The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-06-24
Jokes on THE PUBLIC.
Some of the clever HOaXeS Ameri-
cans Have Fallen For.


and amused a nation, says the New
York Press. Mulhattan originated
the story that monkeys were TO sup
plant the negro cotton pickers.
Mulhattan told the story so often
that his earnestnesS made some news
paper men who printed the story
think that it was possible. He figur-
ed it out on paper as paving invest
ment. The monkeys, Of course, would
receive no wages, so that on the face
of it much would be saved in the
cost of picking the crop. Then, too,
the monkeys would increase rapidly.
For a time the story that monkeys
would supplant negroes in picking
cotton was believed. particularly as
the experiment was being tried on
a Louisiana plantation" The address
OF the plantation, however, was so
vague no one was able to locate it.
Barnum loved to fool the people.
A rival Snowman obtained a white
elephant. Barnum by telegraph tried
to obtain it and offered a huge sum.
The owner of the real white elephant
used Barnum's telegram as news
paper advertisement and poster,
which made Barnum the more eager
to get the animal. Failing in getting
the white elephant, he cabled all over
the world to get one. Then he re-
sorted to subterfuge He bleach. g
an ordinary elephant, and did 1t so
we'll that he not only fooled the peo-
pie who came to see it, but also
learned body of scientists, who gave
him a testimonial to the effect that
it was a genuine albino elephant.
Another Barnum hoax was the
giant of Cardiff, which was really
q hoax of hoax. Barnum failed In
getting the real giant of Cardiff, but
that did not deter him from showing
the "original."
George Hull, of Binghampton, n.
Y, and the Rev. Mr.. Turk, of Ackley,
Ohio, got into dispute about giants.
Probably it came about through a
discussion of a giant that Hull had
in front of his tobacco shop. 1t may
have come through an Interpretation
of the text, And there were giants in
those days" No one is alive who
recollects the original dispute, so that
one story is as good as another as to
how the hoax began.
Hull spent two years in the study
of fossil remains and archaeology.
Finally he got slab Of stone II feet
long. 4 feet broad, % inches thick
and had it carved according to speci-
fications.
Mr.. Hull very cleverly had the
giant carved so that there might be
a question. or a difference of opin-
ion, as to whether it was a fossil or a
prehistoric sculture. The giant
was rubbed. scrubbed, bathed, washed
and pricked with pores, an acid was
used that would take off the look Of
Chicago and modernity.
Finally it was shipped, buried on a
farm of a relative of Hull and dis
covered by men digging a we'll. The
digging of the we'll was plausible
enough. Delegations came from all
over the country, including both
learned men and curiosity seekers.
So great was the procession that 1t
became quite profitable. and finally
it attracted Barnum's attention. He
had failed to get the Cardiff giant,
but it did not take him two years to
have a replica of it in his museum.
Newspapers have not been above
hoaxing the public.
One newspaper in New York be-
lieved the old managerie cages in
Central park were not sufficiently
strong. 1t conceived a tale or the
lions, tigers. leopards and other ami
mails breaking out and killing and in
juring people. and printed pages
about it.
No story of hoaxes is complete un-
less New York's we'll known joker is
mentioned. He is Brian G. Hughes.
and he has perpetrated more than a
dozen jokes that have made the me-
tropolis chuckle. To perpetrate
these hoaxes has cost him much
money: but in all of his tricks no one
has ever suffered particularly
Probably his best known exploit,
because it was so successful, was the
career of his tom cat Nicodemus, a
tenement house cat he purchased for
10 cents. and which he advertised as
the $4,000 cat, mot for sale" In its
class, Nicodemus carried off first prize
at the show in Madison Square Gar
den.
When Hughes decided to enter his
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