The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-09

length a few weeks. He quoted num-
 erous authorities; he staked his whole
 reputation upon the bold assertion that Mr. Van Wrinkle had deceived the pub.
 lie and was an imposter of the most barefaced and shameless description.
 After this arraignment had been printed the reporter cafne to see Mir
 Van Wrinkle to get his side of the case. MT. Van Wrinkle had gone so far that he could not afford to back water,
 and so he repeated the whole prepos-
 tereus mess of stuff about taking the drink and hunting a soft place under the trees and lying there twenty years. at last awakening to find the routed
 gun and the skeleton of the dog along side.
 Then the expert came back with a letter to the editor and wanted to know why the dog hadn't slept too and come out all right, and he offered to give a large sum of money to any charita-
 ble institution that might be named if Mir. Van Wrinkle would consent to lie
 on a mattress in some public place and give an exhibition nap of just one short month in order to prove his case. .
 As soon as the young doctor began to hammer the venerable and respected MT. Van Wrinkle and apparently had him on the run the public, with it's unerring instict of contempt for tot
 tering idol, joined In the general out cry. Mir. Van Wrinkle had made the
 great mistake of coming home as 6 hero. He should have known that in America no hero ever lasts. The dear
 people boost some nice old man up
 on high pedestal just so that they can have a good fair target at which
 to shy their briekOats.
 As soon as Rip an Wrinkle was on the down grade and moving at an ac-
 celerated speed the newspapers joined in with enthusiasm to do him up com pletely. The editor who had printed
 the full page story about his marvel Ious adventure in the mountains, sent private detectives over the ground and proved that the small boys of the town had gathered hickory nuts every year on the very spot where this hoary old humbug claimed that he had been asleep. When Mir. Van Wrinkle was asked to explain away the damming proof piled up against him he took refuge in dignified silence, and the public, as usual, construed his silence as an absolute admission of guilt.
 MT Van Wrinkle. instead of being a petted and pampered celebrity, now found himself in a class with the Uni- ted States Senator who has been writ ten up in the magazine. His humilia- lSa ISAdtANCS dAo NlVS0 AAAOhNSS W uO had been glad to share with him the first glories of his sensational return,
 now looked around for some good pre- text for railroading him into the re-
 mote background. They were inclined to take a charitable view of his case Instead of publicly denouncing him as a deliberate and vicious falsifier they agreed among themselves that he was
 mentally unbalanced. So they had him put away in a private sanltarium and sent the young doctor and other fam ous experts to peck at him through
 the bars and make notes as to his ec- centricities.
 When MT. Van Wrinkle was brought into the court room he looked across at the jury box and saw six digni- fled, sad eyed representative American business men.
 q can make out my finish" mrr- mured Mir. Van Wrinkle What chance has a beautiful mythical legend or & fragment of sweet, poetic folklore got
 with that bunch of narrow minded
 commercial clans? My ticket for the nut college is now being stamped on the back. I can see the booby hatch yawning for one old man that got too gay with his talk. No matter how suc-
 cessful Q liar a man may be, there
 is always a danger that he will reach
 for a tall one and land on his neck" 1 What could poor Rip Van Wrinkle do?
 If he disowned the whole story about