Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-07-31
JOE MULHATTON TALKS.

JOE MULHATTON TALKS.
The Great Fictionist Gives Account of
Himself and Why He Made Business
ofLying.
Colonel Joe Mulhatton, of Kentucky, the
biggest liar in the United States. if not in
the universe, has been a drummer for a
long time He hes been liar for twenty
wears or more, according to the story he
told reporter for the Times" yesterday.
He has made good deal of money out of
both callings Colonel 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, Colonel Mulhatton's collar
was clean, and fine stud blazed On a
gorgeous red four-in-hand-tie The liars
coat was linen. three shades off the black
in its rustiness, but the Colonel's hand
shake was warm, and his smile sought the
reporters better nature and they were
friends.
Il am not liar by NATURE said
Colonel Mulhatton; Il make business of
it for amusement. | told my first big lie for
Louisville newspaper twenty years ago.
| told OF score of munmies that were
discovered in a cave In Pike county,
Kentucky. Each mummy was eighteen
feet long. and had red hair all over his
| body, The cave was three miles long and
mile wide, with very small and almost
| impossible entrance. One chamber was
| lined with the richest of gold quartz, and
in another diamonds and rubies spanked
like the stars In the armament. People
Cooked to Pikeville by the hundreds, and
town lots We're selling out near White
Post in the northern end of the county,
at 500 a foot. Every Snowman in the
country had agents in Pike county, and
old Barnum himself was down there, try
ing to buy the cave.
"Where | got real fame however,
said the genial liar, strutting proudly
| before the crowd that had gathered about
him and the newspaper man, was In
that meteor story. [ was talking of Bill
Eads, Louisville newspaper man, one
time, and ne asked me to write him a
story. [ told him [ was out of ideas and
couldn' do it.. Just that minute little
meteor shot across the blue dome of heaven
and it brought me an idea.
''1ll write you a story about meteors.
Bill, - I said, and | turned right around
and got to work Well, while Bill was
talking to me of the newspaper business
and the last scoop he missed | wrote the
story. The meteor covered an acre OF
ground and sunk about 100 feet The
people all over Texas thought the end OF
creation had come. located the thing in
Brown county at Williams ranch, near
Brentwood, and worked in lot of stuff
about the fleeing populace and sulphur
Gus smell that pervaded the atmosphere
for miles. | said that that meteor sizzled
and sizzled in the damp ground, and
withered plantations for acres and acres
Ground, parching the ground into FIRE brick
f0r many miles.
''Well the story appeared in good season
and the Associated Press sent the item out
| In a week there were more scientists anG
| newspaper men on their way to Texas
than the boarding houses In the state
j.couid accommodate. Some of them go
| lost in the mosquito brush and fed OF
beans for weeks, and some of them go
! discouraged looking for the meteor anC
| bought a hundred acres of five cent lane
and are living there yet, raising mosquitoes
! tprantuals and children | thinh1 it was the
best thing for them thai ever happened
/ The London Times Paris Temps, ;
Paris ''Gaulois,' Paris Petit journal,
Hong Konk '"Chow- Chow" and thu
''Wolksblatt,. of Berlin all hat
4 men securing Texas for that meteor
1 These poor fellows were afraid to go back
home without the facts and some photo
graphs, and they just stayed there TIE
! London Times man is now running {
saloon at Cheyenne, the Temps man il
8 barber down on Delaware street and the
@'ChowC Chow correspondent has laun
dry on Frankiain avenue, st. LoVis I've
lost track Of the others. Kansas City
Times.