El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-24


up in that part of the country. II is
now in order for the newspapers to be
on their guard. for in his prime Null
hatton perpetrated and got into cIrcu-
lation through various important news
papers hOaxeS that would have made
Baron Munchausen feel like an anna
teur. and there is no guarantee that he
won't go into the business again. The
last previous definite news of him was
some five years ago when it was an
nounced that he had retired to the
wilds of California to recuperate from
his arduous mental labors. Soon af-
ter it was rumored that he was dead,
and his years of persistent silence gave
support to the rumor, says the Chicago
Inter-Ocean.
Mulhatton had been a truthful COM
mercial traveller for years before the
passion for big story telling took pos
session of him. One day it occurred to
him that the newspapers of his local
ity weren't interesting enough, so he
proceeded to liven them up with the
product of his imagination. The Pitts
burg Leader was the medium selected.
and he kept the editors busy publish
ing denials of the little hoaXeS he got
up about well known people. Present
ly these personalities CALLED upon him,
and he sought to exercise his genius
in a larger field.
About this time the first crematory
in the United States was erected at
Little Washington, Pa Mulhatton
wrote an article announcing that ere
nation would take place at date two
weeks ahead of the completion of the
furnace. and Little Washington soon
had an army of reporters to entertain,
besides special artists from the illus
trated papers. When they found the
;eI,a al
that there was no corpse, they sought
for Mr.. Mullhatton to supply that i'm
portant omission. but he was far away.
He Petrified George Washington.
1t was in 1875 that Mulhatton got
up his first really imposing fake He
discovered that the remains of George
Washington were petrified, and that
some well-known citizens, who were
very DESTROYS of seeing the Washing
ton monument completed. were about
to remove the petrified body to the ex-
position at Philadelphia. to place il on
exhibition during the Centennial year.
An admission fee of 80 cents would be
charged the money to be used in fin |
ishing the monument. This was print |
ed and reprinted the wide country !
over, and the newspapers teemed with
letters favorable and denunciatory-
Alexander X. Mcclure. editor of the
vigorous in the denunciation of Null
nations idea, while the Pittsburs Ga
zette supported it warmly.
For a time thereafter Mr.. Mulhat-
tons stories, according to his own ac-
count, were what might be called
plain lies But he went to Kentucky
and after he had breathed the inspir-
ing air of that locality for while he
began to take pride in his work and
produced some sparkling gems of or
namental prevaricatiOn. In 1877 he
visited the Mammoth cave, and prompt i
ly evolved out of his inner conscious
ness another great cavern fourteen
miles long. containing a large navi- ,
gable river to ply upon the waters of
which a steamboat was being built.
The editor of Frank Leslie's wrote for
a sketch of the town near which the
cave was located and for pictures OF
the cave. With an artist friend Null
hatton filled this order, and the articles
and pictures were printed in Frank
Leslie's Illustrated newspaper. The
followed it up with other caves until
he had nearly the whole of Kentucky
ringing hollow to the foOtstep. 4
Geese AS Ranch Employees.
Animal stories were very popular
then. Mulhatton concentrated his pow
erful intellect upon the domestic
goose, and the result was highly de-
tailed and interesting account of a Tex
as cotton plantation kept in order by
a flock of trained geese. The geese
carried under their necks gourds filled
with water SO that each goose could
drink out of its neighbours gourd. Each
goose did the work of two men in
ha cd Will no
prediction that eff the farmers exper-
iment is as successful as he thinks it
will be. it is only a question of a few
years. until the whole cotton crop of
Texas will be weeded out by the Or
binary goose" This was regarded by
many newspapers particularly in the
south. as an important agricultural de-
parture.
Mulhatton's Texas meteor story at
tanned the proportion of an interna-
tional event. This was published in
1888 in the Fort Worth Gazette and
was the making of that paper. An
Associated Press agent swallowed the :
story whole and telegraphed it all over
he country. On the day after the
story was published the Gazette re-
,eived ia kilograms in regard to the
natter. Three of them came from
Iurope-one from the London Times a
me from the Edinburgh Scotsman, and v
me from the Paris Gaulois. The edi- '
orS of these enterprising papers tel
graphed for correspondents to get full y
PARTICULARS and to draw on them for g
he necessary funds. The meteor was II
aid to have fallen at Williams's
anch. 1T covered an acre of ground: t
plunged 200 feet in the ground and b
TODD eighty feet above it; it came t
nWp red hot and aiming filing tho | II