Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-02-28
The Original MuIhatton Talks

Col. Joe Mulhatton, of Kentucky,
the biggest liar in the United States,
if not in the universe, has been q
drummer for long time. He has
been a liar for twenty years or more,
according to the story he told re-
porter of the Tines yesterday:
g am not a liar by nature" said
Col. MuIhatlon " | make a business
of it for amusement. | told my first
big lie for a Louisville newspaper
twenty years ago. | told of score
of mummies that were discovered in
Il 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 a
mile wide. with very small and
almost impossible entrance. One
chamber was lined with the richest
of gold and quartz, and in another
diamonds and rubieS sparliled like the
stars in the armament. People
tiockcd to Pikesville by the hundreds,
and town lots were selling out near
White Post. in the northern end Of the
county. at 500 Il foot. Every show
man in the country had agents in
Pike county. and old Barnum himself
was down there trying to buy the cave.
Where | got real fame. however"
said the genial liar. Strltting proudly
before the crowd that had gathered
about him and the newspaper man,
" was in that meteor story. | was
talking to Bill Eads, a Louisville
newspaper man, one time, and he
asked me to write him a story. | told
him | was out of ideas and couldn't
do it. Just that minute little meteor
shot across the blue dome of heaven
ard it brought me an idea.
'fll write you story about
mcteorS, Bill 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. Tho
meteor covered an acre of ground and
sunk about / 90 feet The people all
over Texas thought the end of crea-
ton had come. located the thing
in Brown county. at Williams ranch,
near Brownwood. and worked in a lot
f stuff about the fleeing popuIace and
q sulphurous smell that prevailed the
atmosphere for miles. I sad that
that meteor sized and Sizzled in the
damp ground and Withcred plantations
for acres and acres around, parhing
the ground into firc-blick for many
miles.
Well the story appeared in good
season and the Associated Press sent
the item out. In week there were
more scientists and newspaper men on
their way to Texas than the boarding.
houses OF the State could ;.cconmn-
date. Some of them got lost in the
mesquite brush and fed on the beans
for weeks, and some of them got dis
couragcd looking for the meteor and
bought a hundred acres of tive-ccnt
land and are living there yet. raising
mosquitoes, tarantulas, and children.
I think it was the best thing for them
that ever happened. The London
Times, Paris Temps, Paris Gaulois,
Paris Petit Journal Hong-Kong
Chow-C ChoW. and the Volksblatt, 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 is now running a saloon
at Cheyenne, the Temps man is a bar
Der down on Delaware street, and the
Chow Chow correspondent has laun-
dry on Franklin avenue, st. Louis.
I've lost track of the others. .'-Kansas
City Times.