The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-25
HISTORY OF A STRANGE FRAUD.
Success of the CIeverest FOrger
That Ever Lived.


Rome with such skill and success that
they were treasured for centuries in
the Roman archives, to the days of
Ireland, the notorious forger of Shakes
pearean plays and letters, and Chat
terton, the clever and Inflated boy
who died miserably in his attic, there
have never been wanting unprinci-
pied men, who could forge ancient
manuscripts so cleverly that leading
experts have been deceived.
But for versatility and cleverness,
none of these forgers of past CEN
turtles could approach the cleverness
of young Scotsman. who, less than
score of years ago, produced long
succession of forged manuscripts,
which completely baffled the connois-
seurs of the world.
The true and full story of these re-
markable forgeries is almost unknown
in England, and is so extraordinary
that it may we'll be told.
1T was in Edinburgh that this incom-
parable forger practiced his arts, and it
was by an accident that he was tempt
ed to embark on a career which after a
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
of many years. Among them were sew
eral documents and autographs, the
value of which the clerk was quick to
recognize, and he had no difficulty in
finding purchasers for them. AS the
supply was limited, and the demand
constantly increasing, it occurred to
him to supplement the genuine docu-
ments with others of his own manufac-
ture and as he developed a remarka-
BILE skill in forging, and had already
won the confidence of a large number
of collectors, he found it easy to dispose
of as many forgeries as he could pro-
duce 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
remainder were pawned, and sold as
unredeemed pledges These forgeries
covered very wide range, and included
autographs and letters by Cromwell
Mary Queen of Scots, James VI,
Thaekeray, Carlyle, Salisbury, Glad
stone, Lord Nelson and many other
men of note, as we'll as vast quantities
of Jacobite correspondence.
So cleVerly were the forgeries exc
cuted that the largest purchaser of
Scott's letters was a gentleman who,
as a boy, had carried most of the
great authors manuscript from Abb
botsford to his Edinburgh publishers,
and was as familiar with Scotts hand
writing as his own, and the head of the
firm that purchased Lord Byron's
works purchased forty-seven letters
purporting to be Lord Byron's for the
sum of G123 rs Sd.
A very large collection of these man.
uscripts was purchased for a sum of
over $4,000, and presented to the Lee
nox Library of New York, where they
were for some time regarded with rev.
erence as the chief treasure of the Ii
brary, andN another collection was pre-
scented to the city of Edinburgh.
Although these forgeries were pour
ed onto the market in such profuslon
nc suspicion seems to have been
aroused. They were accepted without
question by the experts, and found
ready purchasers at large prices.
Whether the forger's success made him
careless, or whether it was due to one
| of those remarkable oversights to
which the most skillful criminals seem
| liable and which bring their career
| to a close, the forger was at last ex-
posed through a mistake of which such
clever man should scarcely be
| capable.
Among his many forgeries he pro-
| duced a poem signed by Robert Burns
| 1t was called 1.-THE Poor Mans
Prayer" and opened with this stanza
Amidst the more important tolls OF
state.
The counsels 1abouring in the pa.
triotic soil;
Though Europe from thy voice expect
her fate,
And thy keen glance extend from
pole to pole"
This poem, which consisted of nine
| teen verses, might well have escaped
| detection with the rest. but for the
| fact that a gentleman to whom the
poem was shown discovered the identi'
cal verses in the London Magazine o.
| 1855. in a poem addressed to the Ear
| of Chatham by one Simon Hodge. lab.
orer.
Thus it appeared that. if the verse:
were actually written by Burns, the
| poet must have penned them, under
the pseudonym of Simon Hodge, at the
very immature age for poet of
years.
Suspicion once aroused, doubt wa!
at once cast. on the hundreds of other
| documents which had emanated from
| the same source. The Lenox collection
was submitted to the experts of the
British Museum and pronounced "a
worthless lot of forgeries;", and col
| lectors all the world over awoke to the
painful discovery that their treasures
of old MSS. were scarcely worth the
| paper they were written on.
The forger's career was brought to E
! sudden termination. He was brough
up for trial and sentenced to tern
| of Imprisonment, thus closing a career
| .Nf which DARING C1aVprnpCs
and success, has, perhaps, never beer
| nntYo1a1