St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-18

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 ignorant OF
the science of anatomy. First OF all
he sat himself resolutely to work to re-
medy these defects. He had consider
able natural aptitude with the chisel,
and he soon aquired sufficient skill to
hue out figure that was to be put be-
fore the public as relic of an age so
prehistoric that nobody would be likely
to closely criticise its proportions. But
Hull said he knew no matter how an
cient was the era in which his giant
lived he had to have pores in his skin
to pass the scrutiny of even the I'M
learned, 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 the giant.
His work occupied many weeks, and
was all done in an clubhouse attached
to his home near BinghamtOn. When
it was at last finished he next made pre-
perations for its burial, in order that
when brought to public view 1t might
show the proper evidence OF antiquity.
To effect that he buried it in the side
of hill on his farm and only few
rods from the "StudiO' where it had
been chiseled out of a huge block OF
stone that had been dug out OF that
same hill. In all this work, huge and
heavy as the uncut stone and the giant
hewn out of 1t were, he had only the
assistance of one man, sled, and a
yoke of oxen in moving them; the man
who helped him move the stone was a
newly arrived 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 accidentally" discovered by him
self, dug out, and the huge petrlfac-
| tion brought into public view, to amaze
and perpleX people in general. but to
| delight the antiquarians who found in
| it an argument to uphold some of their
most cherished theories.
The work OF Hull got its name from
| the fact that near the spot where IL was
buried and was afterwards resurrected
was a small hamlet called Cardiff.
Therefore it was as the "Cardiff Giant"
| that the rOughly-hewn image begun
and ended its public career, which was
not long continuance; 1t was, how.
\ ever, LOT peTlOU SulnCicHlly iCueIly
I to enable Hull to make considerable
money out of one thing. According to
his own story, as he told it that night,
he might have made more with much
less trouble IL he had accepted an offer
Barnum made him for the giant soon
after its appearance In public. OF
course exposure in the end was sure to
come and did come, but that would
have made no difference to Barnum; as
an item in the "Great Show" it would
always have had value, but with HUH
the case was different; the truth be.
coming known. the giant was forced
into retirement. But he declared to
his auditor that night In the Bingham-
ton hotel that the Cardiff Giant, which
he ayerred was then lying in the shed
where it was made, had brought him
more money than he had ever dared to
hope it would and that he was entirely
content with the result Of the venture
so far as its pecunlary returns were
| concerned