The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-07-04
THE CARDIFF GIANT.
History Of the Hoax by the Man
Who Made It.
a Public Swindlo Tint Brought to Its
Perpetrator Considerable Money
How It Received Its
Name.

By the announcement of the recent
death OF George Hull, styled in the press
dispatches tho originator of the Car
dih giant hoax" it was recalled to the
memory of reporter that he had once
heard him tell in detail the whole story
of that celebrated and marvellous fraud
The reporter, says the Chicago Tribune,
was ut the time ut Binghamton, N. Y,
reporting the trial of Edward Ruloff,
who was finally hanged in that city for
murder. AT that time the exposure of
the Cardiff giant was a matter of the
recent past, and tho story that Hull told
one January night to party gathered
around the huge open hearth fire in the
sitting-roOm of tho hotel had not only
tho merit of being news, but was like
wise entitled to tho credit of being hiph-
" interesting.
As he gave the story he had the idee
of the Cardiff giant i'll his mind as a
good speculation long before he took
any practical steps in the matter. FL
nally he decided to undertake the lob of
making petrifcd giant that would
amaze the multitude, puzzle the
learned, and fill his own pockets with
dollars. Hull had no knowledge of the
art OF sculpture and was totally ignor-
ant OF the science of anatomy First
OF all he set himself rcsolutely to work
TO remedy these defects. lie had con-
siderable natural aptitude with the
chlscl, and he soon acquired sufficient
Skill to hcw out figure that was TO be
put before tie public as Il relic of an
age 50 prehistoric that nobody would be
likely to closely criticisc its proportions.
But Hull said he knew that no matter
now ancient was the era in which his
giant lived he had to have pores in his
skin to pass the scrutiny Of even tie
unlearred, and it was the making of
these pores, he claimed, which required
moro time and labor than all the other
work he did in the manufacture Of tho
giant. His work occupied many weeks,
and was all done in an clubhouse ct
tachcd to his homo near Binchamton.
When it was at last finished he next
made preparations for its burial, in
order that when brought to public view
it might show the proper evidence of an
tiquity. To effect that he buried it in
the side of hill on his farm and only
few yards from the ''studio" where it
had been chiselcd out of a huge block
of stone that had been dug out of that
same hill. In al this work, huge and
heavy as the uncut stone and the giant
hewn ont of it were, he had only the
assistance of one man, n sled and q
yoke of oxen in moving them; the man
who helped him move the stone was a
newly-arrivcd German immigrant whom
he had employed as farmland, and
had no curiosity about the matter, and
the one who helped him bury the
statue" was another man of the same
kind
HULL allowed the statue to remain in
the ground two years, he said, before
he considered it to be in proper condition
to be incidentally" discovered by him
self, dug out, and the huge pctrifaction
brought into public view to amaze and
perplex people In general, but to de-
light the antiquarians who found in it
an argument to uphold some of their
most cherished theories.
The work OF Hull got it's name from
the fact that near the spot where
it was buried and was afterwards res
directed was n small hamlet called
Cardiff. Therefore it was as the
Cardiff giant" that the roughly-hewn
image began ard ended it's public
career, which was not Of long continu-
ance; it was, however, for period suf-
iicicntly lengthy to enable Hull to make
considerable money out of the thing.
According to his own story as he told it
that night he might have made more
with much less trouble if he had ao-
cepted an offer Barnum made him for
the giant soon after its appearance in
public. OF course exposure in the end
WINS sure to come and did come, but
that would have made no difference to
Barnrm; as an item in the great
show" it would always have had value,
but with Hull the case was different;
the truth becoming known the giant
was forced into retirement. Eut he de-
clarcd to his auditors that night in the
Binghamton hotel that the Cardiff
giant, which he avcrrcd was then lying
in the shed where it was made, had
brought him more money than he
had ever dared hope it would and that
he was entirely content with the result
of the venture so far as it's pccuniary
returns were concerned.
Seronaded tho Editor.