The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-25
A CHICAGO HOAX WRITER
FRANKLIN HEADS THIRD IN Sc
RIES OF LITERARY JOKES.
His First Book Deceived Shakespeare
Students, and Now He Has "Tak-
en- In" Celebrated Lawyers.
St. Louis Post-Disnatch.

ness last week by a New York newspaper,
by which it was characterized as 1.-The most
thrilling romance of the law ever printed"
TO make it ali the more laughable, such
eminent authorities as William Nj. Evarts
and Joseph H. Choate were sought for in
terviews concerning the facts in the case.
"A Notable Lawsuit is the third of Sc
ries of small books privately issued by their
accomplished author Franklin H Head
Each brochure is written in apparently Sc
rious vein and deals with supposedly his
torical facts which are sufficiently interest
ing to be true if fate and the authors bril-
liant imagination had only decided to agree.
The first little book was published ten
years ago. Its title is ''Shakspeare's In
somnia and the Causes Thereof" and it
was originally read as a paper at one of
the distinguished meetings of the Literary
Club in Chicago. Its success was instan-
taneous, and to satisfy the demands of the
members of this club it way privately print
ed in pamphlet form. But the little book
had made too great a stir in the world to
remain in its hidden state of private circu-
lation, and it was soon put into the hands
of the public generally by Houghton, Milf
fin & Co.
Then the fun began for Mr.. Head. The
first part of the book deals with matter and
quotations from the plays showing that
Shakespeare has written more frequently and
more beautifully of sleep than any other
English poet, a proof offered by Mr. Head
that the poet must have been a sufferer from
insomnia to have had his waking hours so
busily occupied with tired natures sweet
restorer." Then, as if to clinch his argu-
ment and make his evidence more emphatic
the entertaining reasoner devotes the second
half of the small volume to a number of
diverting letters supposed to be written to
the poet by friends and acquaintance, many
Of whose names are familiar titles in the
immortal plays The early epiStleS show
Shakespeare in debt owing to his generous
habit of indorSing the notes of his friends.
Later, one finds in his more prosperous years
that brokers bought stocks for him which
could not be paid for. Other letters refer
to strikes in the theaters and the pernicious
influence of Nick Bottom the weaver, while
the climax of trouble is reached in the
epistles portraying the jealousy of his wife
over Shakspeare's fancied fondness for other
feminine charmers, surely a combination OF
ills more than sufficient to give any poet ill.,
somnia. The letters are written in the style
Of the time, the phraseology Of the Eliza
bethan period, and so aptly has Mr.. Head
caught the spirit of the Shakespeare years
that they were generally accepted as genuine
papers donated to the British Museum by the
descendants of Shakspeares friend, the Earl
of Southampton.
"A LITERARY FIND.
The public printing of the little book
greatly increased the hilarity of the author
and the authors friends Newspapers and
magazines devoted their pages to what was
styled 1.-The greatest literary find of the
century" People throughout the country
hailed the work with exultation as adding
to the scanty knowledge in existence of the
private life Of the great dramatist. dearth
of material which the jocular author of the
little volume knew full well would make any
fabricated tradition probable. Letters came
pouring in to Mr.. Head from prominent
journals, lawyers and litterateurs asking for
further knowledge of the important papers
and congratulating Mr.. Head on his unique
find. One letter from prominent lawyer of
Indianapolis seriously considered the prob
ability of the discovered papers being "a
clever forgery If they are genuine, how
ever, they furnish the only evidence ] have
ever seen that Shakespeare really wrote the
plays
The letters themselves. read to-day, are
most entertaining. AT the time the book
was written the country was afflicted with
strikes, situation which Mr.. Head used to
advantage in his laughable epistle ad-
dressed to Shakespeare by the manager of a
theater The distressed official dilates at
length on the troubles of his position and
the pernicious influence of the Nick Bottom
of greedy memory, who, in Midsummer
Nights Dream" wished to impersonate not
only uranus and Thisb ..f, but ,r the Wall
hence, he complains, NOR will he per-
FORM He has persuaded other worthless fell
lows to join him and they threaten that, I'M
ings per week and a groat each night for
sack, no plays will be performed, nor will
they allow others to be hired in their stead.
They do further demand that you write
shorter plays that you shall write no TRACE
dies requiring them to labor more than
three hours in the rendition; that you shall
cut out as much as twelve pages each in
Richard III and 'Othello, and fifteen pages
from Hamlet "
Other entertaining letters in the amusing
volume tell the story of the money diff
culties of Mordecai Shylock. Walter Raleigh
favors the poet with an effusion or two.
There is a notice of a suit brought against
Shakespeare by Mistress Anne Page through
her attorneys, Coke and Dogberry, for not
fulfilling a contract of marriage. There is a
blow aimed at Ignatius Donnelly in two let
tiers forwarded from Francis Bacon, request
ing the poet not to print in a forthcoming
| edition Of his "Sugared Sonnets" two al
ready in the hands of Queen Elizabeth which
Bacon had offered her Majesty effusionS
of his own genius The familiar names in
| the letters were accepted by some of the
duped newspapers as evidence of their gen.
| uineness, and they asserted that it was to
punish their writers for the dramatist's
sleepless nights that they were immortalized
as the carieatured people of the plays.
Several years after the laughter caused by
"Shakspeare's Insomnia had dwindled in a
quiet smile of recollection Mr.. Head planned
a second literary surprise for his eager circle
of readers. Jeckyl island is a little fairy
coast of Georgia. 1t is owned by a pros
porous club formed of wealthy Boston, Chi
cago and New York gentlemen. When Mr..
Head first visited the club he heard among
other traditions of the little island that it
was formerly the possession of George Ogle-
thorpe, the first Governor of Georgia and
the founder of the colony. To substantiate
this interesting statement Mr.. Head was
shown the remains of a dilapidated chimney
which was sworn to belong to the colonial
manor of the famous warrior Governor. Mr..
Head accepted the statement in silence, but
on his return TO Chicago discovered in his
torical research that the interesting tradi-
ton was only myth. But if fact could not
make it true Mr.. Head resolved to manu-
facture evidence that would at least make
1t possible, believing with the Englishman
that there was a lamentable absence of
ruins and altogether too few legends in
America to lose sight of any tradition as in
teresting as the fabulous history of Jeckyl
island.
JECKYL ISLAND STORY.
So Mr. Head became the entertaining
chronicler Of the Georgia island. He rein
stalled Governor Ogletkorpe as the original
owner of the colony and gave him COM
panions Charles and John Wesley. the
founders of Methodism. When the latter re-
turned to England the trustees of the set
Element sent to Georgia in the place of the
famous preacher Geo. Whitetield, the cele-
brated evangelist. and Mr.. Head enlivens
the early life Of the island by a series Of di-