The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-16
FACTS ABOUT THE RUNE STONE HOAX
1t Was All the Work of Swecle Who Was
Clever With His Chisel and Who Got
Hold of a Few Runc Forms.

Special Correspondence Sunday Standard.
St. Paul, April 14.-This is the story
of a bold hoax which caused and is
causing much anguish to one learned
man who was falsely represented as
falling a victim to the joker, and which
aroused to high pitch of expectation
the hope of historians in this and other
countries. only to cruelty dash them TO
the ground. The hoax began with the
placing, in the neighborhood of Ken
sington Douglas county Mimi, of
stone on which We're chiseled certain
mysterious characters that no one in
that vicinity could decipher.
Who cut the mysterious characters in
the stone and placed it where it could
be found has not been discovered, and
probably never will be, for the practical
joker has stirred up such a hornets
nest that if he is as clever as his jest
indicates he will continue ito enjoy the
situation in silence. Practical jokers
have been lynched before now. The
man who found the stone has also
dropped out of sight for the good of his
health The story, therefore, begins
with the reception, by Professor o. ].
Breda, University of Minnesota, of a
carved on the stone. The discovery"
was laid before the learned professor
with the eager request that he careful
ly examine the characters, and, if pos
sible, decipher them.
Professor Breda recognized at once
the mystic writing known as "Runic,'
and would fain have reported that the
Kensington people had in their posses
sion the first Rune stone ever dis
covered in America. To be in a posi-
ton to make such a report would have
made both his own name and that of
the town near which the stone was
found famous throughout the world, for
the characters, if genuine, could not
have been cut less than many centuries
ago, and the fact of men possessed of
a knowledge of Runic writing having
been in Minnesota at this period might
have changed the record of early Amer
lean history
Translated by Professor Breda. the
inscription ran. with certain undeci-
pherable words omitted
''Swedes and-Norsemen on journey
of discovery from Vinland west-we
camped-one days journey north from
this stone. We fished one day. After
we came home we found-man red with
blood and dead A. V. M, save from
have-men at ocean to look after our
ships-day's journey from this island.
Year
All very pretty and deeply interest
ing. The only damper thrown on the
discovery was Professor Breda's en-
phatic declaration that the whole thing
was a fraud, perpetrated by some
Swede with a knowledge of Runic
characters. The people of kensington
pouted over the learned professors de-
cision. They wanted the Rune stone to
make them all famous. They had glor-
ious visions of Iningling with the resi-
dents of rival towns and grandilo-
quently announcing to these envious
neighbours that they lived in the city
where the famous Runic stone was
found. If Professor Breda was so OBJ
fuse as to fail to see that the Runic
stone was genuine they would go to an
other learned professor and insist upon
his seeing it in the light that pleased
them most So the washington delega-
ton turned their backs on Professor
Breda and communicated with Profess
or G. o. Curme of the Northwestern
university Evanston. Ill. Professor
Curme was inclined to think that the
find was a genuine Rune stone. and he
even decphered the date of it's inscrip-
tion as 1862 making it out to be very
venerable relic
BY this time the learned men of the
old world got wind of the discovery
ana the caDle Drought eager requests
for details. Nothing loath, the Ken
sington people flashed back the fullest
particulars al the current rates for sub
marine lightning messages Then must
the joker have chortled with glee. for
the archaeologists of the old world
swallowed the stone with avidity and
eagerly waited for more hoping that
the Investigations that Kensington citi-
zens were then making in the mud of
the neighboring marshes would bring
forth further discoveries.
Soon came the disquieting news that