LrN'XEAN SOCIETY OF LOKDO:S'. 3T 



W. Bense's children. The Assistant-Librarian, ISlr. Otto Fleisch- 

 ner, kindly rephed, Aug, 22, sending tlie addresses of two 

 daughters and a son. I wrote at once to Mrs. Frederick Endicott, 

 of 1032 Washington Street, Canton, Massachusetts, wlio replied 

 most kindly on Sept. 21st, and has since continued, in consultation 

 Avith other members of her family, to assist the investigation. 

 Mrs. Endicott's letter showed that no evidence was to be expected 

 from the business books and papers that must have been kept at 

 her father's printing establishment, for 



in the panic and confusion of the gi-eat Boston fire in 1872, the chief of the 

 fire department ordered the blowing up of ninuerous buildings, among them 

 the one at .35 Congress St., where his office was. The fire did not reacli the 

 spot, but the great building was totally wrecked, and father's finely equipped 

 office, presses, and everything, went down in the ruins. So of course every- 

 thing, books, papers, and all were gone, and he had to make an entirely new 

 beginning. 



Mrs. Endicott had never heard of Mr. Joseph Crafts, and other 

 attempts to trace the witness to the contract have also ended in 

 failure. Enclosed in iNIrs. Endicott's letter was the signature of 

 William Bense, reproduced on a slightly smaller scale below. 

 The signature was the receipt for a bill dated Jan. 8, 1890, from 

 the office at 35 Congress Street, Monks Building : — 



The signature was obviously closely similar to that upon the 

 contract (opposite p. 32). I sent it to Sir George Warner, 

 together with a collotype reproduction of the contract, and wrote 

 to Mrs. Endicott begging for more signatures, especially of an 

 earlier date, and one as near as possible to 1849. Sir George 

 replied, Oct. 6, 1913, as follows : — 



The signature you have sent me certainly does support the genuineness of 

 the Sleeper-Bense contract of 1849. At the same time I am not quite satisfied, 

 for it seems to me verj" i-emarkable that aiter so long an interval as 40 years 

 the signature should be so precisely identical : and it i.-; almost easier to believe 

 that tl)e early one is a forgery from a considerably later example. Is there 

 no signature of Bense more nearly of the same date as the contract ? — and 

 other writing as well, for it is the text of the contract which looks so sus- 

 piciously irregular and artificial. The signature, I think, would not be a 

 difficult one to forge. 



The hoped-for signatures, three in number, were found by 

 Mrs. Endicott and her sister, and sent Xov, 4, 1913, One 

 of them, reproduced in a slightly smaller size b^low, is of late 

 date, Sept. 5, 1882. It is a receipt from the same oflSce as the 



