The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-08
SOME FAMOUS FAKES.
Newspaper Stories That Caused Pop
uIar Excitement.
From the Washington Post.

From the Washington Post.
With many writers it is an ambition
to possess enough originality and versa
tility to create story that has no truth
whatever in it, and yet be so skillfully
written that the tracks are carefully COW
cred up. This may be violating a conf
dence with the public yet since the pub
lie never knows it, no great harm is
done.
Some of the cleverest fakes" ever
manufactured were made right here in
Washington, and the majority of the
newspaper readers never knew that they
had been hoaxed. The mere fact that
1t appeared in newspaper was a sutii-
Gent voucher for the truth of the story,
element that delights in saying that any
thing newspaper prints. must be taken
with considerable allowance.
Perhaps the cleverest and most COM
plete fake ever perpetrated on the Wash
ington public occurred many years ago
in the 70's, and it still forms a good story
that goes the rounds every little while.
1t seems that one of the local papers,
then in its palmiest days, although it has
since met with journalistic death, pos
sessed a reporter who was gifted with
inventive genius. He was the police re-
porter of the paper, and his general
method of procedure was to obtain some
slight fact in one of the outlying pre-
cincts, and then build up an immense
story.
The advantage of using an outlying pre-
cinct was that the reporters of the other
papers could not investigate the story
easily, and then the public had little op-
with the real facts. By using slight
foundation, the reporter could easily fall
back on this in case his veracity was
questioned and the story held up.
An Indian delegation from the west
was in the city for a few days, urging
action before congress, when one OF
their number died. This reporter heard
of it, manufactured a fake, that were 1t
all true, would have been the biggest
scoop on record. The mans death
occurred at an opportune time for the
success of the story, as will be seen later.
The next morning. the paper came out
with column and a half on the death
of the Indian. The real incidents of his
death were given, and then the reporter
gave himself considerable latitude in deaf
ing with the truth.
with his wife and retinue, were in the
city on tour around the world. They
had been in Washington but short time,
and were endeavoring to secure some idea
of the government. Then the wife of the
prince died. The prince was at first In
consolable, and wished to take the re-
mains back to India, where they could be
buried according to the. custom OF the
country. On account of the great dis
lance to be traversed this was impracti-
cable, and the followers of the prince at
last convinced him that the funeral must
take place in Washington.
Then it was that he became determined
to give his royal consort burial worthy
of her ancestry and high social position.
The newspaper announced that he had
made arrangements for a grand oriental
funeral, with chants by the priests in his
retinue, as part of the service. Prompt
ly at noon the remains were to be placed
on a grand funeral pyre, ornamented with
Persian cashmereS, and precious stones,
in the center of the White Lot, and the
priests and retainerS were then to march
in solemn procession thrice around the
pyre, after which the torch would be APP
piled, and the remains of the princess
ascend heavenward.
The announcement of such an unusual
spectacle drew the largest crowd to the
White Lot that ever filled the oval. For
several hours hundreds of people trooped
thitherward, and searched the grounds
Tor the funeral pyre. Even. at IL O'Clock
many people still believed that the
pyre would be lit on time, but when sew
eral more hours passed, with no sign of
the princess and her royal funeral, the
people saw that they had been hoaXed.
They bore 1t quietly, however for the an
nouncement had come out in the paper on
the morning of April.
Another story that was not so palpably
fake, also appeared a number of years
ago. 1t was at the time when the Long
Bridge was being repaired, and the divers
Many curious articles were brought up
from the depths of the waters, and of
each the papers published some historical
account. One of the papers came out one
Sunday morning with the announcement
of the finding of the 'pope's stone, which
was hauled up covered with mud, bearing
the half-effaced inscription: Rome to
America"
According to the story, this stone was
the one which the pope sent over in 1S49
then in the preliminary stages of erec-
uon AT that time there was strong
anti-Catholic feeling in certain circles,
somewhat similar to the American Pro-
This was the "know-nothing party" and