Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-01-04
ACCOUNT OF A HOAX.
STORY OF THE MOh.cAN'S LOSS lrl
THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN.

How Lying Ton barrett" Came TO Tell
the Yern-A Rivalry Had Grown Up
Among the Muncllausens, but the Mo-
hican Lie Was a Little Too Much.
Very many persons may remember
thu story that was telegrap,red and ca
bled all over the world in the summer
Of 1895 Of the sinking Of the United
States revenue cntter Mohican by the
British seal pirate Belle Of the Pacific
somewhere in that indefinite part CT the
north Pacific ocean known to al Alas
kans as 1.-THE westward" Not so MANY
probably will remember that the story
was a fake, because it is the lamentablc
history CT such things that the truth
never completely overtakes the lie. 1t
was a lie Gus Of whole cloth, IS was
demonstrated when the Mohican turned
up all right that fall at the end CT the
patrol season, but the manner Of its pub
lication has not been told.
This lie began to have its being years
ago when the steamers first began to
take tourists from down below" as
Alaskans call the States. up through the
gorgeous scenery Of the north Pacific
coast line for peep at the northern ter
ritory. As a usual thing the tourists
spend eight Or ten hours ashore at Ju-
neau and as much more in Sitka. Some
times they make dash up to Muir gla
cier. Altogether they see lot of the
country in panoramic sort of way, and
they hear great deal more about it. 1t
is one of the lands where the biindest
bluffs hold good and the widest tales
are true. So when they get back to the
States again, the tourists begin to tn
fold to their friends and their friends
friends and to their acquaiItances and
to anybody vino viii listen, particularly
10 overcreiu,0us newspaper men, the
widest tales that human ingenuity can
devise.
For lore tine tie Aleskans did
their best 20 chase down these lies, but
they failed. The liar dad all the advan-
tages Of telerr::ihs ana daily mails and
the widespread pabliclty given by the
| too crodulCaS newspaper men. Then the
Alaskan9 gave Up the d.Eect attack and
i took up the gentle III. Of lying them
| t;ce WREN there was nothing else TO in
terfere that evSry two weeks, when tho
, maiibnat came ii, a G;e new crop Of
marvellous stories had been carefully
harvested for dissemination in tho
States. The steamship men were always
| the medium through which these stories
were communicated to the credaloUs
public Of Oresos, Washington and Cali
forDia. These steamship Iucn rapidly
| acquired large reputation with the
! readers Ga thrilling newspaper accounts
j of brave newspaper deeds. The psupie
: on the Pacific coast seem to be singular
II cpen minded ard receptive But even
| they caught on after awhile to the fact
that the Alaskans were jollying them.
Then resentment took the natural fc-ni,
! and you ooul1in't find Pacific coast
| man with a hCrse rake who would be-
lieve an Alaska steamship mans story
| il the narrator was literally incased in
Bibles.
Isdeyeloped through the somewhat
| general competition that as compound
| er OF able tales Tom Barrett was easily
! at the head. He won his distinction and
his title at the same time, springing
| from comparative obscurity in the ranks
of liars by one successful coup. Barrett
was in the employ of trading company
| at the westward. He rolled into Sirka
one day with tie most astonishing sto-
| rics Of tho aur!ferOGs riches of Middle
| ton island, Il little chuni: Of rock and
sand that had been heaved up above the
water by some submarine volcanic erup-
ton far oct in the middle Of the north
Pacific ocean. al Alaska that could 90
started fer Middleton island on the
strength OF Sarrett's yarns, and all
Alaska that couldn't go grub staketi
somebody who could. When the excite
rnent was over and those who went to
Middleton island had got back and those
who didn't go We're cut their grub
stakes, the man who had started the
rush spontaneously became known to oil
Alaska as Lying Tom Barrett"
Lying Tom Barrett told the yarn
about the Mohican to the newspaper,man
in Port Townshend, who telegrapEed
a column of it to his paper in Seattle
and started it around tie world. Bar.
rett was coming down from Alaska and
on tho way put Up the job with the
steamship men to spring a yarn that
should make sensation in the States.
Tho steamship men knew they couIdn t
make it go themselves, but they agreed
TO bach; Barret: up in whatever he said
and to give hin: u good send Of if there
| was effort ct veriication. So wien the
steamer Put in at Port Tuwnshend, Bar.
rett got himself iuterviewsd, ard the
next day the world was reading cap.
tain Thomas Bcrret:'s'' remarkable $50.
| ~ Of the loss Of the Mohican. When
the yarn so. back 20 juneau and Sitka,
there were somo Alaskans who laughed
nightly at tie hoax, tH others, vino
knew the officers Of the Mohican thought
of the cruelty of it TO the relatives and
friends CT the cutters men, and on the
whole Barrett's story did not meet " it'll
the approval even ot the liars That
was carrying the thing too far. Harm
less stories about islands Of gold CT i'm
possible customs of unheard of people
were well enough, but this lie turned
the tide in favo- Of truth.ulness, snd