Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-10
COLLECTOR THINKS
MANY OLD PAPERS
ARE COUNTERFE|TS

CHICAGO. March S.-Perenially
and usually about this time copies of
the most noted newspaper forgery of
the Countrywide Ulster County Ga
cite of January 4, 1900. with it's ac-
count Of Washington's funeral
comes to light. The only other news
paper imitation of the kind that COM
pares is the duplication of the Vicks-
burg Citizen printed on wall paper
during the siege in 1862.
"I doubt if there is a genuine
copy Of the Ulster County Gazette
of that date in existence" Edward A.
versity of Chicago's collection of old
newspapers, said here today. "At
any rate, have never seen one, nor
do I know of anybody who has.
"wilberforce Bames. of the New
York Public Library, told me half
a dozen years ago that he had made
the most careful examination of
copies of the Gazette submitted to
him as genuine--even to chemical
most come to the conclusion that
there never was an original.
"At the library of congress I was
told they had rs different editions.
The New York Public Library lists
nine in it's latest catalogue. We have
three, each different from the other.
81 suppose there was once a gen
uine Ulster County Gazette of the
date named, from which all these
subsequent copies have been made.
The fact that the Wisconsin State
Historical society, which has the
largest collection of old newspapers
in the middle west, lists two copies
of an Ulster Gazette for August Is
and September %. 1904, strengthens
this belief.
THE account Of Washington's fu-
neral is accurate and interesting. No
fault can be found on that score,
although I think reports of the flu
neral in other papers Of the same
time are in several instances still
more striking.
TT may have been that many years
after the funeral some printer prob
ably in the vicinity of New York, for
Kingston, Ulster county, is on the
Hudson, thought to produce some
thing of interest to others and profit
an original account. Had he taken
a New York papey, the duplication
could have been instantly detected
and perhaps for this reason the OBJ
scure Ulster county paper was made
to serve.
The trlCk evidently went well and
perhaps it was this same printer that
put out many Of the subsequent edi-
tions. That is all supposition of
course, but there is no doubt of the
multitude of editions. Their gen
uineness only an expert can pass on
in most cases., The test is the pa
per. Most of these copies were made
before 1850, bu tnot early enough to
have used the fine linen rag paper of
1900. That soft paper will be good
for many hundred years yet, while
the earliest Ulster County Gazette we
have already badly discolored.
variations are found in the
printing Of the different editions. of
the same date. In two of our copies
the name of the paper is set in italics,
in the other it is not. The enterpris-
ing publisher of the newest of our
forgeries added the word copy
right
perhaps the people of the day
recognize the Ulster County Gazette
in circulation as more facsimiles. But
no doubt many treasured them up as
genuine. Every now and then one
turns up in trunk in some old attic
and the finder thinks he has a great
prize. The University of Chicago has
half a dozen copies submitted to it
every year. We are greatly interest
ed in old newspapers-but we are
buying no more Ulster County Ga
zettes reporting Washington's fu-
neral,