El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-11-23


Gate. II is Particularly Requested
that no gratuities be Given to the War
dens or their Assistants
| Strange as il may seem. large num-
bers of people were fooled by this in
vitation. and all day long on April l
cabs were rafting about looking for
the alleged White Gate. which as a
matter of fact. did not exist. 1t had
never occurred to these persons. ap-
parently. that white lions were unheard
| of or that the washing of such beasts
! might be regarded as an astonishing
performance
George Stevnes. we'll known as a
Shakespearian commentator. was
much given to practical jests. and it
was he who gave wide publicity to the
classic story of the deadly upas tree.
He wrote an account of his own i'm
aginary observations of this noxious
tree of Java whose "effluvium through
district of twelve or fourteen miles
had killed all vegetation. and had
spread the skeletons of men and ami
mails far and wide. This was an ex-
ample of the kind of hack that sur
wives. inasmuch as the myth of the
upas tree has not only secured place
in literature. but is still popularity ac-
cepted as good natural history-the
story. that is to say. of a tree which.
phitic perfume destroys all living
things within vast radius.
In 1894 a very remarkable corpse was
exhibited in eastern cities. purported to
have been discovered by party of
prospectors in a cave near San Diego.
California. 1t was the mummy of a
giant man. who. allowing for shrinkage
must have been about nine feet. AS
shrunk he was. by tapeline measure
n
stature. and was in an excellent state
of preservation. Over his head was a
leather hood. which seemed to have
been part of garment used as a
shroud.
Now this. If veritable. was very in
teresting find. inasmuch as the num- |
mified giant. when alive. must have !
in stature any human being |
of whom there is historic record. The |
tallest man ever reliably measured was |
Winckelmeyer. who was eight and a |
half feet in height: Chang. the Chinese |
giant. and the tallest person ever ex-
hibited in this country. was only seven /
and half feet high. though he claimed
to be over eight feet. The claims of
the mummified giant were exploded by
Mr.. Lucas. Osteologist of the National /
Museum. who found him in pawn in a
sou thern city. and discovered that he
was largely composed of gunny sack
ing and scrap iron.
Tablets covered with hieroglyphics
were found a few years ago in a mound
near Davenport. Iowa together with
pipes carved in the shape of elephants.
rhe latter were modelled apparently af-
-er the mastodon-a proboscidean
which is known to have roamed over
his continent ages ago. The interest
to them was therefore OBJ /,
'ious. inasmuch as. IL genuine. they
would prove that the men who made
hem had seen mastodons. and must
lave lived at least 30 ZOO years ago.
they were fraudulent. but the
question whether they were so or not
s still in dispute.
The Curious Skull of Calaveras.
Scientific men-as illustrated by in {
tances without number-are much ex-
,osed TO hoaxes. Plain people love to :
'rey upon their credulity. which is &
'ften the greater by reason of their
nXiety to discover new things. No
nan as yet is in a position to say posi- {
lively whether the famous Calaveras
nan was hoax or not though that il
vas such is trongly suspected. He was
presented by a skull dug out of hole :
n the Bald Mountain. in California. :
nd. IL there was no cheat he was not
ar from a million years old. 9
Bald mountain is near Altaville and =
.ngels. in Calaveras county The 6
ames suggest Bret Harte. and no won =
er. inasmuch as the region is one G
Thich he rendered famous with his
en-. and this particular dispute as to
ne Calaveras man was made by him
ne subject OF a most delightful poem.
claim owned by Mattison and COM IL
any ran into Bald Mountain. in thel
nape of tunnel. and Mattison him Il
slf. according to his own statement.
,und the Uranium in question. which G.
as fragmentary. in a load of pay IL
ravel." II was incrusted with earthly v
nd stony material. and in this con- q
tion was delivered to Prof. J. ID. c.
entioned incidentally that the word e
alaveras means Skulls being de- Il
we'd from the Mexico-Spanish title ;.
ven to the Rio de las CaIaveras. or u
fver of Skulls-so designated orig
ally because the stream had turned
D at one point large number of hui
an bones.
ebruary. 1866. and. supposing il to be "a
interest. carried it out of the tunnel Ill
a bag and sent it of by express to m
e geological experts at San Fran | III
SEQ. who. handed it over to Professor m
'hitney. 1t was dug out $50 feet be- sc
W the surface of the ground in close r
'oximity to a petrified oak. and inn Us
beneath the lava-cap of Bald sS
What this last point signi- e
= can only be realized by biologists. IL
asmuch as-supposing there has been az
Misrepresentation man to th
hom the skull belonged must have w
sed in the time when the gravels in Oh
hich his Uranium were found were the US
avels of a running stream. and long Sd
. . $50 ---.. s -. 1870 m