Fraud

In recent issues the revered Atlantic Monthly published three articles on the life of Abraham Lincoln by a Miss Wilma Frances Minor, based upon hitherto unknown Lincolniana in the possession of Miss Minor. The first article was met with a storm of criticism from Lincoln experts, who cried "Forgery!" after reading the documents quoted by Miss Minor. The second article brought still more protests fluttering to the desk of Editor Ellery Sedgwick. Editor Sedgwick, digesting the criticisms and keeping an open mind, published the third and last article. Most vehement among the critics of the Minor collection was Paul M. Angle, Executive Secretary of the Lincoln Centennial Association of Springfield, Ill., who admitted his delight at the opportunity to "put the magazine of the country in the frying pan and cook it brown." Uncooked and still open-minded, Editor Sedgwick gathered together all reasoned criticisms that had come to him and journeyed to Chicago, where he put all into the hands of Lincoln Expert Angle, and asked him to draw up the case against the Minor documents. Mr. Angle's "estimate" appeared in the April Atlantic.

In the mass, his proofs were overwhelming; and he bluntly asserted: "By no possibility can the Minor collection be genuine." Who forged the papers, and when, is unknown; but the good faith of the present owner has not been questioned.