The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-06-23

nd received their diplomas. PriI
ipal Harry Oday presided. Dr.. Wn
/. Swift made the invocation, the
ollowed the salutatory address. TIL
ddresses were interspersed wit
horus singing by the school.
SALUTATORY,
BY William B. Freund.
There are many pleasant du-
ones life; but without doubt
there is not one in a students
career more pleasant than this
duty which devolves upon me of
welcoming those gathered to at
tend the commencement eXer-
cises of the class of 1909. 1t
is unnecessary to question the
interest of the audience in this
class as it is silently bespoken by
your presence. To you all,
guests, faculty and school-mates,
in behalf of the class, in words
that are only the echo of many
voices feebly through one
Welcome, thrice Welcome"
From the earliest times lit
erary history is full of the records
of fakes and forgeries. Among
these are many noticeable for
the skill and nerve with which
they were executed. Many such
notorious counterfeits are on
records; but for impudence and
success the Ireland forgeries de-
serve dishonorable mention of
the first rank among literary
frauds.
More than century ago, there
lived in London a man named
Samuel Ireland, who made his
living as an etcher, engraver
and publisher. He was also a
collector OF pictures and books
and took a great deal of inter-
est in antiquities. He seems
to have been rather a dull witted
old fellow; but there was no
lack of shrewdness about his
only son, William Henry. This
bright youth had many chances
to rummage among his fathers
antiquities and soon developed
an interest in them on his own
account. He read a good deal
OF old poetry and went with his
father to- the birthplace of
Shakespeare where he had a
chance to gaze on various relics.
These so influenced him that he
determined to attempt forging
some of them.
Mixing up some muddy ink,
Ireland wrote on the tly-leaf of
an old tract dedicatory letter
to Queen Elizabeth. This was in
due time presented to his father
and accepted as a genuine dis
covery. Emboldened by this
success he cut a piece of parch-
ment from an old legal docu-
ment and wrote out a mort
gage deed to which he boldly
signed Shakespeare's name,
carefully copying it from a gen.
uine autograph. The question
naturally arose whence all these
discoveries came; but all were
cunningly evaded. He even
wrote whole plays and passed
them off as the work of the
great dramatist. One of these
"Vortigern," was actually pro-
duced at Drury Lane Theatre
and hissed off the stage. This
ana some other bad slips led the
critics to become suspicious and
as all forgeries end Ireland was
forced to confess. After the ex-
posure of the forgery, people
were anxious to buy the sham
documents that had created
such a rage, and for a time the
ingenious William Henry gain
ed a living by making copies of
his forgeries, to satisfy the pub
lie demand.
Ireland's successor in the
nineteenth century was John
Collier, one of the most learned
men of his time. In his anxiety
to offer contributions to knowl-
edge he could not wait to make
discoveries in a legitimate way.
His most famous imposture was
that perkins Folio" of Shakes
peare. The high reputation of
Collier prevented suspicion for
a considerable time; but the au-
thorities of the British Museum
tested them under a powerful
microscope and found under
the ink faint traces of pencil
marks. His punishment came
in the fact that his reputation
is that of clever forger rather
than that of a great scholar,
which it was his ambition to be-