Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1896-12-26
ACCOUNT OF A HOAX.
STORY or THE MoHlcAN's LOSS IN
THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN,.


THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN,.
How Lying Tom Barrett" Came 90 Tell
she xarn-A Rivalry Had Grown Up
Among the Munchausens. but the sEo-
hican lie Was n Little Too Much
Very many persons may remember
the story that was autographed and ca
bled all over the world in the summer
Of 1895 of the sinking Of the United
States revenue cutter Mohican by the
British seal pirate Belle Of the Pacific
somewhere in that indefinite part of the
north Pacific ocean known 10 all Alas
kans as 1.-THE westward. I" Nos so many
probably will remember that the story
was a fake. because il is the lamentable
history Of such things that the truth /
never completely overtakes the lie. Il
was a lie ont OF whole cloth. as was
demonstrated when the MOhican turned |
up all right that fall at the end of the |
patrol season. but the manner Of its pub |
LEGATION has not been told.
This lie began TO have its being years
ago when the steamers first began TO
take tourists from ''down below. 4" as
gorgeous scenery of the north Pacific
coast line for a peep at the northern ter
ritory. AS usual thing the tourists
spend eight or ten hours ashore at Ju-
neau and as much more in Sitka Some
times they make a>dash up to Muir gla
cier. Altogether they see lot OF the
country in a panoramic sort of way, and
they hear a great deal more about it It
is one of the lands where the blindest
bluffs hold good and the widest tales
are true. So when they get back to the
States again, the tourists begin to IN
fold TO their friends and their friends
friends and to their acquaintance and
TO anybody who will listen, particularly
TO overcredulous newspaper men, the
widest tales that human ingenuity can
devise.
For long time the Alaskans did
their best to chase down these lies, but
they failed. The liar had all the advan-
tages of telegraphs and daily mails and
the widespread publicity given by the
too credulous newspaper men. Then the
Alaskans gave up the direct attack and
took up the gentle art of lying them
selves They had so much time to prac-
tice when there was nothing else to in
terfere that every two weeks, when the
T mailboat came in, fine new crop of
Z marvellous stories had been carefully
s harvested for dissemination in the
! States. The steamship men were always
the medium through which these stories
| were communicated TO the credulous
public of Oregon, Washington and Cali
> fornia- These steamship men rapidly
n acquired a large reputation with the
readers Of thrilling newspaper accounts
!, of brave newspaper deeds. The people
n on the Pacific coast seem to be singular.
9 ~ open minded and receptive. But ever
, they caught on after awhile to the fac
that the AlaslSans were iollying them
Then resentment took the natural form
l. and you couldn't find Pacific coas
man with a horse rake who would be
% lieve an Alaska steamship mans story
J. IL the narrator was literally incased il
II Bibles.
1t developed through the somewha
general competition that as a compound
y er of able tales Tom Barrett was easil,
at the head. he won his distinction ant
II his title at the same time, springinl
IN from comparative obscurity in the rank
ID Of liars by one successful coup. Barret
:, at the westward. He rolled into Silk
- one day with the most astonishing ste
~ ries of the auriferous riches of Middle
&c ton island, g little chunk of rock an
Id sand that had been heaved up above th
n water by some submarine volcanic eruI
ton far out in the middle of the mort
- Pacific ocean. ALI Alaska that could &
started for Middleton island ON I'll
a. strength of Barrett's yarns. and a
nE Alaska that couldn't go grub stake
" somebody who could When the excit'
as ment was over and those who went
Of Middleton island had got back and tho
who didn't 60 were out their grU
"a stakes, the man who had started q
!. rush spontaneously became known TO q
Alaska as Lying Tom Barrett
ne Lying Tom Barrett" told the yai
Ia about the Mohican to the newspaper mi
of in Port Townshepd, who telegraph,
hts column of it to his paper in Seatt
and started it around the world. Ba
~ rett was coming down from Alaska al
ON the way put up the job with q
,os steamship men to spring yarn tn
me should make sensation in the State
on The steamship men knew they couldn
make it go themselves, but they agre'
to back Barrett up in whatever he sa
and TO give him good send Off if the
was effort at verihcation. So when G
Cd steamer put in at Port Townshend, Be
: rett got himself interviewed, and {
next day the world was reading "Ca
tain Thomas Barrett's' remarkable 81
ny of the loss Of the Mohican. VIII
the yarn got back to Juneau and Sitk
there were some Alaskans who laugh
d nightly at the hoax, but others, W
son knew the officers of the Mohican thong
his of the cruelty of it to the relatives a
rec, friends of the cutters men, and on {
oc- whole Barrett's story did not meet Wi
led the approval even of the liars I'll
IN n was carrying the thing too far. Har
:oo less stories about islands Of gold or !
'ms possible customs of unheaEd Of peol
tha were we'll enough, but this lie turn
- the tide in favor of truthfulness, q
now Alaslzans are more circumspect
their stories about the territory.
had Barrett will never be anybody but 81
hat Ing Tom" to them. York Sun
that
and, A KoAsini Mot
to Arditi prints in his "Reminiscences