The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-10
HISTORY OF A STRANGE FRAUD.
Success of the Cleverest Forger that
 Ever Lived.

From the day of Isidor Mercator. who forged letters of the bishops of Rome with such skill and success that they were treasured for centuries in the Ro- man archives. to the days of Ireland, the notorious forger of Shakespearean plays and letters. and Chatterton the clever and ill-fated boy who died miserably in his attic, there have never been wanting unprincipled men, who could forge an cent manuscripts so cleveIiy that lead ing experts have been deceived.
 But for versatility and cleverness. none of these forgers of past centuries could approach the clevernes of a young Scots man, who, less thani score of years ago. produced a long succession of forged manuscripts. which completely baffled the connoisseurs of the world, says the London Tit Bits.
 The true Ind full story of these re- markable forgeries is almost unknown in England, and Is so extraordinary that 1t may well be told
 + It was in Edinburgh that this incom- parable forger practiced his arts. and it was by accident that he was tempted to embark on a career which after spell of great success involved him in disaster. One day the principal of an Edinburgh firm of lawyers told one of his clerks to clear out several boxes full of old documents, the accumulation or many years. Among them were several documents and autographs, the value of which the clerk was quick to recognize, and he had no diff1culty in finding pur- chasers for them. As the supply was limited. and the demand constantly in- creasing, 1t occurred to him to supple ment the genuine documents with others of his own manufacture; and as he de- veloped a remarkable skill in forging, and had already won the confidence of a large number of collectors. he found 1t easy to dispose of as many forgeries as he could produce at very profitable prices.
 Most of them were sold to collectors in different parts of the world, others were disposed of by auction, and the re- mainder were pawned and sold as unre- deemed pledges These forgeries covered a very wide range. and included auto graphs and letters by Cromwell, Mary Queen of Scots, James VI.. Prince Char lie, John Knox, Rob Roy, Burns. Thacke- ray, Carlyle. Salisbury, Gladstone, Lord Nelson and many other men of note, as well as vast quantities of Jacobite corre- spondence
 So cleverly were the forgeries executed that the largest purchaser of Scott's let ters was gentleman who, as boy, had carried most of the great authors man. uscripts from Abbotsford to his Edin- burgh publishers. and was as familiar with Scott's handwriting as his own, and the head of the firm that purchased Lord Byron's works purchased forty-seven let ters purporting to be Lord Byrons 8 for the sum of l23 pounds Is. 6d.
 A very large collection of these man. uscripts was purchased for a sum of over 4,000 pounds, and presented to the LeTioN Library. of New York, where they were for some time regarded with reverence as the chief treasure Of the library, and another collection was presented to the city of Edinburgh.
 Although these forgeries were poured onto the market in such profusion, no suspicion seems to have been aroused. They were accepted without question by the experts. and found ready purchasers at large prices. Whether the forgeT success made him careless. or whether it was due to one of those remarkable oyersights to which the most skillful criminals seem liable and which bring their career to a close, the forger was at last exposed through mistake which such a clever man should scarcely be | capable. .-.-.-,.- ,,. ,..,,,,,o., 1 a poem signed by Robert Burns It was ! called The Poor Mans Prayer ana | opened with this stanza1
 Amidst the more important tolls Of state, 1 The counsels labouring in the patriotic soil; t.
 Though Europe from thy voice expect her And thy thy keen glance extend from pole to pole.
 This poem, which consisted of nineteen verses, might well have escaped oetsctloh n with the rest, but for the fact that | gentleman to whom the poem was shown | discovered the identical verses In the London Magazine of l166 in poem ad- dressed to the Earl of Chatham by one | Simon Hodge. laborer Thus it appeared that If the verses were actually written by Burns the poet must have penned them, under the psendonyIn l of Simon Hodge, at the very mature | age for a poet of years Suspicion once aroused, doubt was at once cast on the hundreds of other doc