POLICE REPORTS.
CASE OF IMPOSTURE.
Among other stray flashmen, dispos'd of, this week,
Was a youngster, nam'd St---nl---y, genteelly connected,
Who has lately been passing off coins, as antique,
Which have prov'd to be sham ones, though long unsuspected.
The ancients, our readers need hardly be told,
Had a coin they call'd “Talents,” for wholesale demands
;
And 'twas some of said coinage this youth was so bold
As to fancy he'd got, God knows how, in his hands.
People took him, however, like fools, at his word;
And these talents (all priz'd at his own valuation,)
Were bid for, with eagerness ev'n more absurd
Than has often distinguish'd this great thinking nation.
Talk of wonders one now and then sees advertiz'd,
“Black swans”—“Queen Anne farthings”—or ev'n “a child's caul”—
Much and justly as all these rare objects are priz'd,
“St---nl---y's talents” outdid them—swans, farthings, and all!
At length, some mistrust of this coin got abroad;
Even quondam believers began much to doubt of it;
Some rung it, some rubb'd it, suspecting a fraud—
And the hard rubs it got rather took the shine out of it.
Others, wishing to break the poor prodigy's fall,
Said 'twas known well to all who had studied the matter,
That the Greeks had not only great talents but small
,
And those found on the youngster were clearly the latter.
While others, who view'd the grave farce with a grin—
Seeing counterfeits pass thus for coinage so massy,
By way of a hint to the dolts taken in,
Appropriately quoted Budæus de Asse.
In short, the whole sham by degrees was found out,
And this coin, which they chose by such fine names to call,
Prov'd a mere lacker'd article—showy, no doubt,
But, ye gods, not the true Attic Talent at all.
As th' impostor was still young enough to repent,
And, besides, had some claims to a grandee connexion,
Their Worships—considerate for once—only sent
The young Thimblerig off to the House of Correction.
