Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-09-27
SOME FAMOUS TALES.
Sensations Made by Foolins the
Public.


tising purposes are feature OF MOD
ern enterprise. In the theatrlcai
world, for instance they seem to nave
started with the old dodge of the ac-
tress being robbed of her jewels but
nowadays the booming is done In
more subtle manner.
A short time ago it was reported
that two of the principals engaged at
one of the great American theaters
had had a violent quarrel. Instantly
an army of pressmen rushed OIL 10
interview the disputants, and the next
day columns appeared in the news
papers giving various versions of the
quarrel. The game was kept up by
the two principals ''cutting" one an
other in public, but at the end or flVe
or six days, thanks to the managers
influence" the quarrel was patched
up. The cat was let out of the bag
by the manager, in an unguarded mo-
ment, ultimately admitting that IL was
part of his scheme for booming his
principals and incidentally, the play.
Perhaps one of the most amazing
fakes of late years was that by which,
two wears ago, a novel was doomed
i'm Germany. Half a million residents
in Berlin and other cities in Germany
received personally addressed letters,
seeming to come from unknown
friends, asking if they had read
certain book which contained some
revelations about themselves. Cabi-
net ministers, government ofilcials'
military men, bankers, merchants,
lawyers, university professors, women
i'm society and actors and actresses re-
ceived these letters, and the bookshops
were beseged for copies. Ultimately
they found that they had been the VIC
Tins of an advertising trick to boom
the sale of a novel which did not con-
Germ them i'm the slightest.
This fake reminds me of perhaps
the most successful newspaper hoax
on record-namely, the famous
Waterloo Bridge Mystery of 1857. a
bag full of human remains was founu
on one of the piers and for days the
newspapers were full of surmises as to
who was the victim of u seemingly
foul crime. Years afterwards re-
penting penny-a- liner confessed on ms
deathbed that the "hOrful murder
was an elaborate hoax which he HIM
self, at his wits end for copy, had
perpetrated with the help of a dis
secting-room porter
1t does not usually pay, however,
to palm off fake stories upon an edi-
tor, as four men, who received heavy
sentences four years ago, know 10
their cost. \ woman had been MUIR
dered, and the report was sent 10 Il
paper that one of these four men had
been arrested for the crime and had
confessed. This report proved to be
untrue. and the man sued the paper
for libel. 1t was ultimately proved
that he himself, together with three
confederateS, had sent the report of
the arrest and confession to the pa
per with the idea Of afterward getting
heavy damages for the false state
ment
BY the way. Lord BrOugham Sprang
a fake story upon London in 1889.
He caused a report to be circulated
that he had been thrown out and Kill
ed, while driving from Brougham
Hall in carriage to visit ruin. 1t
was recalled how at Il dinner party
few days before Brougham had been
one of thirteen at the table. and the
supcrstitious grew more superStitious
still. Journalists rushed tn write
obituaries. which BrOugham read
with much amusement, but when his
joke became known he was. needless
to say. promptly denounced by indig-
nant editors. who described his trick
as "a very pretty piece of deflI
amusement It'd Bits.