New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-21
TIE CARDIFF GIANT AGAIN.

1T WILL PROBABLY BE EXHIBITED AS A FRAUD.
From The Syracuse Post-Standard
After long years of obnoxious desuetude"
the Cardiff Giant is again discovered" will be
put on exhibition, ard. like John Browns spirit,
is to go marching on. This time it will be placed
before the public the greatest fraud In
America, and not, as at first. the greatest relic
OF an extinct race of giants"
For some fifteen or twenty years the people
have heard little and seen less. Of the stone
image The cause is twofold: First X had
become a chestnut" and second. it was lost.
The giant is not such a small object that 1t
need be wrapped In tissue paper and locked up
to be preserved He would not easily be lost to
view with his eleven feet u length. or swept out
in the garbage with his $500 pounds OF weight.
After winning thousands Of dollars for its in
ventors and owners. "Tamus. god OF gods"
came to be despsed and created interest.
He spent some time at the Worlds Fair. ii was
said and then seemed to have been laid with
his ancestors. Several Tamuses appeared and
shown in different parts OF the country
but little interest was taken in them, for it was
soon learned that they were frauds on the
original fraud.
BY some odd chance Tamus found his way to
Syracuse and was slowed away in the freight
Office of the NewYork Central Railroad There
he lay as II in the grave He seemed to be
without I friend, his admirers had fallen off,
and there was to do him reverence. Who
his owner was was in doubt. The railroad
company still afforded him shelter and pro-
lection from boys and relic-hunters. There
a bill due from some one who could not be
found that the company kept in its archives.
From this retirement. il is said. Tamus
is to be brought out under the management that
vouches for his identity, and shown In this
city. When Tamus became so popular that
F. T. Barnum offered 100000 for his services
for three months, a large number OF other
pieces OF stone through the country became
Original" Tamuses, until the poor fellow hardly
knew whether he Tanus / or Tamus one
dozen.
1t Is now said that the giant at the Worlds
Fair was not the original "Tamus god OF gods"
Some thought they were looking at the greatest
humbug on earth when they were told that II
was Tamus that was exhibition at the first
state Fair held on the new grounds here. 1t Is
now said that both these pieces or handlwork
were frauds. and that all the while the original
fraud was slumbering in the Central freight
office.
The only birth the Cardiff Giant ever had was
in the brain OF George Hull, a Con1ecticut
Yankee He secured the stone near Fort
Dodge and shipped it TO Chicago. where the
image was made and discolored with acid. It
was then shipped TO Union. near Binghamton,
and reshpped to Cortland. From there II was
carted in the night to the farm Of stub New
ell in Cardiff. 1t duly buried in 1868, put
without ceremony and by moonlight.
year later Newell happened to be digging
a well and much TO his surprise came across
the strange image. The news spread. and IN
short time thousands OF people were nocknS
to see the discovery" 1t is said that S'Voo