The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-08-22
Famous Western Liars
Joe Mulhatton Made Baron
Munchausen Look Like
an Infant.
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New York Telegraph.)

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New York Telegraph.)
THESE are the regions Of the joyful
ne. Here sprang n 1ourished the
Major Haazeldorps, the Joe Mulhat-
tons, n Isaac Cooleys and the Bill
Leeds. These have their myriad i'm
itators who lie for the fun Of it. Joe
Mulhatton, of whose death l have
heard rumors. but Of which I have
OBTAINED no confirmation, was in his
prime the greatest source Of smuse-
ment and excitement at given periods
IN all the country. Now, no one cues
tons the fact that there are more
good, honest. generous and well-mean-
ing and right-living. men pro rata in
the west than there are in the EAST.
The west is no place for the human
skunk, but even the meanes man who
needs a little neighborly help will find
1t In every community where the east
would turn him the cold shoulder al
most invariably. Yet, these admfra-
Bile people love Joe Mulhatton and i'm
itate him.
Not since Baron Munchausen mas
there been a man to rise to such
heights Of mendacity as Mulhatton. He
was born in Allegheny City in 1851.
spent his boyhood in Louisville, but
his young manhood. the real period
- HS was SpCII III tHS west.
Az a commercial traveller he was al
ways successful and was marked for
mis- business honesty, but going here
an dthere over the country he delight
ed IN dipping large masses Of the pop
ulation with a long succession Of as
founding tales. His early stories were
told to fellow travelling men, who
spread his fame far and near. Inter
national fame did not come to him till
In 1888. when the newspapers of the
continent as we'll as the United States
copied a story from the Louisville
Courier-Journal, which stated that
James Guthrie of Shelby county. KY,
had imported from South America a
large number Of husky monkeys and
had trained them to break hemp, weed
the garden, pick tobacco worms and
% general farm work. So great was
Guthrie's success that his neighbors.
lseeing the place Of the slave laborer
now flled, were sending for carloads
Eof monkeys from Amazonas. The So
iber. solemn London Standard, under
the caption Of THE New Labor Prob
lem" devoted a column and a half of
ponderous discussion to the matter.
In 1885 there came a story from
Atlanta. Ga. that appeared simultan-
eously in western papers to the eff
feet that a central Georgia farmer
grove a dozen geese into his cotton
nelds every morning with water-flled
gourds about their necks. Each
gourd had a hole in the side. The
geese weeded the cotton patch and
drank from each others gourds. Az
long as 1t was daylight and they held
out they did excellent work. Some
mystery connected with the water held
them to their tasks. Amazing as it is,
western papers still print accounts OF
farmers In remote districts, who hav-
ing heard. the tale for he first time.
tried out the experiment.
Once. purely on paper, Mulhatton
eeruck: aoitsat GLASGOW Junction, Tenn,
and for two weeks the town had q
great boom. from which It has never
recovered. In, 1884 he filled the pa
pers with an account OF a gigantic
meteor which had fallen in a remote
part Of Texas. It demolished a Mai.
cans house and killed eight peoi
J Six big colleges actually sent and
some time maintained searching 81