The Evening critic., 1884-09-02

which no pretended to have found and
which he sold as an antiquity. Counter
feiting antiquity should be just as severely
punished in this country. The Ameri-
can people, continued the Doctor reflect
lively, seem to have
A Fondness for Being Duped In
such Matters.
How IL is cannot see. They are shrewd
and cunning in their business matters.
They are not easily over-reached, yet they
appear to have great love of the marvel
Gus. Anything startling seems 70 take
their fancy at once. Why, there have been
more humbugs in archaeology perpetratod
in this country than in all the countries of
tho world. There was tho great Cardiff
Giant, for instance. How the people took
in that great humbug, and talked and
theorized about 1t, when it was plainly
such q fraud that science could not brook
1t. Then there was the Colorado man,
made OF stone, with tail, which was
looked upon by many as Darwin's missing
link. Then there was the Eureka Springs
baby, of such monstrous size that people
relegated 1t to tho age of the mammoth.
There have been
Any Number of Humbugs,
everyone exploded but the people are
ready every time for new one. 1t seems
to be characteristic of Americans. Now,
read that, will you please" he said to tho
reporter, handing him newspaper cut
ting. 1T is the description of wonderful
animal found in a creek in Missouri, or
purporting to be found there. 1t was sent
to the museum, where we now have o cast
Of ID which / will show you"
The newspaper slip said regarding the
curiosity.
at was found by Mr.. ]. n. Riggs, on tho 22d
day OF July, 1889, In tho bed OF Horse Creek,
Cedar County, Missouri.
at is evidently piece of,sculpture wrought
by aboriginal hande, and no doubt worshiped
In ages past as deity. 1t has tho head Of tho
alligator, beak OF the eagle, forehead and arm
OF the rhinoceros, top OF the head OF the croco-
Ollie, shoulders with the shield OF tho rhtnoc.
eros, wings Of the beetle tribe, tail with spots
on top representing tho protuberances on the
alligators tall, elk legs, four OF which are
those OF tho common hog, with feet OF the
for swimming, like those of the walrus.
WITS belly is that OF the common terrapin In
two parts between the two pairs OF front logs;
II has the eyes of tho turtle, tho ears Of the
frog and the gills OF the 1sh, and Its tail is
that OF tho alligator. Thus It Will appear to
represent twelve different species OF living
creatures, Inhabitants Of earth, air aud water,
and yet this wonderful combination OF parts
presents all the symmetry OF perfect AMI.
NAL. Its length is three feet and six inches
and weight sixty.four pounds. 1t Is made of
solid limestone rock and is painted In two
colors by process now unknown to art"
How Counterfeits May be Made.
~ will now show you" said tho Doctor,
by way of conclusion, "some arrow-hea1s
made by Frank Cushing for me in imitation
of those made by the Zunis. He made them
to illustrate their methods of chipping
stone. He took piece of flint or jasper,
and with hard piece of bone pressed on the
stone so hard that chips broke or. In this
way he worked out number of very beau
titul specimens. One thing about counter
feiters l might mention here. They usually
use soft stone. They do not generally at
tempt limitations in hard stone difficult TO
work, for the labor would be so great that il
would not pay.
"Mr. Cushing also carved out Zuni pipe
for me in few hours which an expert
could not distinguish from genuine
Now, this shows how expert person can
become in counterfeiting implements OF
unknown races after he has diligently
studied them. This knowledge, of great
value to archaeology when turned in the
proper direction, is Of great damage when
directed toward the deception Of archnolo-
gists. The decipheriDg of an extinct
peoples history by the aid of mute stones
is difficult enough when we know that we
actually have relics from that people, but
when the creations of the nineteenth
century are given to us as the relics of pre-
historic times, the task is rendered almost
hopeless"