The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-23
MOT A LIAR BY NATURE"
Col. Joe Mulhatton Explains Some of Hi
Peculiar PrOclivities.

SoI. JOf MutDuttOu EADlnbNs some Oh HIS
Peculiar PrOcliyities.
Col. Joe Mulhatton of Kentucky, the
biggest liar i'm the United States, IL not i'm
the universe, has been q drummer for a
long time, says the Kansas City Times. He
has been a liar for twenty years or more,
according to the story he told a reporter
for the Times the other day. He has made
a good deal of money out of both callings.
Col. Mulhatton is an understood man and
the shirt he wore yesterday looked like it
had never seen a laundry since the day of
its manufacture. Nevertheless, Col. Null
hatton's collar was clean, and n fine stud
blazed on the front of a gorgeous red four
in hand tie. The liars coat was linen,
three shades off the black in its rustiness,
but the ~colonel's handshake was warm,
and his smile sought the reporters better
nature mt the two were friends.
81 am not a liar by nature" said Col
one Mulhatton, ~ make a business of il
for amusement. l told my first big lie
for a Louisville newspaper 20 years ago. l
old of a score of mummies that were dis
covered in a wonderful cave in Pike
county, Kentucky. Each mummy was Is
feet long and had red hair all over his
body. The cave was three miles long and
q mile wide, with a very small and almost
impossible entrance. One chamber was
liIS Will kolA IutttL hIin III
diamonds and rubies sparkled like the
stars in the armament. People fiocked
tn Pikeville by the hundreds and town lots
were selling out near White Post, i'm the
northern end of the county, at 500 a foot
Every Snowman had agents i'm Pike
county, n old Barnum himself was
down there trying to buy the ave.
where ! got real fame, however," said
the genteel liar, strutting proudly before
b crowd that had gathered about him
and the newspaper man, "was in that
meteor story. ! was talking to Bill Eads,
a Louisville newspaper man, n time,
and he asked me to write him a story. l
told him ! was out of ideas and couldn't
do It. Just that minute a little meteor
shot across the blue dome of heaven and
it brought me an idea.
"'ln write you a story about meteors,
Bill said, and l turned right around
and got to work. Well, while Bill was
missed ! wrote the story. The meteor
covered an acre of ground and sunk
about one hundred feet. The peo-
pie all over Texas thought the end
Of creation had come. l located the
thing in Brown county, at Williams
ranch, near Brentwood, and worked i'm
a lot of stuff about the fleeing ~populace
and a sulphurous smell that pervaded the
atmosphere for miles. | aid that the
meteor sized and sized in the damp
ground. and withered plantations for
acres and acres around, parching the
ground into fire brick for many miles.
swell, the story appeared i'm good sea-
son and the Associated Press sent the
item out. In n wee there were more
scientists newspaper men en- their
way to Texas than h boarding houses of
the state could accommodate. Some of
them got lost I'm the mosquito brush and
fed on the beans Tor weeks, and some of
| them got discouraged looking for the
meteor "a bought a 100 acres of scent
land and are living there yet, raising
mosquitoes, ta%rantulas and children. !
think 1t was the best thing for them that
ever happened. The London Times, Paris
Temps, Paris Gdniois, Paris Petit Journal,
Hong Kong Cho,r-Cho,c, and Votksbidu OF
Berlin. all had men securing Texas for
that meteor. These poor fellows were
afraid to go back home without the facts
and some photographs, and they just
stayed here. The London Times man il
now running a saloon at Cheyenne. the
Temps man is a barber down on Deelware
street, and the ChoC- Chou correspondent
has a laundry on Franklin avenue. I've
lost track of the Others