Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-12-29
FORGER|ES
Versatility and Cleverness of a
Shrewd Scotch Lad.
FOOLED THE CONN0lSSEURS.


Documents In Profusion to Supply
: the Demand and Was Finally Ex-
posed by a Simple Little Slip.
From the days Of Isidor hereafter,
who forged letters Of the bishops Of
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 Shake
spearean plays and letters, and Chat
terton. the clever and i'll fated boy
who died miserably in his attic, there
have never been wanting unprincipled
men who could forge ancient manu-
scripts so cleverly that leading experts
have been deceived.
But for versatility and cleverness
none Of these forgers Of past centuries
could approach the cleverness Of
young Scotchman who years ago pro-
duced a long succession of forged man
uscripts which completely baftled the
connoisseurs of the world. The true
and full story of these remarkable
forgeries is almost unknown and is so
extraordinary that it may we'll be told.
1t was in Edin burgh that this in
comparable forger practiced his arts.
and it was by an accident that he was
tempted to embark Oh career which.
after a spell Of great success. involved
him in disaster. One day the princi-
pal of an Edinburgh firm Of lawyers
told one Of his clerks to clear out sew
eral boxes full Of old documents, the
accumulation of many years. Among
them We're several documents and au-
tographs the value Of which the clerk
was quick to recognize, and be 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 gen.
uine documents with others Of his
own manufacture, and as he developed
a remarkable skill In forging and had
already won the confidence OF large
number Of collectors he found it easy
to dispose of as many forgeries as he
could produce at very profitable prices.
Many 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 includ-
ed autographs and letters by Crom-
well, Mary, queen Of Scots; James vi.
Prince Charlie, John Knox, Rob Roy.
Burns, Scott, Thackeray. Carlyle, Sails
bury. Gladstone, Lord Nelson and
many other men OF note as we'll as
vast quantities of Jacobite correspond
ence.
So cleverly were the forgeries exc
cuted that the largest purchaser OF
SCOTS letters was a gentleman who
as a boy had carried most Of the great
authors manuscripts from Abbctsford
to his Edinburgh publishers and was
as familiar with SCOTS handwriting
as bis own, and the head Of the firm
that published Lord Byron's works
purchased forty-seven letters purport-
ing to be Lord Byron's for the sum OF
f125 Is. Cd. A very large collection OF
these manuscripts was purchased for
a sum Of over $4,000 and presented to
the Lenox library. 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 pour
ed on the market in such profusion, no
suspicion seems to have been aroused.
They were accepted without question
by the experts and found ready pur-
chasers at large prices. Whether the
forger's success made him careless or
whether it was due to one Of those re-
markable oversights to which the most
skillful criminals seem liable and
which bring their career to close. the
forger was at last exposed through a
mistake Of which such clever man
should scarcely have been capable.
Among the many forgeries he pro-
duced a poem signed by Robert Burns.
It was called 1.-THE Poor Mans Pray
err" and opened with this stanza:
Amidst the more important tolls of state,
The counsels laboring In the patriotic
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 iden-
teal verses in the London Magazine
of 1766 in a poem addressed to the
Earl Of Chatham by one Simon Hodge
laborer. ,s., ,~t-v g.,
Thus it appeared that II the verses
were actually written by Burns the
poet must have opened them under
the pseudonym Of Simon Hodge at the
very immature age Of poet Of seven
years. Suspicion once aroused. doubt
was at once cast on the hundreds OF
other documents which had emanated
from the same. source. The Lenox col
lection 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 manuscripts were scarcely worth
the paper they were written on. The
l 1,rs erI1fI RI say1d