47 Why do forgers usually have a good collection of old books?
(A) Old books are useful material for making forgeries.
(B) They need to get knowledge from the books.
(C) Reading helps them to relax.
(D) Collecting old books is a good hobby.

Robert Spring, a 19th century forger偽造者, was so good at his profession that he was able to make his living for 15 years by selling false signatures of famous Americans.

Spring was born in England in 1813 and arrived in Philadelphia in 1858 to open a bookstore.

At first he prospered繁榮 by selling his small but genuine真正的、非僞造的 collection of early US autographs親筆簽名.

Discovering his ability at copying handwriting, he began imitating模仿 signatures of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and writing them on the title pages of old books.

To lessen減少 the chance of detection察覺, he sent his forgeries to England and Canada for sale and circulation流通.

Forgers have a hard time selling their products. A forger can’t approach a respectable buyer but must deal with people who don’t have much knowledge in the field領域.

Forgers have many ways to make their work look real. For example, they buy old books to use the aged paper of the title page, and they can treat paper and ink with chemicals. In Spring’s time, right after剛..就 the Civil War内戰, Britain was still fond喜愛 of the Southern states南部, so Spring invented發明 a respectable maiden lady known as以…知名 Miss Fanny Jackson, the only daughter of General全體 “Stonewall” Jackson.

For several years Miss Fanny’s financial problems forced her to sell a great number of letters and manuscripts手稿 belonging to her famous father.

Spring had to work very hard to satisfy想要、滿足 the demand. All this activity, which did not prevent Spring from dying in poverty貧困, left sharp-eyed experts專家 the difficult task of separating his forgeries from the originals.