The times., 1898-10-09
One That Is Often Told by the
Old Inhabitant.
HOW IT WAS STARTED
1t Was Perpetrated by Young
Than Sixty Years Ago-Its Effect
ON the Public EqunIed Only by
Haie's "Man without a Country.

from the menagerie In Central Park of
number of wild animals at a time when
thousands of little children were on their
way to school was not the first Instance
of stupendous newspaper hoax. BY no
means. declares "Megargee,' in the Phil
adelphia Times. The New York Sun, in
its early life. achieved its greatest noto-
riety and got a vigorous push on the road
10 success through the famous Moon
Hoax" published in 1895. That famous
joke and the subsequent magazine fiction
of The Man Without Country are
entertainingly related by an old-time
newspaper autocrat. Frederick Hudson.
What he says regarding them is worth
| repeating.
The Moon Hoax" purported 10 be an
| account of some wonderful discoveries
made By Sir John F. W. Herschel, or
the Cape of Good Hope. and taken from
| Supplement of the Edinburgh Phiio-
sophical Journal
1t was a great success Everybody was
| mOon-sJruck. Indeed it seemed as IL the
| man in the moon was seen at last and
| fully described. According 20 this ac-
| count, Herschel's telescope developed ey-
| eryJhing In the moon IL was apparently
| one of the most remarkable discoveries
made since the creation Of the world. and
/ the placing OF the lesser light who ruled
| the night in the armament of the heav-
| ems" One paper. the New York Daily
| Advertiser, read with emotions OF pleas
/ ure and astonishment an article from the
| last Edinburgh Scientific Journal contain
4 ing an account of the recent discoveries
4 OF Sir John Herschel al the Cape Of Good
| Hope Others claimed TO have received
/ tina news as early as the small, cheap
1 papers, and would publish il immediate
! ly. Savants in science and the learned
I pundits of newspapers in religion and
/ politics were all deceived. Who deceived
/ them? Who wrote the account? Freder-
/ lex Hudson can tell the tale
There was a bright. intelligent young
| Englishman." he says. e" connected with
! the newspaper press. who bore the name
/ of Richard Adams Locke. He was pleas
| ant and genial, modest and unpretentiOUs
/ He had been reporter on the Courier
| and Inquirer. He had become the editor
1 of the Sun. and was afterWard editor OF
/ the New Era with Joseph Price. One
/ day he made these wonderful Discoveries
| in the Moon and wrote out the details
Appending the name OF the Edinburgh
1 Philosophical Journal as authority. he
published the account as a piece of in
| teresting news. That morning he awak-
| ened famous. Nothing in fiction exceeded
I the interest these pretended discoveries
/ created in the public mind for a few days
| when the New York Herald pricked the
bubble. This extraordinary production"
/ continues Hudson, in its effect on the
| public ear was afterward equaled by the
/ Man Without a Country written by the
Rev. Edward Everett Hale and published
in the Atlantic Mouthly. with this differ
I ence-One was intended as a hoax. while
the other, prepared in the midst OF the
rebellion. was intended TO show the utter
despair Of a human being without a coun-
| try-but the two accounts were written
with so much skill, and were so full of
| imaginary truths, with incidents 50
graphically described. that in both in
stances the world read and believed
| When the moon is explored the truth of
Locke's description of its inhabitants and
topography will be fully tested. Haie's
description has already passed the or
! deal OF scrutiny. There are cases as sad
in reality as Philip Noian's was in i'm
/ aginatiOn-
When Samuel Swartout. the bluff old
collector of the port of New York in the
exciting days of JacksOn's and Van Bu-
ren's admins trations. suddenly left for
Europe in the Great Western in 1S3S as
! a stupendous defaulter to the Govern
ment. he became "a man without a cOun-
try He had assisted everybody, bought
land in Texas, specuIated and was a gen
and was an exile. He wandered on the
face of Europe. and with the pyide of po-
sitiOn crushed within him. there were
none so poor as TO do him reverence. One
day citizen of New York a friend of
the collector in his palmy days. then
| travelling in Europe. met SwartwOut on a
steamer on the Rhine. MaurnfuIIy and
thoughtfully he was sitting alone, his gi-
ant figure bowed down with sadness.
shame and sorrow. Approaching him the
gentleman, as of old, held out his hand.
SwartwOut looked up and in a moment
| was in tears. Said he: You don't know
what il is to be an exile. Not 10 be able
to return home. sir. is terrible No one.
in imagination, can realize the feeling.
After brief conversation Swartwout ad-
ded: If 1 were at home 1 could in time
arrange my affairs with the government
On the return of the gentleman TO New
York he talked the matter over with
Swartwout's old friends and II was fin
ally arranged that he should return. Tex
as became a State, her lands increased in
value. and the result was that not a
cent was lost by the stupendous default
| er, who for so many months suffered the
mental pangs of the man without a
| country
Several months after the appearance
of the article in the Atlantic Monthly
and when the fate of Philip Nolan had
excited the commiseratiOn of every one q
parcel was received at the office of the
New York Herald from Mazatian
Mexico. On opening it Mr.. Bennett found
a letter from Gen. Dom Domingo Gfui-
cuiria once of the famous Cuban Junta
and afterwards with William Walker.
the gray-eyed man of destiny in Mica
ragua. and who in his renewed efforts 10
obtain the independence OF Cuba. in 1870
was captured by the Spaniards. and after
a mock trial. garrOted in Havana This
note stated that the writer had read the
sketch of the Man Without Country
with unalloyed interest Shortly after. in
looking over the archives of Mazatian.
his eye fell upon a list of thirty filibus-
: ters. names of men who had in 1906 at
: tached themselves to Burr's welI-knOwn
expedition. and that upon the arrest of
Burr and the defeat of his schemes they
| had drifted into Mexico. where they had
I fallen into the hands of the authorities.
| To Guicuiria's astonishment the name of
: Philip Nolan headed the list He had the
document copied and forwarded to Mr.
: | Bennett, of the Herald. curiosity II
) | was afterwards sent to the editor Of the
2 | Atlantic Monthly"
: | 1t is not unlikely that the alleged dis
: | coveries made in the moon in 1885, by
| Locke. will yet be as fully verified as tbs
\ | existence of Hale'S fictitious hero haS
: been by the patriotic Guicuiria-
; Strange Tastes.
/ (From the Argonaut-)
One day while at Versailles during the Frencl
: war Lord Odo Russell went to call on Bismarck
. but found him closeted with Count Harry Arnim
wEo was known as the ape from his fintasti