The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-10
MADE THE CARDIFF GIANT.
Sculptor's Plan of Deception and
Profit Carried Out.


Boston Herald: George Hull, 76 years
old, is very i'll at his home in this city,
and his friends have little hope Of his
recovery. Mr.. Hull says he made the
Cardiff giant, and tells the following
interesting story of his experience with
that colossal fraud:
1T was at Ackley, Ia, that I first con-
ceived the idea of fOOling the world
with the big stone man. At that time
a Methodist revivalist was in Ackley,
and prayed all over the settlement. The
people were too poor to pay him any
thing, and he boarded around. One
night ne was at my sisters house, and
after supper we had long discussion
and a hot one. [ was then and now am
an atheist. At midnight we went to
bed, and l lay wide awake wondering
why people would believe those re-
markable stories in the Bible about
giants, when suddenly L thought of
making a stone giant, and passing it
off as a petrified man.
After awhile 1 found a suitable kind
of stone, near Fort Dodge, on the river
bank 1t was a gray stone, somewhat
resembling gypsum, with dark colored,
blush streaks, which afterward passed
for veins of a human body.
AT Boone I shipped it to Chicago,
where / rented a One-stOry frame build
ing on North Clark street, close to the
lake.
L first made the model of a man in
clay. It lay on it's back and was just
the shape which the Cardiff giant as
sun1ed as the work of cutting it out
progressed On the under side of the
body l cut away some places, as 1 did
not wish to have the giant too perfect,
because there should be some parts of
his flesh which had not pc-rifed, and,
I fhar1 made a
tool with bundles of darning needles,
the handles cast in lead, and with this
tool went over every inch of the body,
making millions of little holes in the
stone Scientific men afterward viewed
them with magnifying glasses, and
thought they were pores of the giants
skin In order to give the giant the
appearance of age, 1 procured two gal
Ions of sulphuric acid and swabbed the
figure with it. The steam from the acid
and the stone rose in clouds. The acid
gave the stone a dingy brown, an ap-
pearance of great antiquity. Then I
put the giant in an iron bound box and
shipped it to Union, n. Y, nine miles
from Binghampton- 1t weighed. with its
packing, 1000 pounds. The figure itself
weighed 1896 pounds.
Il buried it in a barnyard belonging
to Stub Newell. 1 returned to Bing
hampton and waited one year, less two
weeks In the meantime I manufac-
tured cigars. had previously given di-
rections how to discover the giant 1t
came out all right. I didn't go near the
spot for two or three days after it was
dug up, and was first told of the great
find by several people on the street.
professed TO believe it was a sell. When
l did go the crowds were f1ocking to the
grave from all parts of the country. and
Newell was making fortune. charging
so cents head to see the wonder. One
day he took in 1929, and in all must
have realized about $1,000 before the
giant was taken from his grave. The
state geologist and q party of scientific
gentlemen came to view it, and pro-
claimed it a petrified human being, and
then came the SPECTATORS.
P. T. Barnum offered 100000 for the
use of the figure for three months.
They refused.
Mr.. Hull finally got $4,000 for his one
fourth interest in the figure, which
made 500. 900 in all. As his expenses
were $4,000. this left him more than
S2O, 900 for his work. There were soon
six copies of the wonder being exhibited
the country.