The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1909-12-30
LITERARY I \ FORCERIES
Versatility and cleverness of a
-. ShreWd Scotch Lad. ~ -
FOOLED THE ycoNNoIssEuRs.
No Poured Forth His Extraordinary
Documents In Profusion to Supply
tho Demand and Wa. Finally Elk
. posed BY Z Rimpls Little Slip.

HoS""s"Ss th profusion to Supply
tho Demand and Was Finally Elk
posed BY = Slnpls Little Slip. \.
From the days of 1sidor Mercater,
who forged letters Of the bishops Of
Rome with snch skill and success that
they were treasured for centuries in
the Roman archives, to tue days OF
Ireland, the notorious forger Of Shake
spearean plays and letters, and Chat
terton. tho clever and i'll fated boy
who died miserahy> In his attic, there
have never been wanting unprincipled
en>who conld forge ancient manu-
scripts 80 cieveriy that leading experts
have been deceived. = -
But for versatility and cleSerness
none OF these forgers Of past centuries
could approach the cleverness Of a
young Scotchman who years ago pro-
duced long succession Of forged man
uscripts' which completely baftled the
connoisseurs Of the world. &he true
and full story Of these remarkab le
rorgeries is almost unknown and Is so
extraordinary. that it may well be told.
1t was in Edinburgh that this in
comparable forger pract1ced his arts,
and it was by an accident that he was
tempted to. embark on a career which.
after spell Of great success, involved
him In disaster. One day the princi-
pal Of az Edinburgh firm Of lawyers
told one Of. his clerks to clear out sew
eral boxes fun Gf old documents, the
accumulation Of many years. Among
them were several documents and au-
tographs the value Of which the clerk
was quick to- recognize, and he had no
difficulty ins finding purchasers for
them. As the supply was LIMITED and
the demand constantly increasing it
occurred to him to supplement the gen.
uinc documents. with others of his
own manufacture. and as he developed
remarkable skill in forging and had
already won the confidence Of q large
number Of collectors he found it easy
to dispose of as many forgeries as he
could produce at very profitable prices.
Many Of themtwere sold to collectors
IN different parts Of the world, others
were disposed, of by auction. and the
remainder were pawned and sold as
unredeemcd pledges. These forgeries
covered very. wide range and includ-
ed: autographs .'apd letters by Crom-
we'll. 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 well as
vast quantities Of Jacobite correspond
ehce. r. .
so cleveriy were the forgeries exc
cated that the largest purchaser Of
SCOTS letters was q gentleman who
as a boy had carried most OF the greaS
authors manuscripts from Abbotsfor6
to his Edinburgh publishers and was
as. familiar with SCOTS handwriting
as his 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, foFgeries 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 oyersigbts to which the most
ski4ful criminals seem liable and
which bring their career to close. the
forger was at last exposed through
mistake Of which such a clever man
should scarcely have been capable.
Among the nany~forgeries. he pro-
duced poem signed by Robert Burns
1t was called THE Poor Mans Pray
er" and opened with this stanza:
Amidst the moro Important tolls OF state
The counseis 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 we'll have escaped
detection with the rest but for tho
fact that gentleman to whom tho
poem was shown discovered the idep.
teal verses in the London Magazine
Of 1866 ingM% poem addressed TO the
Earl Of Chatham by one SIMON Hodge,
laborcr.
Thus it appeared that If 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 ut once cast on the hundreds Of
other documents which had emanated
from the same source. The Lenox coli
lection was submitted to the expertA
OF the British museum and pronounced
"a worthless lot Of forgeries," and col
lectors all the world over awoke to tho