The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1909-10-31

hOItu S-IsDy-sylD, ana 10 Keep OH Octldl lllb
e until bankers and merchants are Will
Ing 10 lend one Sl5.000.OC0 in cash and en-
able a family 10 live eighteen years in
luxury solely by borrowing surely no
dime novelist ever schemed q C, azier plot.
Yet the Humberts devised it, and the
dnanciers OF Paris helped carry It out,
receiving In return. when al length the
great safe that held the family fortune
was opened. some old papers. an Italian
penny. and metal button. Mrs. Cassie
Chadwick used the same method, with
variations It succeeded. The Kew. Flea
Ear Williams believed. II may be with
show OF reason, that he was the lost
Dauphin. the son OF Louis XVI Lacking
aggressiveness, he was content to believe
it. and live his simple life as a missionary
among the Indians. But had he been en-
dowed with the Humbert or the Chadwick
spirit he might at least have been Duke
Of New York
Pretty stories Blasted.
Il will be argued as a substantial ex-
cuse for human creduuty that even in
youth We innocently begin TO asslmnate
legends which arc lies and facts which
are fictious We learn that Nero fddled
while Rome burned; but we discover
later that the fiddle was not invented un-
an the middle Of the sixteenth century;
that Nero at the time 90 the fire was fifty
miles away, and that on the whole. the
burning OF Rome. with a view 10 fits re-
building, was about the best thing that
Nero ever did. In childhood we hug
William Tel 10 our bosoms; but. grown
older. we dismiss him as a myth Chill
dren OF not so many years ago who found
time 70 study the geography lesson used
20 SILVER delightfully."- over descriptions Of
the deadly maelstrom. but now we know
that Norwegians placldly fish in IT,
There is sound reason 10 believe that
Capt. John Smith invented the story OF
his rescue by POcahontas IN order 20 COM
mend her 10 the good graces OF the
Queen. X seems equally certain that the
last words Of Lawrence. OF the Chesa-
peake. Don't give up the shipv' were
said for him by the editor OF the Boston
Sentinel. And that pretty tale with which
the preachers used 20 illustrate the indie
structbillty Of truth, the termination or
a grain OF wheat that had Been wrapped
Up with an Egyptian mummy for thou
sands OF years. is explicitly scorned by
the modern scientist, who says that such
wheat never did terminate and never
could
Unhappily. men do not seem 20 profit
by these lessons, and the reason IS. Il
may be that. though corrections arrive
slowly and one at n time, invitations to
believe appear so swiftly and SO numer-
ously that they soon build I'D a habit OF
belief. Mr.. Barnum's patrons. having ac-
cepted Joyce Heth, 'the nurse Of Wash
ington,' were ready and waiting for the
mermaid. the wooliy horse. captured on
the Western plains" and the Cardiff
giant, "a specimen OF prehistoric man. %
Forty years ago the admission fees that
people jOyously paid 20 see the giant. a
monstrosity carved from gypsum, repre-
sented interest on an Investment OF s.. 900
eco; to-day, or when last heard from. the
7 discredited marvel was stored in a barn
az FitchbUrg. But that does not mean
that people have grown more discerning:
( II merely signifies that the fashion IN
monstrosities has changed an ingenious
mechanic within few miles OF the state
house makes an excellent living by in
venting and putting together strange
( birds and beasts and things in the shape
I OF men which the patrons Of many a
moral exhibition firmly believe 10 be
real
Queer Notions
There are persons who accept the idea
Of perpetual motion and patiently labor
to realize it There are others who never
doubted that Connecticut was once ruled
1 by blue laws" and are able 70 reel of
horrible mples-manufactured by the
I Rev. Samuel Peters, never by any State
authority. Similarly. there were good
citizens who believed that Marshal Ney
Z aa ID
! North Carolina, and that J. Wilkes
/ Booth. so far from being shot bv his cap
tors, got away 90 Canada and abode
there What wonder. then. that IN the
troubled month OF May 1864, New York
went wild over a forged proclamation
/ purporting 70 be President Llncoln's call
for 10000 men. The purpose o. this fraud
was to rig" the gold market IL sue
/ ceeded, temporarily. and the author, Joe
! Howard, escaped punishment But the
( British government proved less compIa-
cent when In 1Sl4 a report of Napoleon S
death was set afOat with speculative
ends IN view. Not only were the guilty
( persons punished. but nephew OF one OF
/ them. Thomas COchrane. Earl Dundonald
who was merely suspected Of compile
ity." was fined e1,O00. struck OF the navy
( list. expelled from Parliament. degraded
| from his knighthOO6, and sentenced tC
/ undergo years Imprisonment and to
stand an hour in the pillory.
] When Artenus Ward set out On hts ca
/ reer IS Snowman his old father dismissed
/ him with the adjurauon. "Go, my son: 70
and hog the public" They felt that this
could easily be done, nor had thev any
reason TO dread the consequences. This
! is not that England Of the regency which
/ dr01f mfr, v,aN.. Do.l,--.e.
! Perhaps the disposition 70 be severe has
vanished altogether from a world agree
I ably ged in fOoling and being fooled.
! For instance, nobody thinks Of punish
I ing ingenious gentlemen who manufac-
/ ture Rembrandts for the new rich; they
fatten by the process. Scarcely any DOW
er but fate seemed ever TO concern itself
with the bat-liiIe creatures that fiuttered
about the Dreyfus case, confusing Ihe
/ vision of at least a part Of the public To
lift the discussion 70 a higher plane no
one found fault with Edward Everett
/ Hale for persuadiug most OF hts readers
that THE Man Without a Country" was
true story. Actually it was much more.
Local Frauds and Fakes.
That is a curions process by which q
/ local fraud becomes a national and his
toric event. Sometimes il Is eSplainable.
as with the moon hoax" and the bal
/ loon hoax" by the intrinsic cleyerness OF
/ the thing. Again. like the Scotch minis
I ter's sermon which "joombled the joodg-
ment and confoonded the sense" the
fraud may set out by dazing hearers into
solemnity, and survive IN memory be-
cause the things they did beneath its
( spell provoke all future hearers 20 mex
/ tinguishable laughter. At the 'reconcilia-
/ ton dinner" of New York Democrats.
subsequent 60 the campaign OF 1906. a
/ telegram purporting to come from Will
( lam J. Bryan enJoined the guests 70 re
member the 100000 Democrats OF the