does not know, as will be seen by
the following letter from him.
SIT. WAYNE, Ind. Oct. 3, 1885,
Dear Sir: have a great number of
inquiries similar to yours concerning
the letter received by me in the course
of mail bearing the New York post
mark. 1t was written with typewriter,
and bore the usual marks of an ordi-
nary business letter, was signed with
pen, and numerous interlineations and
corrections were also made with pen.
| do not know why it was sent me, and
l have no recollection OF ever having
met the author personally. l never
answered the letter, but did what |
considered to be my duty, VIZ, gave it
to the press for publication, and gave
it such other publicity as l could. That
is absolutely all l know about the let
ter or its source, and you must draw
your own conclusions. Yours truly.
r. G. BELL"
The FOrsythe letter was copied by
many free silver papers, notably by the
Omaha World Herald, which has since
said of 1t (Sept. "a, 1885: 1--WE are
now convinced that the alleged letter
Is q fake. MI. Bell no doubt received
1t and believed In its g~enuineness, but
we are unable to find any trace of the
alleged banker in Wall street. and we
conclude therefore that Mr.. Bell was
imposed upon. We have abstained
from editorial reference to the letter
until it could be looked up. 1t NAV
have been, rs some think, q practical
joke played upon MI. Bell bya goldbug
friend, or it may have been a more Sc
r'ous imposition. Whatever it is, it is
not what 1t purports to be-"
The original publication by Mr.. Bell
was In the Fl. Wayne Journal, and the
letter was dated from I'll Wall street.
There IL no such number. The high
est number in Wall street is 40. No.
I'll would be in the East river. Since
this fact has been pointed out, in all
he latter reproductions of the forgery
No. IL has been substituted for No. III.
The number will now probably be
changed again.
The pretended Mr.. FOrsythe, whose
name is not in the New York city d.
rectory, claimed in his letter to be q
member of the COMMITTEE of Political
Education of Wall street." There is
such committee.
Inquiries by mail and by telegraph
have poured in upon the republican
national headquarters, both in New
York and In this city asking for infOr-
nation on the subject. Word has been
received here from New York that II
Wall street is the Mortimer building.
where there is no such person in any Of
the offices as j. Francis Forsy the, and
that diligent search among the bank
ers and brokers of New York has failed
to reveal the existence OF anyone who
knew or who has ever heard of
any man bearing that name. The va
rious firms who occupy rooms in the
building as tenants have re-
ceived 10 many letters of inquiry re-
specting him that they are unable to
answer them; and the mail addressed
TO FOrsythe himself is refused by the
janitOr. There are four barrels of let
ters addressed to him now in the. New
York postoflce which have not been
called for, and which will have to be
A wit has said that q lie is better
than the truth, because a lie can be
amended, denied, confessed, another
lie subs ,ituted for it, or you can tell it
again: but when one has given utter
ance to the truth 1t is past recall. This
to be the principal on which
some p0lit. clans are conducting their
side Of the present political campaign.
Other illustrations of it's application
are found in the spurious quotations
from the London Financial Review, |
and from the writings OF Abraham
Lincoln As the old almanacs used to
ray 10 the dog days, "LOok out for hot +
about this time," so o the
may be warned to expect u food
similar frauds during the next four
DO NOT experiment. In 80
important = matter IS your health.