New-York tribune., 1874-02-24
THE ChRDIFF GIANT OUyDONE.

|
THE CARDIFF GIANT OUTDONE.
| SO many elaborate hoaxes, originating IN this
country, have imposed upon men of science at
homo and abroad that America has gained in
some quarters an unenviable reputation. 1t
would be tedious to enumerate these imposi-
tions-from Locke's Moon Hoax down to the
Cardiff Giant-for scarcely week passes
that new one is not started, getting
more or less of newspaper run according
to it's ingenuity. The latest of these we
have seen, is an absurd story that Donati,
the Italian astronomer, had his death hastened
by fright at the discovery that the earth was
approaching the sun With unsupported rapidity,
80 that we shem.l all be burnt up within ten
years or tnereabOut. Prof. Agassiz, speaking
abQ1t this class of hoaxes, while expressing
| Indignation at their authors, made the remark
that "after all, if scientific student il hum
"bugged by them, he must be himself to
"blame."
But whatever may be the bad emhence of
America in these Inventions, it is now utterly
distanced and eclipsed by an Oriental perform
ance Our artfcer contented himself with the
manufacture of one gypsum statue; the In
genous Selim el Carl of Jerusalem has fabri-
Gated a whole museum of antiquities Idols,
vessels and pottery-inscribed with writings
and Phenician characters, and crusted, appa-
rently, with the evidence of age. The
first collection was sold to the Ger
man Government, the Museum of Berlin
being regarded ~ fortunate in securing the
prize for 5000. The productive powers OF
the Jerusalem factory seem TO have been
stimulated by the German gold, and what Is
known as the Shapiro Collection was gradu-
ally brought together. The collector from
whom it was named, NJ. Shapiro, appears
rather as the dups than the accomplice of the
imposture. On these curiosties the in
scrptiOns count by the hundred, the char
acters being similar to those of the
famous Moabite stone. As for the vases and
figures of animals, and rudely executed stat
uettes of men and women, and fragments, and
disks that might be coins or might be
tesserg, there is no end of them. In fact, the
prodigality of the supply from the faithful
Selim had something to do with suspicious
that gradually began to cloud his fortunes.
The second collection became the subject OF
more searching investigations than the first.
The secret was well kept, however, while
from time to time during two years past,
Christianized Jew furnished these varied treas
ures which he professed to obtain from an
Arab. The process known among mining
prospectors as "saltng" was successfully at
tempted, and two German travellers were
duly escorted to spot in the land OF
Moab, where they dug for themselves
some fragments of pottery. Profound
learning was brought to bear on the products
of Ssim's art. Under spectacles and micro
scopes the relations of the figures and devices
to astronomy and nature worship were de-
veloped, and in abstruse monographs the ap-
propriateness was set forth OF supposed
representations of the deities OF Phenicia.
One great obstacle was constantly encoun-
tered; the inscriptions in all cases proved
INTERCHANGEABLE 1t was OH this rock the I'M
posture split
The details of the discovery of the fraud
read somewhat like chapter In the Arabian
tales. NJ. Ganneau, French Consul at Jeru-
salem, who has for many years made the
antiquities of Palestine an object of special
study, recognized in the inscriptions a certain
peculiar way of making the Phenlcian charac-
ters-as one might recognize handwriting-as
being that of man who had copied some de-
tails for him from the Moablte stOne NJ.
UdNluS htpJ bHo Copy' hO
man was painter by profession, and
had made living by daubing bad
Neobyzantine pictures for Greek pilgrims.
The statues, NJ. Ganneau thought, this
painter, Selim ell Carl, might have made him.
self; but the vases bore evidence of the pot
ter's skill. SO NJ. Ganneau made quiet
inquiries among the potters of jerusalem, and
at last found, in the shop of Hadj Kahlil ell
Mahi, near the Damascus gate, one OF the
workmen whom Selm had employed in the
manufacture. Many of the details of the
business are given in the words Of young
apprentice he speaks of statues of men,
~ dogs, and women, with noses, hands,
feet, aud breasts, the whole covered
"with writing" He carried some of these and
the vases and disks from the pottery to
SeliW's house. One of the statues was so hot
that it burned him. These Journeys were
made after dark; and we can see in the
boys story that he had more than the fears
natural to follower of Islam in dealing IN
craven images. Finally ho saw the objects at
Selms house pumped into the cauldron where
hot solution of saltpeter gave them the evi-
dences of antiquity.
Surely we may say with Carlyle, this is the
age Of shams.