Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-01-27

Dr. Frederick A. Cook is not the
first and very likely will not be the
last to offer the public gold brick, -
in the way Of great discoveries, says
the Washington Post. The takers
have been found in all lands, and in
almost all times, and their dealings
have been in fake discoveries in
science, in medicine, in literature.
Some were successful in fooling the
public for long periods; others were
soon caught and exposed. For three
centuries we have had among US
persons persistently claiming that
Shakespeare was a colossal faker.
and palmed off on a credulous
public the writings of one Bacon,
as being the productions of his
own brain and pen. The Baconites
are still very strong in numbers and
literary ability. Dr. Cook has had
many predecessors and will no doubt
have many successors in the years to
come, and the people will continue to
Snowman, said the people liked to be
humbugged. That may be putting it
pretty strong, but when we have once
been humbugged it delights our souls
to see somebody else get into the same
category.
One of the greatest. if not the great
est, commercial fakes ever perpetrated
upon the public was that of John Law
in his famous Mississippi bubble, dur
ing the reign of Louis XIV. France at
that time was bankrupt, when along
came a canny Scotchman, John Law,
with his scheme to make all French
men roll in wealth, and presented his
plan to colonize Louisiana. Paper
money, or rather paper promises, was
to be the basis of this wealth, and he
flooded the nation with his paper
Princes and peasants, mobiles and
clergy, men and women fought for
the chances to subscribe for this stock.
In one day he had all France rolling
in wealth and on the next STEPPED
worse than ever in poverty. Before the
collapse, however, all Europe was in
a craze to buy shares in the Mississip-
pi company, and history says that at
one time there were half million
foreigners in Paris eagerly speculat-
ing in the stocks and the prices rose
to $4,000 francs a share. But the end
came, and it came suddenly No one
except Law was looking for a break.
He saw it coming and fed the king
dom.
Law found his example in what his
tory knows as the South Sea Bubble"
This was a scheme that found it's birth
in the active brain of William Pater-
son, during the reign of Queen Anne.
Paterson was the founder of the Bank
of England, and had won high fame as
a sound financier, so it was easy for
him to find buyers for his shares when
he placed the glittering South Sea
scheme of colonization before the eyes
of the people. He selected the Isthmus
of Panama as the place to plant his
colony. Advertisers of gold mines and
other get-rich-quick schemes s1ight
find it to their advantage carefully to
peruse the flamboyant pamphlets is
sued by Paterson nearly two centuries
ago. After a while the end came:
the colonists sickened and died, money
became scarce in Scotland, and nobody
wanted to purchase any more of the
shares. and Panama was left to its fe-
yers.
There have been takers of history,
and the name of Herodotus, like that
of Abou ben Adhem, leads all the rest.
He has always been called the Father
Of History" because he was the first
to attempt to put into concrete form
the story of what the world had done
and what it was then doing. For near
ly 2,400 years he has been read with
delight by scholars, and they freely
admit that his historical gold bricks
are so well CARRIED that they are almost
rs good as the genuine article,
Among the hosts of literary gold
brick peddlers, Thomas Chatterton viii
ever stand at the head. The marvel
Gus boy that persisted in his pride, -
when only IA years of age, fooled all
the literary people of England Upon
some old parchments he found among
the things his father had left he pre-.
tended to have discovered fragments
of ancient poems, sermons, and articles
descriptive of the city churches, all
written in the old lettering and spell
ing They showed remarkable pow
ers, both for a poet and descriptive
writer, and at once had all literary
London agog. 1t was not long, how
ever. before the literary world found
that it had been hoaxed by a boy.
Chatterton went to London at the age
of II to make his way as a writer, but
soon fell into habits of intemperance,
and at the age of IS he ended his life
by drinking poison.
One of the popular poets of the pres
ent day in his early career handed out
to the public a specimen gold brick
which was so much like the genuine
article that most of the literary crit
les were taken IN. James WhitcOmb
Riley said. in a conversation with a
friend, that he could write a poem
that would be readily accepted as be-
ing an original by that master poeuj-
cal genius Of America, Edgar Allan
Poe, 4 few days later a paper in a
small Indiana town announced that
among some rubbish in an attic an old
book had been found that once belong
ed to Poe, and on the fly leaf was an