Robert Spring spent 15 years ______.

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. In 1858 in Philadelphia Spring opened a bookstore. At first he prospered by selling his small but genuine collection of early US autographs. Discovering his ability at copying handwriting, he began imitating signatures of George Washington and Ben Franklin and writing them to the title pages of old books to lessen 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 cannot approach a respectable buyer but must deal with people who don’t have much knowledge in the field.
      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 financial 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 didn’t prevent Spring from dying in poverty, leaving sharp-eyed experts the difficult task of separating his forgeries from the originals.