New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-09-01
4 PROFESSIONAL HOMER.


Newspaper readers have doubtless noticed that
a good many remarkable things happen in
Texas There have been no sea-serpenis or
plratical schOuners there. Texas is too new
and entcrplsing for such stale products as
these, which simply mean that timid yachtsme
in these older parts OF the country have had an
"intolerable deal" Of beer to a half-penny
WORTH of crackers and cheese, or that the cool
season has made il necessary for the seaside
hotels to resort to extreme measures to get
boarders. Texas reports extraordinary mete-
ors, discoveries of "A carriage containing five
skeletons sitting inside and two skeleton horses
harm rssed to it-all concerned having been
killed by one stroke OF liRhtning-and other mar
vellous stories. showing freshness and Orlgl-
nality of treatment. No one ever believed these
tales, of course, except the too coniiding press
agent who teegraphed them North, and 80
caused their reproduction in every prominent
newspaper in the country. But their origin has
always been involved in mystery, which was Ut
diminished by the universal circulation they
obtained.
The mystery is dispelled now, however, the
authorship OF these stories being proudly
claimed by Texas journalist, popularity
known as 900" Mulhattan, who has been en-
gagged in this line of business, he says, for ten
years. Mr.. MuIhattan has been visiting Louis
ville and would seem to have belonged there
of old as he is hailed by the local press as the
Kentucky Munchausen." This is high praise.
To he regarded as a Munchausen by Kentucky
newspaper men, and especially in the same
city where The COwier-JOurnat is pub
lished, proves that he posses,e remarkable
imaginative pon,t-. Mr.. Muhattan calls his
peculiar industry "anew branch IN journalism
Nobody's morals are corrupted by his little
novels" and "all are entertained and some
times instructed" He is delighted with his
own success He is thirty years old, and
famous" There IL not man in this country
u who can read and write and who has read the
newspapers that doesn't know Of Joe Null
shattan." This statement shows how difficult
it is for tho professional hoaxer even when he
il trying to tell the truth, to keep from wab
bling ii little. Mr.. Mulhattan points with pride
TO the fact that lie has fooled every paper of
prominence in the United States as well as
some of the learned societies of Europe. lie
began with stories of marvellous oil wells
startling highway robberies, etc. for n Pitts
burg paper, but sOun enlarged his borders. He
claims the credit of having started the story Of
John Wilkes Booths being seen in several
places-and here, we fear, Mr.. Muhattan's
ambition TO be consider ed q remarkable liar
causes him to wabble again. This absurd idea
was cherished for a time by some on the au-
thority of persons-or Muhattans-who be-
lieved, or pretended to believe, that they had
seen Booth in Egypt. Mr.. Mulhattan started,
as joke" the story that President Lincoln's
bones were to be exhibited at the Centennial
and the press made it "a national question"
His masterpiece, in which he takes greatest
pride, because it showed so mach "invention
and imagination" was his account Of the dis.
covery of q cave at Glasgow Junction, larger
than the Mammoth Cave, with navigable rivers,
mummies 1000 years old etc. He also an
nounced the finding of Masonic en- blems that
had been buried for thousands of years, show
ing the existence Of prehistoric race Of