The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-12-15

though alcohol may have had some
thing 70 do with the case.
Mulhatton has been in Arizona about
six years and has been dabbling in
mines all the time. He established
mining exchange at Florence and has
done a little newspaper work
During his Arizona residence his fer
tile Imagination played its usual tricks
and the plots of some of his most nOta-
BILE inventions have been laid in the
southwest.
Joseph Mulhatton was born in Allie
gheny, Pa, ffty-twO years ago At
least that is what he says, but, cOnsid-
ering his reputation as gorgeous and
ornamental prevaricator, even TINS
statement must be taken with eau
ton. AS a unique, ornate and beWll-
dering liar he has a reputation extend
ing from Maine to Texas. and even eX-
tending across the Atlantic to England
and France, for the newspapers of
those countries have been sadly taken
in by the MUlhattOn stories.
Even in his youth he displayed re-
TYlarla BILE aptitude in the line OF pic
tureSGue preVaTicatiOu. He evolved
from his fertile imagination number
of thrilling stories that found their way
into the PittsbuTg papers and were
widely copied. AS he grew older ana
gained a little experience he branched
out along more pretentiOus lines and
framed up an assortment of gHtterlng
newspaper fakes that brought special
writer's and sedate scientists scurrylng
across the ocean to investigate alleged
marvellous phenomena which Mulhat-
ton claimed to have discovered in re
mote parts of the country, but which
he really discovered during his idle
moments in some hotel corridor.
NOminally he was a travelling man,
but lying on a tremendous scale was
his speciality. Perhaps his most nota-
bic work was the story Of the meteor
supposed to have fallen in Texas. I'm
der his vivid imagination and facile
pen this meteor landed in Brown COun-
ty covered an acre of ground, de-
stroyed all the ranches for miles around
by reason of the sulphuTOus fumes it
gave off and was still sizzling its way
into the earth when he gave the story
to the newspapers. That glittering in
ventiOn sent a trainlOad of newspaper
reporters and scientists into the mes
quite bushes of Texas. They never
located the meteor, but the railroads
and boarding houses and ranchers with
horses and guides to let did a thriving
business for several weeks.
His story of Q wonderful cave in Pike
county, Kentucky, was also highly
decorated work of art. It appeared in
/ a Louisville paper and set people on
two continents talking Of the rooms full
of magnificent jewels, of long halls
lined with great blocks of virgin gold,
}
over beds of diamonds. People fiocked
4 to PikevilIe by the hundred, and town
lots sold for 800 as fast as the papers
could be made out. Even 2. t. Bar
mum, the willy old Snowman, was
/ caught in the trap and FASTENED to
( Pike county to see if he might be able
/ to pick up a few rare skeletons or
( strange cave dwellers that the excited
discoVereT had overlooked. In due
4 course of time the phlegmatic and pom
Z derous English tourists arrived in Pike
I vile and helped to swell the receipts
of the hotels and bars
+ In 1875. having a few moments to
/ spare, MulhattOn wrote Il story to the
effect that the tOmbs of Washington
and Lincoln would be taken to the
/ Centennial exposition in Philadelphia
and put on exhibition, the fund thus
( created to be devoted to completing the
T-~-hington monument on grand
scale.
,efore the fake was exploded num-
: Der Of sedate editors were clawing at
( each other over the improperly of the
/ scheme,
Mr.. Mulhatton considers that his ear
/ ~ efforts in Pennsylvania were crude.
4 lie saws that il was not until he had
/ entered the state of Kentucky and M
Z bibed some of its celebrated air and
no less renowned chief liquid product,
( that he felt competent to enter upon a
career of ornamental and scientific pre-
varication.
| His story of the discovery Of detached
I sun SPOTS brought orders from Paris
and London TO send crack reporters to
the scene at once, and spare no ex-
pense in securing complete details.
His tale Of the man who was able
! to generate electricity in his body and
| make himself imperVious to the poison
! of the deadlieat snakes had quite a
/ vogue as the man made a sworn state
/ ment to the effect that in one season
alone he had killed 1900 snakes.
| Nulhatton. encouraged by his Ken
| lucky cave story. continued to discover
/ other remarkable caves. He took a
| jaunt into Mexico, where the simple,
| guliible natives gave him a magnificent
field for his peculiar talents. He also
succeeded in filling the negroes of the
! south with terror by some of his mar
gelous yarns.
In personal appearance hulhatton is
a slight modestIy dressed man, with a
keen eye and quick movement. he
would never be selected as the man
who had upset more newspaper offices
ard sent more reporters on long and
fruitless chases than any other in his
tory.
of recent wears he has been out OF
the public mind. A fall from a street
car ~ New Orleans left a blood clo'
on his hra IN. nd unified him for any