The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-03-19
THE ART OF
.FAKER." LIKE CLOWN, ABUSES VIC
ANGER SOMETIMES PRECEDEs II ID LAUGHTER
GREAT CHICANERIES OF lIsTORy


.throush by unexpected, oblique spears
= v;t Oscar Wilde accused the Brit
IN public OF allowing the art Of lying
= decay. Everything that was told
had to be a fact. The inventing OF
tories. the telling of beautiful, I'M
true things" seemed to have passed.
Nowadays people die Of sort OF
creeping common sense" he said; and
vet Britons, in spite Of their common
sense. which is kind Of national
nose. are secretly as fond Of the in
ventions of the poised imagination as
ve frankly are In this county. Did
thew not gravely circulate the news
! short time ago in London that AM
.erican families were split to the point
al civil war over disagreements about
the Peary-Cook discoveries?
imaginative lying and belief in the
neople who do it are things popular
With all nations. History, at least,
shows us names of Italians, of Ger
mans, French, English and Americans,
10 mention only a few OF the ma
tionalities that have told the world
interesting stories which they did not
al all label as fction-till long after
ward.
Here in America, where 1t is our
Wsy to take nothing too gravely, We
dearly love a good story, and we do
not consider ourselves put upon so
desperately when we find ourselves
fooled
Paucity of Great Deceits.
For the last forty or fifty years few
really artistic instances of lying have
appeared among us. OF course we
have had some, but of minor quality.
P. T. Barnum, the much quoted, was
The best perhaps of the latter day
takers. There was something taking
about his ingenuity. His dancing
hens were very popular even after it
vas discovered that the bottom OF
their cage was overheated, and Swans
discussed the famous pink rats that
/ the populace crowded to see. The only
one Of his humbugs that people ever
seemed to resent was his exhibition OF
The Exit" He had barker placed
q q darkened doorway inside his cir
cur building, who sang the beauties
Of this side show:
This way to the wonderful exit,
the only thing of its kind in the whole
world he cried.
People streamed down to see it and
Qpon opening door at the bottom OF
the stairway found themselves in the
5treet. This game was worked with
. view to clearing the showrooms in
crowded hours so that new patrons
might be admitted and the box Office
receipts correspondingly enlarged.
The hoaxes Of recent years in other
countries have been of much the same
hind as ours. England had, among
my others, the Tichborne case, where
b young Arthur Orion turned up as
he heir to the large Tichborne es-
htsa Young Tichborne, years before,
ID gone to sea and had never re-
Turned. His relatives supposed him
erowned, but when this sturdy young
allow returned from the arms of the
lap and announced that he was the
ing lost one the family received him
8eoavinced that there was something
nbout his face which was familiar.
Years make such changes! His claims
Nere turned down by the courts, but
any still believe in the pretender.
A "Fake" Army Officer.
Germany had the ingenious captain
ia Kopenick, who only a short time
40 appeared before a company Of
nfAntrymen in a captains uniform
mich he had bought at a pawnshop,
nd, taking command, made the whole
ostachment unsuspectingly assist in
3 wonderfully successful raid on
esighboring town.
But daring as all these modern i'm
pastures have been, they seem to lack
ec0ewhat the imaginative element of
- old days. The lying has not been
y artistic.
Only think Of the Princess Carl
30" who landed at Bristol, England,
- frosty evening in the winter of
lz13. The mere description Of her
eriul sets the fancy flying. Long
seelore sunset feet messenger ar
lyed at the door of the leading ho-
~ IN Bristol and announced that
pllncess from the Far East was to
ez5iye in few hours. The best suite
= the house must be reserved and
esery effort made to entertain her
luyal,y.
Inc hotel force was all thrown into
= fury Of preparation, and, sure
ough, just at shutdown a wonderful
sottege drew up before the door.
nom a special coach the princess