Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1900-07-14

: SOME NEWSPAPER FAKES {:
sssssssssssssssssssssssss

Il since the lamentable era OF truth
full newspaper reporting began" said
one of the Chicago correspondents.
The work doesn't seem like the same
old thing. It's miserable feeling to
know that you're tied down by facts.
IL has positively got so nowadays that
q fellows paper absolutely requires
him to write nothing but facts; thus,
all Of the charm that comes from the
ability to lie wierdly and enthusiastic
ally is removed. and this makes ones
days dismal and monotonous. I can
remember the time in Chicago when
the hottest fal<ir, the most divertinr
liar with the pencil and pad. was the
sought-after man, and that wasn't more
than dozen years or SO ago, at that.
IT didn't make any difference whether
local story was true or not, so long Is
IL was dished up in good shape, with
plenty of apparentlycorrect names and
addresses, lots OF scenes and incidents
as the city editors put it, and a general
atmosphere of versimilitude, as 81
were. am modest man, but would
fain throw this small nosegay at nv
self; woe the Champion Fakirs' stakes
Tor three years in succession in Chica-
go, and no less a man than Eugene
Field once bestowed the laurels unon
my blushing brow in the presence of
the Whitechapel club for having re-
peatedAy proved myself the most fan
tasuc newspaper liar that ever blew
into the city of wind. That was rirbt
after I'd sprung my famous airsbip
rake. There was a chap exhibiting a
funny-looloing model of an airsbin
down on the lake front, and, it being
midsummer and consequently dull, I
went after him, and wrote several coll
umns, with pictures, describing his con-
traption, and relating how I'd flown
with him so miles across Lake Michigan
TO Benton Harbor, Mich. The story
went with bang, despite the fact that
the enSious esteemed CONTEMPORARIES
OF my paper had the effrontery to com.
out the next day and declare it a fake.
and the airship man organised a com
pany on the strength of 1t. achieved
some $4,000 from small investors. and
then went into such close secIusien
mat he's never been seen since. The
night he decided to disappear with the
wad he called at my Office and took me
out and bought me a schooner and a
nve-cent cigar, and that's all ever got
Tor putting him on the road to prosper
ity.
But 1 started out to relate howl
got dumped on a fake of NV own de-
nsing. 1t was during another dull
PERIOD when local news was shy and
unlnteresting, and it looked to be about
the right time TO spring large one. So
y went down to the Leland hotel and
put the name of e. II. Gettemout' on
the hotel register and had a word or
Two with big Red Kennedy, the chief
clerk. Then I seized. large bunch of
hotel paper, bought enough stoeies to
see NE through and sat down In the
motel writing-room and wrote four end
a half columns about f. H. Gettemout'z
Wonderful experiments at the Leland
with his hfe-saving fire-escape appara-
tus. succeeded in making f. II. Gette-
mout a pretty remarkable genius by
the time got through describing his
invention in great detail. 1t consisted
that Is, in my story it consisted-of
collapsIble elevator frame, that is. an
elevator frame that could be shot up
nnto the air from truck by the opera
lion OF some simple machinery, and
lowered into small space into the truck
in the street when it wasn't in use. In
case OF fire in tall building the ele-
Nator frame would be raised, and then
the elevator, operated by hydraulic
force, would begin its regular trips TO
the various floors of the burning build
ing, hanling the people that preferred
not to be inoinerated to the ground az
easily and comfortably as if there
wasn't any fire within a radius of II
miles. made a lot of sketches as sag
lgestions for cuts to be used in connec-
Ition with the story.
Then described at great length the
experiments that had been made at the
Leland with the apparatus; told how
several hundred guests of the house,
having been appraised Of the nature OF
!tAs sxpextmentk about te>be4made, bad