Robert Spring, a 19th century forger, 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 boo
Robert Spring, a 19th century forger, 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 make some money by selling his small but genuine of early U.S. autographs. Discovering his ability at copying handwriting, he began imitating signatures of George Washington and Ban Franklin and writing them on the title pages of old books. To make less the chance of detection, he sent his forgeries to England and Canada for sale and circulation .

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. 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 the Civil War, Britain was still fond of the Southern states, so Spring invented a respectable maiden lady known as Miss Fanny Jackson, the only daughter of General "Stonewall" Jackson. For several years Miss Fanny's economic problems forced her to sell a great number of letters and manuscripts belonging to her famous father. Spring had to work very hard to satisfy the demand. All this activity did not prevent Spring from dying in poverty, leaving sharp-eye experts the difficult task of separating this forgeries from the originals.

After the Civil War, there was a great demand in Britain for ___.
A、Southern money
B、signatures of George Washington and Ben Franklin
C、Southern manuscripts and letters
D、Civil War battle plans
【正确答案】:C
【题目解析】:从原文第三段说明,在内战后英国很喜欢南部各州,spring杜撰了一个将军之女,由她卖出很多将军的信和手稿。文章中southern和letters, manuscripts等词说明答案是C。
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