Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-01-07
LITERARY FORGER|ES
versatility and CIeverness of a
{ Shrewd Scotch Lad.
FOOLED The CoNNOIsSEURs.
He Poured Forth His EXTRAORDINARY
Documents In Profusion to Supply
The Demand and Was Finally Ex-
posed by n Simple Little Sin.

posed by Simple Little Slip.
From the days OF Isidor Mercater
who forged letters OF the bishops o.
Rome with such skill and success tba,
they were treasured for centuries II
the Roman archives, to the DAYS n,
Ireland, the notorious forger of Shake
spearean plays and letters, and Chat
terton. the clever and i'll fated boy
VINO died miserably In his attic. there
have never been wanting unprincipled
men who could forge ancient mann.
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 n
young Scotchman who years ago pro-
duced long succession of forged man
uscripts which completely baffled the
c9anoisseurs OF the world. The true
and full story Of these remarkable
forgeries is almost unknown and is so
extraordinary that it may well be told.
1t was In Edinburgh that this in
comparable forger practiced his arts.
and 1t 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 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 he had no
difficulty in finding purchasers for
them. As the supply was limited and
the demand constantly increasing 1t
occurred to him to supplement the gen.
uine documents with others of his
own manufacture, and as he DEVELOPED
remarkable skill In forging and had
already won the confidence of o large
number Of collectors he found it easy
70 dispose OF as many forgeries as he
Gould produce at very profitable prices,
Many or 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 well as
vast quantities OF Jacobite correspond
ence.
SO cleverly were the forgeries exc
cuted that the largest purchaser of
SCOTS letters was q gentleman who
as a boy had carried most OF the great
authors manuscripts from Abbotsford
to his Edinburgh publishers and was
as familiar with SCOTS handwriting
as his own, and the head of the firm
thGt published Lord Byron's works
purchased forty-seven letters purport-
Ing to be Lord Byron's for the sum of
t12o as. 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
cd 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 n close, the
forger was at last exposed through n
mistake Of which such q clever man
should scarcely have been capable.
Among the many forgeries he pro-
duced q poem signed by Robert Burns.
1t was called THE Poor Mans Pray
err and opened with this stanza:
Amidst the more important tolls OF state.
The counsels laboring IN the patriotic
soil;
Though Europe from thy voice expect her
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 gentleman to whom the
poem was shown discovered the iden-
teal verses in the London Magazine
of 1866 In a poem addressed to the
Earl Of Chatham by one Simon Hodge,
Thus 1t appeared that IL 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 a 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
forgers career was brought to a sud-
den termination. He was brought I'D
Tor trial and sentenced to a term of |
Imprisonment, thus closing a career of
forgery which for daring, cIeverness
and success has perhaps never been
aanaled.-New York Press.
A Ton Years Penance.
&C Is happily seldom that the revenge
u disappointed husband takes quite
'uch an extreme form as In the case
u the man whose will ran thus: when
remember that the only happy times
ever enjoyed were when my wife
'ulked with me, and when I remem-
yer that my married life might, for
his reason. be considered to have been
fairly happy one because she was
leariy always sulking. am constrain-
d TO forget the repulsion the contem-