Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-11-07

traced the counterfeiter to his labora-
tory, found him waxing rich ut his trade
and forced from him an interesting con-
fession. From a certain farm In THIS
township marvellous specimens OF
Clipped flint had been sold broad
cast upon the United states for sew
erai years prior 10 this exposure. Up
on this farm dwelt a Norwegian
widow, three daughters and three
sons. The eldest of these sons,
young man OF 80 years, was folnd TO be
the source from whici these remarka-
BILE specimens had come At least a
thousand alleged relies are known to
have been sold by him before the eth
nologsts visit The most conspicuous
of these implements were knives, fish
hooks, spears and arrow heads, also
many blades and cleayers. all Clipped
from flint. The better specimens were
sold for So apiece, and others at lower
prices. For those which were offered
at 81 and So the demand was far great
er than the supply, Medina township
soon became famous for its archaeology
ic wealth, and the little farm of the
Norwegian widow was cleared of its
mortgage within few years. More
than that her eldest son had erected
large new house for the comfort of
the family. Ethnologist jerks obtained
his first clue from Il neighbor OF this
suddenly prosperous family who had
taken a collector to the farm while the
eldest son was from home, and who
had, by accident penetrated into
workshop on the premises where were
found chips of flint and various imple-
ments OF that material IN different
stages of manufacture.
CONTEMPLATING INDIAN RELICS
In his confession to the ethnolcgst
the counterfeiter stated that 10 years
ago, while handling some flint arrow
heads he had noted that one had a
broken apex. Pressing this in his teeth
he had observed that small chips separ-
ated from the edge, leaving the same
general effect produced by the abOrig-
lnal maker Biting again and again he
completely repaired the imperfect inn
plement. This gave him an idea He
took a pair OF common steel pincers,
rounded and nattened one of the jaws
with q file, aud with this instrument
found that he could improve greatly
upon the biting method.
His skin developed, and soon ne found
himself able to chip out of flint beauti-
full, often delicate implements, which
completely fooled the country collec-
tors for years ana feathered his fam
lily nest to degree Of downiness which
struck envy to the people at Medina
township. This counterfeiter's art was
entirely his own, both as to discovery
and perfection, His material was
abundant within IL miles of his farm,
the country being plentifully supplied
with prehistoric nints. In most in
stances he elaborated upon the crude
and broken forms originally Clipped by
the redskins. He smeared the newly
Clipped edges with his none too immac-
uate thumb When sold mis- specimens
were found to have earth adhering to
them, He wore glasses TO protect his
eyes from the flying chips. Even the
most elaborate of his relics he could
turn out In less than a half hour And
Sc for o half hours labor is not bad
pay, indeed,
Recently a Michigander ondeayorad
to sell the bureau of ethnoogy in Wash
Il gton an elaborate collection of alleged
Idols, tablets, giant spear heads etc,
said to have been eXcaVated from no
less than 1862 mounds. These relies"
secined to have been nodded from clay
at recent date. but the large specl-
mems were almost invariably cracked
Characters and hieroglyphics from
hearty all of the ancient Asiatic and
European alphabets reproduced in our
dictionaries were stamped upon these
articles, and I'm the corner of one OF
the tablets was n representation Of the
ark. And yet these articles were al