Omaha daily bee., 1899-01-07
MEN WHO STRETCH TRUTH
An Assortment Of Tall Yarns Put Forth as
Gospel Facts.
FAKES THAT AMUSe FOR A TIME
Muncbnusen's Hest Efforts Take on n
SickIy Hue When Compared with
the Work of American
Scribes.

Scribes.
In the telegraph room OF a now deceased
Cincinnati newspaper was a scrap book
containing rare collection of choice and
variegated assortment of stories which am
| bilious and imaginative country corre-
spondents had from time to time attempted
| to fost upon the public. The book was
kept up and carefully edited throught the
existence OF the paper While the wild.
| weird tales told in its passages never saw
the presses. the stories the book contained
! formed q wealth OF fiction which would
have made Baron Munchausen green with
envy.
When the paper was merged into another.
relates the Chicago Tribune the book disap-
peared and its whereabouts have been a sort
of mystery ever since. Everyone in the
office accused everyone else of stealing it,
A Few days ago it turned up in Chicago in
| the CORRECTION OF newspaper man.
The choicest collection of tales in the
whole book was evolved from the whole
| cloth by character who was known In the
office as "the Winchester Liar" His un-
published stories cover pages of the unique
relic He lived in a village up in the river
| hills hundred or so miles from Cincinnati
| III audHS county. ne town naQ about 900
| inhabitants. but he evolved hundreds of
columns of matter. From the unpublished
gems left he must have been the most
unique, versatile and prolific liar OF the
| century. Opportunity and little adverts-
Ing were all that he needed to make him a
| genius Of fiction.
| few Of his gems, stolen bodily from
| the puroned scrap book, show his power
OF imagination. He never permitted an ordi-
| nary row, riot or caper, fight or election
church fair or camp meeting arrest, suicide
| or murder to occur in an ordinary way, as
will be seen from his dispa tches. The first
| one in which he displayed his real qualities
| reads:
| Hen ROOst RaidinE.
WINCHESTER, o., Oct 7.-(Special y
The arrest OF William McClannehan, Henry
Pavey and William Shermer, engineer fire.
man and brakeman of c. p. G V. freight
train here today brought out queer hunt
| ing story. The charge against the men is
| chicken stealing, but in reality they are
| charged with hunting poultry with freight
| engine.
THE freight crew does switching work in
the yards here all the afternoon, but there
| is no water tank here, so the crew makes
a run late every afternoon seven miles down
| the road to get water for the night run to
Vanceburg. They run down light with only
the engine.
| For weeks the farmers along the c. P
| & V. between here and Feebres have been
| complaining OF missing many chickens A
| watch was set and startling discovery was
| made.
| at appears as the engine backs down for
water every afternoon one of the crew sat
| on the pilot. While passing through deep,
narrow cut a mile long he would sprinkle
| corn down the track. Coming back "head
| on" the run was made slowly until the head
| Of the cut was reached. Then the fremeD
and conductor would Chamber out on to the
pilot with a fishing net stretched between
them. the engineer would put on speed and
the engine would fly through the cut.
| "Trhe chickens, following the trail Of corn,
| would fly up in frantic endeavors to escape
from the trap and would be caught in the
| net. The crew was in the habit OF bring
| ing the chickens to town for consumption at
! e boarding house, where all the men ar
rested live"
One story he sent down was unique. For
some weeks the correspondent up in Brown
county-himsef lively liar-had been
sending in awful stories about a mammoth
| snake which had been seen in the southern
part Of Brown county. Adams county, IN
which Winchester is located. adjoins Brown
SO the liar took up the challenge and started
to outdo that Brown county man on his
own story. Those two correspondents had a
duel for two weeks and that snake story
grew to incredible size
A rivalry sprang up between the two coun-
ties and everybody who saw the local snake
increased its size through partisan feeling
The situation began to be impossible and a
climax was certain. We all watched to see
the thing develop. Finally one day the
Brown county man captured his snake and
| challenged the Winchester man to capture
the Adams county reptile and measure up.
According to the Brown county story a
crowd Of hunters had succeeded in creeping
up on the sleeping reptile and throwing a
log chain around its tail. The snake slipped
half way into it's hole, but a fence rail at
tached to the chain prevented Its escape. A
crowd was organizing to drag the snake out.
The next day the liar captured the Adams
county snake in the same manner. The ex-
citement in the two counties was intense.
The next day. however, the Brown county
man remained silent and the liar
sprung his coup. He reported "a
large party Of prominent citizens
whose veracity Is beyond dispute"
had, after an awful struggle, succeeded in
dragging the snake from it's hole. Horses
We're used When the snake was finally
hauled out fence rail was found attached
to the tail. The two snakes were the same
Bicycle Snake story.
One Of the star performances of the Liar
was dispatch in which he made a mis-
take. The tale ran:
WINCHESTER, o., March 9.-(SpecialO
i-Doney Harris, the second son OF the Hon.
T. s, Harris, prominent agriculturist re-
siding four miles south Of here had narrow
escape from death this afternoon. Only his
presence of mind and quick action saved
him from an awfuf fate. Young Harris,
who Is an enthusiastic bicyclst, started
about noon to ride over to williamsburg
While passing rapidly down the West Union
pike through bit OF swampy land he pune
tured his tire and stopped to repair the in
| jury. He dsmounted and seated himself by
the roadside to work. AS he sat down he
heard the whirr OF a rattlesnake, but before
he could move the snake struck and buried
both fangs deep in his leg. The blcyclist
| instantly sprang towards the snake, and be-
fore 1t could coil again had trampled it to
death. With death in horrible form almost
| certain, young Harris sat down an instant.
| He had no whisky, and the nearest help
was five miles away. He thought rapidly,
, and with feverish haste put his plan into