The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-01
THE MAN WHO MADE
THE CARDIFF GIANT
The Inventor Of a Famous Hoax aud
What He Says.
PEOPLE LOVE TO BE HUMBUGGED
George Huli's Story of the Big Petri.
fed Man That He Manufactured.
The Idea Suggested to Him by a
RevivaIist's Taik--The Showmen
Who Tried to Buy It--Hull's Profit.
Letter, New York Sun.

Blnghamton Letter, New York sun.
George Hull, the inventor of the
famous Cardiff giant, is very i'll at the
home OF his daughter, at f6 Pennsyl-
vania avenue, this city. He is now 76
years of age. For some months he
has been able to get about only with
the aid of crutcheS. He never tires of
telling about the big stone man with
which he deceived the public twenty
years ago, and still bears a grudge
against the relative to whom he con-
fided his scheme, and who, as he says,
gave away the snap that lost him
big fortune" He is a giant himself,
standing 6 feet 2 inches in his stocking
feet, with shoulders apparently yard
wide and well-proportioned frame.
Yes" he said, with g. od-humored
smile, "I am George Hull, and 1 made
the Cardiff giant. 1 am a Connecticut
Yankee by birth, My father, John
Hull, was a New Hampshire man, and
married my mother at Suffield, Conn.
She was u Connecticut woman. They
were both of English extraction. My
father was a contractor for bridges
and other public works. He lost a
gocd deal of money by a partner. and
when / was young we all had to put
our noses to the grindstone. I never
had but one years schooling, and when
1 was IA went to work on a farm
and turned the soil with a wooden
plough.
A KNACK FOR INVENTING.
"When I was 16 years old l learned
to make cigars in a small factory and
worked as an apprentice for three
T rly In, ,.ai oh
boring towns and became somewhat of
| a sport l wrestled, ran, and had a
good time generally. There were few
who could beat me in 100 yards.
| trained Samuel Day. a Connectic
boy, till he could beat me about five
| feet in 100 yards, and then we trav-
elled together. At Binghamton, n. Y,
where l worked several years. 1 mar
ried in 1856 and settled down. In 1860
I invented harness snap out of which
I ought to have made myself rich,
but / didn't. I sold the patent for
$500. Fourteen years later the purchas
ers paid me SO, 500 to lend my name t.
a petition for an extension of the pat
ent for another fourteen years. ] df-
terward learned that they made al
least S400, 900 out of my snap.
"Well, it was at Ackley, Ia, that
first conceived the idea of fooling the
world with the big stone man. i had
some relations at Ackley, and sent my
sisters husband 10000 cigars TO sell
He couldn't pay me, and l went Out
there to see about 1t. / found the farm
he owned encountered, and as I thought
a good deal of the family, before left
/ cleared up the mortgage. At thai
time a Methodist revivalist was II
Ackley, and prayed all over the set
tlement. The people were too poor tC
pay him anything, and he boardec
around. One night he was at my sis
ter's house, and after supper we had
long discussion and a hot one. l Wai
then and am now an atheist. At mid
night we went to bed, and / lay awake
wondering why people would believe
those remarkable stories in the Bibl'
about giants, when suddenly though
of making a stone giant, and passlni
il off as a petrified man. / returned
TO Binghamton and sold out my bust
ness; went to Wisconsin. where tn
idea continued to haunt me, and wen
back 70 New York state with my fam
lily, and finally returned to Iowa. Blu
/ didn't go near my folks at Ackley.
PROJECT REALIZED.
"After a while / found suitabl
kind of stone near Fort Dodge, on tn
river bank. 1t was a gray stone, some
what resembling gypsum, with dark
colored blush streaks, which, after
ward passed for veins of "a huma
body. found a mass OF this roc
cropping out about 100 feet from tn
river, and bought an acre Of this LAND
Then / went to work with a force c
men, and in three weeks i had bloc
ready to take away. 1t was about
feet 4 inches in length, feet inche
wide, and over feet ahick. This