Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-31

hVe dollars, LongfelloW, twelve dollars; the
great Duke of Marlborough, thirty dollars:
De Quincy, twenty-one dollars; Ruskin.
twenty dollars; Swinburne, six dollars.
Sir Walter SCOTS letters, though he was
voluminous correspondent, always bring good
prices. four-page letter from Abbotsford.
dated October III, 1872, to the poet Crabbe
on the respective merits of their poetry. is
worth nearly one hundred dollars. Yet
brief letter about his wifes fatal illness
Distress makes terribly selfish creatures of
us"-sold to a collector for only twenty-five
dollars.
But it often happens that one sentence or
the choice of a subject will make all the
difference in an autographs price. Thus.
though Tennyson's market value in the ordi-
nary way is rarely more than fifteen dollars.
a most interesting letter with reference to
his lost poem Arm" sold for three hundred
and twenty dollars. eff The Times won't
put it in" he says, "send it to The Morning
Chronicle, The Athen@um anywhere"
Thackeray's letters, always bright and
amusing. and largely illustrated with comic
drawings. invariably bring good prices-at any
rate up to seventy-6ve dollars. But much
larger price was paid for most curious
Thackeray letter written at Gmunden. Austria.
on a Saturday in July. 1852, to Vienna
banker. referring to the loss of the famous
novelist's pocketbook containing all his
money.
The most interesting letter of Washington
at present in the market is one of two pages.
dated from Morristown. February "a, 1777.
Evidently it is only part of a long and impor
tant episte addressed to some representative
of State which desired to remain neutral
during the war He mentions the Declaration
of independence; but part of the right hand
corner of the letter is broken off in the fold
and lost. whereby certain words are missing.
A Letter from Washington
Upon the whole" Americas hero says. "it
~ appears to me that but two kinds of people
will complain much of the Proclamation
namely, those that are really dsaffected and
such want to lie by & wait the Issue of the
Dispute. The first class cannot be pleased,
and the next are endeavouring to play a
double game" The price of the letter is one
hundred and five dollars.
Now and then it happens that forgeries
are put on the market but these are almost
invariably detected by the microscope and
camera Not long ago DR.. R. A. Reiss, pro-
fessor of criminology at the University of
Lausanne was handed a collection of auto
graphs purporting to be those of a great
statesman of the eighteenth century, whose
letters are extremely rare. DR.. Reiss pro-
ceeded to photograph the signatures, taking
care to make his prints on exactly the same
scale and size. He was amazed to find that
the signatures tailed exactly.
Now. to find 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 1t was afterward shown
that the alleged signatures were mere replicas
the forger had gone over the letters with
pen and ink to give them verisimilitude
which was all but perfect.