The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-08
THE ORIGINAL MERMAID FAKE
Japanese the Weird Creature and Banum Did the
Rest-But Few Specimens Are Now Seem

attraction in the British metropolis, and 300
to 400 people every day paid their shilling to
''This was the curiosity which had fallen
into Mr.. Kimball's hands. I requested my
naturalist's opinion of the genuineness OF
the animal, and he said he could not con-
ceive how 1t could have been manufactured,
for he never saw a monkey with such peculiar
teeth. arms, hands, etc, and he never saw a
fish with such peculiar FMS; Put he did not
cluded to hire this curiosity and to modify
the general incredulity as to the possibility
of the existence Of mermaids (Which was
and to awaken curiosity to see and examine
the specimen I invoked the potent power OF
printers ink.
"Since Japan has been opened to the outer
world it has been discovered that certain
artists in that country manufacture great
variety of fabulous animals with an ingenu-
ity and mechanical perfection well calculated
to deceive. No doubt my mermaid was a
specimen of this curious manufacture. l
used it mainly to advertise the regular busi-
ness Of the museum, and this effective. indi-
rect advertising is the only feature I can
commend in special show, of which, I con-
Tess. am not proud. Newspapers turnout
the country copied the mermaid notices, LOT or
readers. Thus was the fame of the museum
as we'll as the mermaid waited from one end
OF the land to the other. was careful to
every dollar sown in advertising would re-
turn in tens and. perhaps, hundreds IN a
future harvest, and after obtaining all the no
toriety possible by advertising by exhib-
curiosity turnout the country, directing my
agent to everywhere advertise it as From
Barnum's Great American Museum, New
York The effect was Immediately felt.
| Money flowed in rapidly, and was readily
expended IN more advertising"
| Such, in brief, is the history Of one OF the
most scientific fakes ever perpetrated upon
the American public, the "Fiji Mermaid. >
! Old Washingtonians have a distinct recollec-
| ton Of this hoax, and of how the people
| Hooked to see what looked like a mummifed
monkey. with q hshs tall. But the humbus
| ness was more profitable than fan tan or the
| opium trade spread In China and Japan unit
so many Chinks were busy making mermaidi
\ that soon there came a glut on the marke
sailors to suspect fraud. Every sailor re-
/ turning from the far east brought one Of thes.
/ mummifed mermaids home with him, ant
\ soon the objects which In 1922 and 1912 wer,
! the sensation OF the hour, and, as Barnun
i himself states, were puzzle to men o.
/ and coacanuts along the docks of Londo1
/ and New York.
| Mermaids became very cheap, and sailors
| refused to buy more. In fact, the sailor
| angry over having been deceived, were read.
Hongkong. Canton, Shanghai, or Nagasaki
came aboard ship with ''mermaids" for sale
The one In the old Hancock Tavern wa
brought to this city from China In 1870, O
perhaps earlier, and for time belonge,
to a groceryman OF the name of B. w. Read
4 near the corner of Eleventh street, and VIII
gave 1t to Mr.. Hancock. It is perhaps, to-da.
4 one OF the very few Of these objects still t
i be found in this country and England, q