The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-28
A FAMOUS. MERMAID.
History of a Fake Made by the Chi
 nese

History of a Fake Made Dy the Cnl- nese,
 Every Washington is familiar with the Hancock Tavern, on Pennsylvania avenue. between Twelfth and Thir- teenth streets, Northwest, which is one of the remarkable old curiosity shops of the city. The establishment has been running since 1s42, and during that time three generations of Hancocks have made a point of collecting things rare or curious or likely to be of inter- est to future generations Among these is one which cannot be duplicated else where, and which deserves to be pre- served as a curio that is a landmark in the history of frauds and fakes. The object is nothing more nor less than what in the past has been yariously known as a Japanese mermaid" "Fiji mermaid" Chinese mermaid" etc.
 For ages the Japanese and Chinese have been experts in the making of monsters and fabulous animals. Give a Japanese the tail of dried fish, some monkey or pig skin, and little wool or cotton, and he will turn out mermaid which, if found lying on the beach by one unacquainted with its history, would be taken for the dried remains of just such creature. Several centuries ago, when European ships first found their way into Japanese waters, the Japanese heard a deal of mermaids and merinen from the superstitious Portu- guese, Dutch and English sailors, so much that finally one day a shrewd workman constructed out of a piece of dried fish and part of monkeys skin and skeleton what looked for all the world like a dead mermaid that had lain on the beach for several weeks, until the skin and body were thoroughly mummified. This, of course, made a great sensation among the ignorant and superstitious European sailors who purchased the fraud at a high figure. Finding they could sell these humbugs at astounding prices, other Japanese and Chinese began making fake mer- maids, which, when they sold them to the sailors, they alleged came from the far distant South Seas, near the Fiji Islands, etc. @
 Europe dl1u AIIleTlCd uiu IiOl near ol these mermaids, however, until along about 1922, when an English sailor took one to London, where it created an i'm mense sensation, and even puzzled the men of science of that day and time. Finally, it remained for Barnum to ex- ploit the matter, which he did some years after this mermaid reached Lon- lon. Speaking of this matter in his me- moirs and life, he says: ..,
 "A curiosity, which in an extraordi- nary degree served my ever-present ob- ject of extending the notoriety of the American Museum (Barnuras fourth venture in the amusement line, located on Broadway, and about the worst col- lection of humbugs and frauds ever gathered together under one roof), was the so-called 'Feejee Mermaid It has been supposed that this mermaid was manufactured by my order, but such is not the fact I was known as suc- cessful snowman, and strange things of every sort were brought to me from all quarters for sale or exhibition. In the
 summer of 1S42 Mrs. Moses Kimball of the Boston Museum came to New York and showed me what purported to be a mermaid. He had bought it from a sailor whose father, a sea captain, had purchased it in Calcutta in 1922 from some Japanese sailors. may mention