New-York tribune., 1907-03-31

L-luQ ABOUT lilC hanging OF q murderer
uve dollars LOngtellow, twelve dollars; the
great Duke Of Marlborough. thirty dollars
De QuInCey. tWenty-One dollars Ruskiu
twenty dollars. Swinburne. SIX dollars.
SIR Walter ScOtt'S letters. though he was q
vOluminOuS correspondent. always bring good
prices. a four page letter from Abbotsford
dated October 2I. ISI2. TO the poet Crabbe
on the respective merits OF their poetry, J.
worth nearly one hundred dollars. Yet q
brief letter about his wlfe'S fatal illness
Distress makes terribly selfish creatures OF
Us sold 70 a collector Tor only twenty-five
dollars
But 1t often happens that one sentence or
the choice OF q. subject VIII make all the
difference IN an autographs price Thus.
though IennyS0n $ market value IN the orli-
nary way Is rarely more than fifteen dolla-s
a most interesting letter with reference tc
has lost poem Arm sold for three hundred
and twenty dollars ~ II The Times won't
put II m" he SAYS. send II 20 The Morning
Chronicle. The AtheuRUm anywhere
ThaCkeray'S letters. always bright and
amusing and largely illustrated with comic
drawings invariably bring good prices-at any
rate up 20 Severty-tive dollars. But a much
larger price was paid for most curious
Thackcray letter written at CTmunden Austria.
on a Saturday m July. IS52 % q (leana
banker. referring 20 the loss OF The famous
novetSt'S pocketboOk containing all his
money.
The most interesting letter ri Washington
at present IN the market Is one OF two pages
dated from MorrIstowu February t. I777.
Evidently It Is only part Of long and up0r-
tant epiStle addressed TO some represcrr tive
Of a State which desired TO remain oe1trai
during the war He mentions the Dec .riOn
Of Independence, but part OF the rigi hand
corner Of the letter Is broken off IN ta- old
and lost, whereby certain words are ra--;ng.
A Letter from Washington
JTPON the whole" Americas hero saws 1t
" appears to me that but two kinds ceople
Will complain much of the PrCciamlUca-
namely those that are really dIsa,fectcd and
such as want 20 lie by x wait the Issue o the
Dispute. The first class cannot be pleased
and the next are endeavOurIng 90 pItf a
double game The price Of the letter s one
hundred and five dollars
Now and then 1t happens tAar -a-5errs
are put on the market: but these are a.tlcSJ
invariably detected by the microscope and
camera. Not long ago DR.. Il. A Reis~, pro-
feSsor of criminOlOgy at the University OF
Lausanne, was handed a collection of auto
graphs purpOrtIng to be those ot great
statesman of the eighteenth century. whose
letters are extremely rare. DR.. Relss pro-
ceeded To- photograph the signature taxing
care 70 make his prints on exactly the slne
scale and size. He was amazed 20 hnd that
the signatures tailed exactly.
Now. 90 tind the signatures OF the same
individual corresponding with such a minute
degree OF accuracy Is absolutely impossible
and the whole collection of autographs was
at once pronounced spurious, with the result
that the prospective buyer was saved eighteen
thousand dollars It was aftcrward shown
that the alleged signatures were mere rcplic1s
obtained by ithOgraPhic printing. after which
the torger had gone over the letters with
pen and INK TO give them i Verisimilitude
which was ali but perfect.