Norwich bulletin., 1922-08-18
Famous Literary Mysteries
WHERE DID LAWSON GET HIS
 FACTS

Tn 1875 Capt. J. A. Lawson startled Europe by his publication of book entitled "Wanderings in New Guinea" It created a great sensation as giv- ing a graphic account of a county with which Europeans were unfamil- jar, and in which they were deeply interested. It was so striking in it's descriptions and so inter esting in it's details that it was accepted as a clas- sic of it's character, and for a time Capt. Lawson was very much in the pubic mind.
 But Kawsons success was to be short lived, for it was finally discov- cred that he was a fakir and he was dealt with accordingly. His method of lying showed some of the influ- ences of Sir John Vaudeville, prob ably the greatest of all artists in this line.
 Lawson's book was based on the same straightforward narrative of | supposed events put down, as in travellers journal just as they are supposed to have occurred. The taste of the authors accurate and learned times obliged him to restrict himself to marvels of an approved scientific nature. such as fairly high mountains and fairly large beasts, and to esehew such things as magic and monsters. | indeferenee to the advance stage of intelligence.
 The book was published in 1875. Unfortunately for lovers of this sort l of thing the book had very short run, and his publishers called in and destroyed most of the edition, so that l the volume is rather rarity in our day. In his description of an ascent 1 of the gigantic imaginary Mount Her l eules. Lawson produced passages Of | his entertaining work, interesting to note, which read strangely like pages | from a modern Arctic explorers re- port.
 Capt. Lawson's Munehausiad, to cali 1 it by its literary name, is a smooth 1 ly written, eircumstantial day-by- day l narrative of 2SS pages. It is perfection in most points of the technique of popular scientific deception. It is wonderful enough to cause the public l to gape, yet not too fantastic. It ex-
 eels at the same time by eircumstan- tial detail the backbone of good ly- ing. just as of good fiction and good
 truth telling, for that matter, too. It
 is always entertaining, often heroic l The writer tells in bright, beliey- able way of the greatest variety of
 things. He sees some volcanoes at | night He notes some peculiar moss ] holds a magnificent" snake Of great dimensions. He passes miserable : night in a tempest. He describes shoot
 ing a New Guinea tiger larger thar
 the Bengal tiger.
 His faithful servant Toolo is : snitten by sunstroke and shoots him. = self in a fit of madness with Law.
 sons rifle, putting the barrel in hi!
 mouth and pressing the trigger witt f his toe. So it goes all through tn, o book. Lawson's trump cards are tn, < discovery of an imaginary Lake Al U exandrina, 80x3O miles in dimensions
 of a Mount Hercules some 5000 fee
 higher than Everest and severa species of gigantic animals, mucl t larger than their next of kin in othe k lands.
 Capt. Lawson, like others of hi
 cult-notably De Rougemount, Psal # nanazar, Hans Egede and more re ol gently pr. Cook, must either have ha a a most vivid imagination and som
 means of securing information c
 which we have never been made awar
 or he was blessed with an unusual T. fertile imagination.