Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1890-11-19
m. urirInni iinIhnlion Tallls.

The Original ainIhnlion Talks
Col. Joe NTulhattcp, of Kentucky,
the biggest l;a. I'm the United States.
# NOT i'm the universe. has been n
drummer fer a long time. lie has
been q liar for twcnty years or more
according to the story he told re-
porter of the Times Yesterday
81 am not liar Is nature, = sad
Col. MulhattOn make u business
Of il for amtEcmcat. told my first
big lie for Louisville newspaper
twenty wears ago. | told OF a score
Of mummics that were discovered IN
\ wonderful cave in Pike county. Ky.
Each mummy WAS eighteen feet long
and had red hair all over his body.
The cave was three miles long and 4
mile wide. with "a very small and
almost impasSlble entrance. One
chamber was lined with the richest
of gold and quartz. aud in another
diamonds and r1ibics sparkled like the
stars i'm the frmamcnt People
nocked TO pikcSyille by the hundreds.
and town lots were selling out near
White Post. in the northern end of the
county. AT ~ 90 foot Every show
man i'm the country had agents in
pike county. and old iIawum himself
WAS down there irving 20 buy the cave:
Where ] got real fame. however"
said the genial liar strutilng proudly
before The crowd that had gathered
about him and the newspaper man
'.uas In that meteor story. ! was
talking to Bill EadS, a Louisville
newspaper man. one time. and he
asked me 10 write him story. | told
him | was cu OF ideas and couldn't
doit just that minute a little meteor
shot across the blue dome Of heaven
and it brought me an idea.
I'll write YOU n story about
meieors Bill ! said. and | turned
right around and got to work. We'll
while Bill was talking 10 me el the
newspaper business and the last scoop
he missed. | wrote the story. Tho
meteor covered an acre of ground and
sunl, about 90 feet The people all
over Texas thought the end of crca-
lion had come. ! located the thug
i'm Brown county, ut Williams ranch,
near Browuuood and worked IN lot
of stuff about the fleeing pcpulacc aud
a sulphurous smell that prcyaded the
atmosphere for miles. | said that
that meteor sized and sizzlcd in the
damp ground and withcrcd plantations
for acres and acres around. paching
the ground into iirc-biick for many
miles.
We'll. the story appeared IN good
season and the Associated Press sent
the item ont. I'm week there we're
more scientists and newspaper men ON
their way To Texas than the boarding
houses OF the State could accOnumo-
date. Some of them got lost in the
mesquite brush and Ted on the beans
for weeks. and some Of them got dis
couragcd looking fer the meteor and
bought a hundred acres of tivc-cent
land and are living there yet. raising
mosquitocs. tarantulas. and children.
I think ii was the best thing for them
that ever happened. The London
Times. Paris Temps. Paris Gaulols,
Paris Petit Journal, Uong-kong
Chow-Choty. and the Nolksblatt, of
Berlin. all had men securing Texas for
that meteor These poor fellows
were afraid TO 20 back home without
the facts and some photographs, and
they Just stayed here. The London
Times man is now running a saloon
mt Cheyenne. the Temps man is bar
her down on Delaware street, and the
Chow Chow correspondent has a laun-
dry on franklin avenue, ST. Louis.
Eve lost track of the others. kansas
CITY Times.