Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1889-10-24
SOME PRACTICAL JOKES.
How Thousands of People Have Been
Made to Look Foolish.

IL
During the last visit of the Shah of
Persia to these shores, says London It'd
Bits, a bright individual conceived the
happy notion of sending TO the Mayor
OF Cambridge the following telegram
ellis Imperial Majesty the Shah Of
Persia desires to visit your University
town, en- route from London by special,
arriving at Cambridge Station about /
p. m. Be prepared with escort and
reception as far as time allows" Great
excitement ensued on the receipt of this
message, and the Vice Chancellor of the
University, the Mayor and corporation.
the volunteers and the citizens turned
out III gala attire in order {, welcome
the Eastern potentate on his entrance
into the city. But the monarch failed
to appear, and the disappointed digni.
tarles wendell their way back to the
Council Chamber, where, secure from
the public gaze, they could express
their ind gnation in as dignifed tones
as they could maintain under the de-
pressing circumstances.
When the editor of the New York
Graphic, in a burst of humor consequent
upon the arrival Of All Fools Day, an
nounced that Mr.. Edison, the famous
inventor, had Terfec.e ed machine for
making food out of soil, and wine from
wa.er, most of the papers throughout
the ates copied the paragraph, and
even published leading articles founded
on this announcement, pitched in high
key praise to the inventor, and wonder
as to what he would do next. .
A remarkable hoax was perpetra&ed in
the year 1915 at Chester, by means of
hand-bills ex ensively rculated. These
announced that anumber of aristocratic
families would accompany the ex-Em-
peror Napoleon to ST. Helena, and that,
as the island was infested with ra s,
high prices would be ra:d for able
bodied cats, which were to be brought
to . place mentioned. An immense
army Of ]. men, women and children
assembled at the appointed spot, each
carrying bag or basket containing
specimen Of the feline tribe, the sad
specimens all expressing d;sapproval of
the proceedings in loud and excited
chorus. Crowds of people assembled
and looked upon the unusual scene with
assonishment. As the rumor that the
whole affa r was a joke began to spread
among the owners of the cats, some
quarrelling took place, followed by
several fights, which soon developed
into general melee, during which some
mischievous spirits in the Unlocking
crowd opened the bags and baskets, and
in few momen's three thousand cats
swarmed over the heads of the combat
ants, up in the balustrades and galleries
and through the open windows at which
the astonished citizens gazed upon the
tumult below It was many hours
before peace was restored, and then the
citizens rose in their wrath, and next
morning five hundred cats floating life
less on the PLACID waters Of the Dee
testified to their vengeance.
In the year 1926, twenty thousand
people assembled to witness the per-
Torrance of Swiss climber, who was
announced to exhibit some imposs BILE
feats of leaping, on St. James Hill.
The huge crowd gazed expectantly at
the hillside for hours, but the flying
man failed to appear. The enjoyment
of that evening was confined exclusively
to small knot of youths, vino amid the
general wrath seemed greatly impressed
with the funny SIDE Of the affair.
The perpetra fors Of the above were
never discovered, or these farces would
probably have developed into tragedies
during the closing scenes.