, 1884-06-15
LIARS OF THE PRESS.
How Great Sensations Are Worked
Up by Ingenious Bohemians.
IoRxes and Their Authors-Notod
Lies which Newspaper Men
Have Worked on on "a
Public.


Inc amateur newspaper reporter can tell a
ia that has so much tho appearances of
tfuth, aud is hacked up by so many details,
that its probability pnsses current with even
the elect. tn stories are generally pub
lished in some leading paper, and are copied
all over the country II is no reflection ON
the credulity of Cincinnati to say that n
lar1e number Of imaginary sensations, po-
htical aud Otherwise, have originated here,
Political lies ave become so numerous thHt
anything of TINT nature credited to Cincin-
uau is now doubted from the Start.
The two greatest liars in America to-day
are probably Harry Brown and Joe Mulhat-
tan. Mulbatthn is a bright little freshman,
aud is a commercial t aveler. About every
three monohs he turns loose a marvellous
yarn. He has more good lies TO answer for
ban any other one man. | was he who, in
1878, discovered the second mammoth cave in
Kentucky four tines as large as the original,
ana caused European scientists to come over
to investigate. He also found another cave
where the James and Younger brothers had
thousands Of dollars worth Of SPOTS stored
away.
In 1ss2 Joe started the balloon story in The
PHILADELPHIA Press. A gentleman became in
terested in II little girl on the sea-coast, and
bought for her n lundle Of toy balloon. The
string was wrapped around her waist, when a
sudden gust Of wind carried her away. She
sailed out over the wide wnste Of sand, and
IL n few moments more would have been
cnllicd over tie water. An Old hunter vol
untecred to'shoot at the balloons, and by ex-
piodiuG one or two let her drop easily to the
e 'ound. He succeeded in his scheme, and she
tiightel on the sand delighted with hor ride
~ the air.
1t was Joe who gave the people OF this
country n general shock Of interest and curl
osity in the spring of 1888. when he palrned
of on The New York Sun tho story of the
neroiitc, covering ten acres, which was al
leEed to have fallen near n remote town in
Texas. The dispatch gave precise informa-
lion us to the locality of the strange visitor,
and was printed on the first page of The Sun
with double leads"
Mulhattan also created the story of the
well, somewhere in the southwest, where
soma unseen force at irregular intervals
raised the bucket filled with water.
The story Of the five skeletons found sit
ting upright in a carriage under a lightning
blasied tree on n long abandoned road, was
also bora of Mulhhttan's imagination. The
alleged presumption In this case was that tho
party had stopped there for shelter from a
storm, aud ha been stricken dead us they
say thore, remaining undiscovered and undis-
turbed until they had been reduced to 'skele-
tons. Nearly all these stories were widely
copied and generally believed.
Hurry Brown is a piece OF tho same cloth,
though he is a professional rather than an
amateur liar. He is n regular Bohemian, and
has worked nearly every large city in the
c runtry. About six years ago he got up a
horrible murder and found the bloody gar
mcuts and Inner basket Of n girl on tho
banks of the East river, Brooklyn. The
affair involved the New York and BROOKLYN
police in a war and caused severe reprimands
to a large number Of reporters for getting
scooped. While working on The Buffalo
Times, Brown went to Lake Chautnuqua and
tee rapheI a two-column account Of n
steamboat explosion, in which 200 people
were lost. The Times had a big scoop, but
Brown didn't 20 home.
IL was II Newark, N. j., reporter who
startled the country with "A column report,
published simultaneously in a dozen papers,
Of the doings OF the Garfield avengers, All or
Ganization in which "No. rs" was selected to
assassinato Guitcau. 1t was t~elegraphed the
same night Garfield died.
To the ferti e Imagination OF a St Louis
Globe Democrat reporter is due one Of the
most famous yarns which has been inflicted
upon the public during the past three years.
In 1879 all the New York, Philadelphia, Gin
cinnati, Chicago, and Boston, and ono OF the
Baltimore papers, contained a detailed &C
count OF IL fight between n bulldog
in 81. Louis and a sporting man OF that place.
Both contestants were compelled to fight ON
oil fours, according to the narrative, tho
man only beinS allowed to use his fists. The
incidents were Of the true western type of
sensation, and tho story was certainly one
which would have admirably filled the
modern demand for news-providod it had
been true. It was entirely n fabrication, al
though it was probably printed in every
paper in the country in the course of time.
In 1873 Chester NJ. Huh, known as the
m Inumental liar of the Pacific slope, wrote a
blood-curdling account of the discovery OF
the remains OF n woman all chopped To bits,
found in the wreck OF IN old schooner in
Butchers bay. The grand jury made an in
vestigati and found the boat, but no traces
OF n body. Hull was also the author of the
story which was telegraphe / TO all the east
EN- papers, in the same year, describing the
arrival Mt San FrHuc.sco of the bones of mann
moth animals an human beings which had
been discovered in Alaska. All the scientists
Of the country became excited, aud it is on
record that some Of them actually started to
San Francisco to see the bonts, but were
stopped by the news that the ontire story WINS
fnlse.
Ross Raymond, now n war correspondent
in Tonquin, representing The London Daily
News, was one Of the most daring and brill
lnnt imaginative reporters that over VISITED
this country. He is tho man who said, al
dislike f~ncts-they hamper one So" In 1879.
while on The New York Herali, he tele-
graphed TO that paper an account OF a rob-
berry OF a passenger train in Union tunnel.
Not n passenger escaped with his valuablas,
and SS.OOJ was taken altogether. The Penn
sylvuniR railro d c mp my had to go to the
trouble OF oy ng that it was u hoax by
puDlis ing he testimony of passengers.
Tins talented Bohemian in 1880 also discoy-
cred the original sea serpent, which has
fenppeaied at intervals ever since. The
testimony OF a captain of a schooner, ten of
his crew, and the log-book proved the state
ment, yet the whole thing was n Agmeut of
the Imagination.
In 1874 Edgar Allan Poe, the i'll poet
and author, published in The New York Sun
the famous story of a trip across the Atlantic
ocean in a flying machine by Monck Morton.
ghe story was believed, until a professor in
Europe. Whose name was mentioned, pub
lished a card denying the statement
In 1851 there also appeared in The Sun a
sensatioual dispatch concerning Paris, Va,
which was described rs being entirely showed
under. The man who escared through a
chimney and went out for relief, carried tho
news A committed of citizens had 70 write
n comnun cation before the story was
stuppedin its rounds, but thousands still DO
Leye il 10 BE- trne.
The Vanderbilt EoaK of a year ago, mars,
Every Smoker should try little