Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-12-16
The Cardiff Giant.

From the Chicago Tribune.
The Eastern States, particularly New
York, has been excited for q consider
able time over the discovery of a petri
fed giant in the vicinity of Syracuse. /
has been q matter of wonder, this "Car.
diff giant" as it is called, and it attract
ed the attention of scientific men and o
the public generally. The Colossus o
Rhodes, between whose legs ships of the
largest tunage, and with the TALES
masts, could sail, was nothing compared
to this modern man of stone, or what
ever he is made of. He was put dowr
as the eighth wonder of the worlds
genuine wonder, with nothing bogu;
about it.
People enjoyed the delusion, and there
was a chance of spectators and show
men making fortune out of it, for one
of them paid Sf5, 900 for one-sixteenth
of the delusion which would make the
entire delusion worth S240.0 That is
a nice cash value for delusion: indeed
so valuable is it that it is lmost cruel tC
dispel it and prove the whole affair 6
successful hoax and a monster humbug
Yet such is the fact, for, like Barnum's
woolly horse, this ''petrified euss," as
he has been irreverently called was
made to order, and made very well, he
cause he was made in Chicago. We can
manufacture antiquities as easily almost
as we make pork out of hogs. If the
East wants any goods in that line, they
can be procured in Chicago, without
difficulty, and pretty cheap at that
There is very little doubt that the whole
thing is one of the hugest ''sells" ever
perpetrated on an intelligent and dis.
eliminating public.
The following article, written to the
Dubuque Times, by gentleman living
at Fort Dodge, Iowa, throws more light
on the mystery than it can bear:
about the 9Th ofJune, 1858, two men
came to this place and stopped at the St
Charles Hotel, registering as George
Hall, of Binghamton, New York, and
II. B. Martin, of Boston, Massachusetts,.
For a number of weeks after their ar
rival here, their movements seemed to
be of a very suspicious character. They
would wander about town, apparently
no one anything about their business
or what brought them here, and in fact
their mission to this place seemed, to all
who saw and watched them, a mysteri-
Gus one.
in our midst, they purchased an acre o!
gypsum land of John McDermott, pay
ing for the same 500. They then bought
lumber enough at an expense of seventy
five dollars, to build shanty near the
quarry. After everything was ready,
they employed men and went to work
opening the gypsum quarry for the pur-
pose, as they said, ofgetting out hand
some piece of gypsum, to take to New
York, to be there placed on exhibition.
After working a number of days in this
quarry, they discovered that they would
be unable to get out as large and perfect
block as they desired. They then
changed their base of operations, and
went to work on section thirty-three,
where they found piece that suited
their purpose. They then, with great
difficulty, loaded it on wagon, and
started for the railroad with it, dis
tance of forty-five miles, and after going
a short distance, the wagon broke down.
Hall and Martin then went to work and
dressed the stone down to length of
eleven feet and three inches, and g
breadth of three feet and two inches
They then succeeded in getting it to the
railroad without much further trouble
beyend breaking down one or two
bridges. ...-....s ..- ...l.
Now, these are facts that can be
vouched for by hundreds of our citizens
and the men who assisted in getting out
the monster stone. In view of the fact
that the so called giant which was dis
covered near Syracuse had been pro-
nounced nothing more than gypsum
statue and measured just ten feet two
inches and half from the crown of the
head to the hollow of the foot and from
point to point of shoulder, three feet
and about twenty-six inches through
and that this same Hall was seen near
Newell's, on whose farm the statue was
found, the same day that an iron-bound
box was seen on the way near Newell's,
drawn by four horses, and that he was
seen next morning about two miles from
there, his clothes all muddy, and having
to all appearance been out all night, we
can come to no other conclusion than
that the Syracuse or Cardiff giant was
manufactured out of Fort Dodge gyp-
sum, and that it was buried where il
was found by this same Hall, who was
here. ~. -....-.. .-.-4.. ,....- ....s
''Our theory is this: Hall and Martin
came here and got the gypsum block
out, took it to Chicago, where it was
carved and worked into statue. 1t was
then boxed and taken to Binghamton,
or some other point, and, thence by wa
gon, to Newell's farm, where it was
found. Hall was seen in Chicago three
or four weeks, and still after that, by
Governor Cue of this place, and num-
ber of other persons living here. We
have strong suspicion that Colonel
Wood, formerly of the Chicago Museum,
10, ,,,f 1alea h oh0t I a
he happen to be around just at the time
when they were digging the poor giant
out, and Snowman was needed to eX-
hibit it"
The man who carved the man out of
the block of gypsum is in Chicago to-
day, and nothing but his pecuniary in
terest in the stone gentleman prevents
him from exposing the entire joke. He
is cleaver workman, and smart fell
low generally, and withal a humorous
being. He laughs in his sleeve at the
commotiOn he has kicked up. He Won
ders, no doubt, that men are so easily
gulled, and thinks the public has not
cut its eye-teeth yet. By the way he
would like an order from the East, or
else for dozen or twogiants.'
He will guarantee that they will be
''petrified human beings" and no mis-
take, and wishes to inform his customers
that his wholesale rates are moderate.
If the savants of New York want a
pure and unadulterated relic of long
gone age. they can invest in the Whea-
ton mastodon, which was not made in
Chicago, but thousands of years ago
"growed," as Topsy said of herself
This thing of selling the world on an
old stone giant is played out. 1t is time
the truth was made known and the bub-
BILE burst. A nice problem in the rule
of three is. if a bogus-stone giant, man
ufactured in Chicago and transported to
New York, is wrrth S240,0 what is
the value of a genuine mastodon twenty
two feet long. fifteen feet high and six
feet broad. That Cardiff fellow is no
man at all, and never was anything but
a stony and hardened impostor. 1e.