The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1908-12-30
ARTFUL MOON HOAXES
LIES mat Have Been Told About
the Queen of the Night.
FooLED THE WHOLE WORLD
Inc Famous Moon Hoax of tho New
rork sun That Was Published In
1888 and Was Reprinted All Over tho
e'obe--German Yarn That Fell Flat.

S' ma" rarn That Fell Flat.
one of the must curious Cacts cor.
corning the goddess of night" is her
l''tlih@tc connection with liars of vari-
Gus llk' fShe joke of its day and sencr
aIlon was the famous moon hoay'' of
the New York Sun, perpetrotod in
$3.50. Sir John Herschel had gone to
ihe cape of Good Hope to take astro-
hoinlcal observations. Inspired by too
ueep potationS or by Nicollets snccrs
"l lle moonStruck Arago or by the
Oalelul rays Of the queen of night her
Sclt, the idca came TO Richard Adams
Locke, Sun reporter, that a mythical
account OF Sir Johns work would
MAKE hrSt class "Story" for his pa
per. 1T has bcen stated that Louis
Gaylord Clark aided the plot, but this
IS not probable. and some doubt even
NicoIlctS influence and hold that the
whole scheme lay between Locke and
his bottle only
However that may have been. there
appeared In the Sun in September a
long article purportlng to be a letter
from DR.. Andrew Grant to the Edin-
burSh Journal of Science describing
some wonderful discoveries that Her
Schel had made concerning the nature
ana inhabitants of the moon. The
astronomer, it was said, had been ena-
hled by remarkable combination Of
powerful telescopes and microscopes to
bring the moon so near that the OBJ
server could recognize the character OF
rocks on her surface, perceive the
color of flowers and detect the charac-
tcristiCS Of men and animals that he
saw. These observations proved, Of
course, the existence of animal life on
the orb. and It is curious that among
the types perceived there were several
TINT DarwiniSm-ha it been born at
that datc-might have recognized as
missing links" All the types of life
on the lunar surface were inferior.
proving, rs the writer OF the article
grandiloqucntly observed, that "man
may now fold The zodiac around him
With n lOfticr consciousness of mental
supremacy"
The sensation produced by this arti-
Gle was amazing OF the issues of the
Sun containing Il edition after edition
was called for until 100000 copies had
been So'I The article was also issued
in pamphlet form--hoth in the United
States and EnGland-and was disposed
~ in countless numbers. I'm the Eng
i~h edition MI reference TO DR.. Grant
aud thc Journal of Science was wisely
omitted0 a French translation was
also promptly made by NJ. Nicollet, OF
witch over half n million copies were
sold on the continent Of Europe.
1t may he said that a whole world
was taken in by this magnificent Joke.
Except few scientists who perceived
She splendid absurdity OF the detailed
descriptions and 4 few skeptics WHO
never believed anything on general
everybody was hoaXed There
were rather more dOuDters among ed
ucatrd persons abroad than here. as
might have been supposed, though even
,hcrc the numbers of believers formed
Il line tribute TO the ingenuity that
jwmrd the "stoly." NJ. Arago was
~aid to have been completely taken In,
whereby the malice that inspired the
OF the tale by his political
opponent Nicollct, was abundantly sat.
iShcd. This latter gentleman in fact,
gained Il great deal more than he was
at all entitled to-in amusement and
literary credit as well rs hard cash
from Mr. Locke's imaginative effort.
Vet other jokes OH the moon-and on
lh" publlc-haV there been in recent
,Ancs that are quite worth recording.
.Nnput 1SG2 Il Boston paper published
A story purpOrtinG TO be translated
from an article written by Il German
astronomer This declared that "a sec
,ud satellite 10 this earth planet" was
,u make its appearance within few
wears. when every person gazing Mt
,hc goddess Of night in her resplcndent
..Ioy would bc tempted to quote 4 line
from an old song, "The moon is full,
and so am T." for he would "see dou
be" The article gave very elaborate
10 impart 10 Its absurdi-
,v ! Scmblancc of truth, but all this III.
4cnuity seems to have been thrown
Iway. Whether the Boston paper real
IS originated the Joke or actually Dor
rowcd il from Germany seems not to
have been known. but In any case it
rrll fat. st that time our civil war
did not give the people time
M. inclination to take up hoaxes of any
sort
A9ain. in 1871 the New York World
uubIiShcd dispatch based On some
mythical observations made by sup
pnscd member Of British scientific
society, which stated that the frame OF
;hc moon was seen to be gradually
cracking and threatened ere long to
FAN into separate fragments. This was
:, special cable" sent by CORE
<pondent. and the worst victim OF the
hoax was the paper receiving It,