Show ai andoW celebrated moon hoax a sensation here and abroad by PROEHL HALLER JAKLON gets a big kick out of MAN fooling bis fellows there seems to be something delicious in baiting a trap and seeing someone bite the stone age and the age before it probably had its practical jokers and all history is full of jokes and hoaxes perpetrated to the delight of some and to the embarrassment of others sometimes the fooling Is for gain for fun and often for both individuals indulge id it and have been known to another on other nations wooden norse of the greets mhd ahe of the hoi lab world 9 tulip alch it was learned would thrive on certain types of dutch soil useless for anything else soon all the wanted this new flower and bulbs cold for as high as apiece the dutch and then the fad waned leaving purchasers all over the world with expensive bulbs but no marlet centuries later americans were to fall for ginseng alfalfa mushrooms and silver foxes ita a great game perhaps the most celebrated hoax in history was the moon hoax conceived by richard adams locke a newspaper reporter and perpetrated by the new york bun in 1835 its success depended upon mans interest in astronomical phenomena that insatiable curiosity to know what lies beyond the veil of space which surrounds the earth science today Is convinced that the moon has no life upon it but a century ago before the day of powerful telescopes the public anew little of the heavens beyond what it could see with the naked eyo after dark speculation was always keen as to whether or not life existed on the moon today we wonder the same thing about the planet mars moon hoax fools two continents and so the new york sun chose a very fertile field in 1835 when it began the publication of lockes fantastic imaginings with all the serious ness of a great scientific discovery for a time the credulous public of two continents and even the scientists wre completely deceived this stu feat brought the sun the largest alon in the world and in the opinion of edgar allan poe established the penny newspaper as an cocle locle could write about almost anything ills fund of general information was huge and he could turn out prose or poetry politics or pathos anecdotes or astronomy in 1834 cocle locle heard of an astronomical expedition to south africa now during july and august 1835 things were a bit dull on the island of manhattan and the newspapers were running short of material with which to entertain and attract their readers cocle locle needed money and so he laid a plan before mr day the suns editor on august 21 the tol lowing item appeared on the second page of the diun celestial discoveries the edinburgh courant baya we have learned from an eminent publisher 0 this city sir john hercchel He rachel at the cape of good hope has made some astronomical discoveries of the most wonderful description by means of an telescope of an entirely new principle then after four days the sun published what purported to be a reprint from a supplement to the edinburgh journal of science there had been such a publication a few years before but it was not generally known that it bad ceased publication in three columns on page one the iaun carried the astonishing announcement of recent discoveries which will build an imperishable monument to the age in which we live they describe the telescope A technical description of the telescope followed and a hypothetical account told of the channels through which this remarkable bad traveled from cape town thus was laid the foundation of what was to follow to queries as to where it had obtained its supplement to the edan r burgh journal of science the sun declared in an editorial that it was very politely furnished ua by a medical gentleman immediately from scotland no great excitement had been caused e far but the next day the town was jolted by four columns of actual description of the landscape of the moon sir johns telescope was so powerful the story asserted that it brought objects to within a few feet of the observer this Is what the astronomers in cape town were reported to have been the trees tor a period of ten minutes were of one unvaried kind and unlike any except the largest class of bews yews in english churchyards they were followed by a level green plain which must baa been more than bait a mile in breadth A column farther on in a wonderful valley of this wonderful moon life at last burst upon the beccne in the shade of the woods on the southeastern side we beheld continuous herds of brown quad rupees having all the external characteristics of the bison but smaller than any species of the bos citius in our natural history it had on distinctive feature which we afterward found common to nearly every lunar quadruped we have discovered namely a remarkable fleshy appendage over the eyes crossing the whole breadth of the forehead and united to the ears it immediately occurred to the acute mind of tr hercchel HerB chel that this was a protective covering for the eyes against the great extremes of light and darkness to which all the inhabitants of our side of the moon are periodically subjected find humans on the moon the issue of august 28 satisfied public curiosity as to the presence of human creatures on the moon the astronomers were looking at the cliffs and crags of a new part of the satellite but whilst gazing upon them we were thrilled with to perceive tour successive locks of birds descend with a slow even motion from the cliffs on the western side and alight upon he plain about halt of the first party had passed from our view but of all the others we had a perfectly distinct and deliberate view they averaged four feet in height wore covered except on tho face with short and gloway copper f cofoid hair and had winea composed of a thin beata aba A ba A scene on the moon published in connection with the new york suns celebrated hoax of 1835 membrane without hair lying snugly upon their backs from the top of their shoulders to the calves of their legs the face which was of yellowish flesh color was a slight improvement upon that of the orangutan being more open and intelligent in its expression fand having a much greater expanse of tore head the mouth however was very prominent though somewhat relieved by a thick beard upon the lower jaw and by lips far more human than those of the ape these creatures were evidently in conversation their gesticulations more particularly the varied action of the hands and arms appeared impassioned and emphatic we hence inferred that hey were rational beings and although not so high an order as others which we discovered the next month on the shores of the bay of rainbows that they are capable of producing works of art and contrivance we scientifically denominated them as homo or manabat and they are doubtless innocent and happy creatures the astronomers get careless the nest installment to talling words was printed on the three succeeding days in it was revealed the discovery of the great temple of the moon built of polished sapphire with a roof of some yellow metal supported by columns seventy feet high and six feet tn diameter in the vaclev of the temple a new species of man bat was discovered then one night when the astronomers finished work they carelessly left the telescope facing the eastern horizon the rising sun burned a hole through the reflecting chamber and ruined part of the telescope when the damage was repaired the moon was and the great moon narrative came to an end by this time new lork was talking of nothing except these astounding discoveries they were the sensation of the day french and eng pipers abroad translated or copied the suns fabrication and the sensation in europe was equal to that in this country the sun founded only two years before saw its circulation increased to exceeding by more than 2000 the clr cul atlon of the london times hitherto the larg est in the world meanwhile sir john II erschel in south africa was busy with his telescope entirely unaware of the discoveries credited to him when he at last found out he was overcome saying that he never could expect to live up to the fame that had been heaped upon him of course many persons suspected the hoax but the detail of the story was so minute and lavish that no one dared say anything many of the rival papers were fooled along with the public the journal of commerce was on the point of reprinting the suns story in justice tp its readers when cocle locle himself gave the hoax away in the words of edgar allan poe from the epoch of the hoax the sun shone with unmitigated splendor ep lendor its success firmly established the penny system throughout the country and through the sun we are indebted to the genius of locke for one of the most important steps yet batien in the pathway of human progress cardiff giant hoax of 1869 today with our rapid means of communication and transportation a hoax of such gigantic pro portions could not long endure the light of such publicity on the contrary the public seems all too willing to stamp any unusual bit of news as a mere newspaper yarn that Is if they do not want to believe it this will to believe or to Is a powerful factor with the human mind if it makes feel better to believe something psychologists tell us you are likely to hold it so if it disturbs your peace of mind to accept something as true you are likely to wave it aside as foolishness or heresy there are persons in america today who refuse to sub scribe to the theory that the earth Is round they like to think of it as flat and flat it Is to them the difference A famous hoax of was that of the cardiff giant well diggers near cardiff N T one morning came upon the stone figure of a man ten feet tall alth shoulders three feet in breadth the right arm and hand lay across the body while the left was pressed against the back directly opposite the legs were slightly contracted as it by pain the left foot resting pirt lally upon the right speculation ran rife as to the origin of the giant and come of the visitors were quick to recognize its value as an exhibit before long the farmer on whose land the figure was found beet up a tent and charged admission the erdl nary visitors usually content with the belief that tills was a petrified human being nothing in the world can ever make me believe that he was not once a living being declared a woman who viewed the colossus why you can see the veins in bis legs geologists however thought differently one declared it to be the work of the jesuit fathers two or three hundred yeara before another geologist emphasized the antiquity of the statue and called attention to the corroding or attrition of part of the under surface of the body by the solution he declared would have required a long period of years in the meantime the giant continued to draw the cardiff giana in credulous public and much cash the dollars of the curious P T barnum tried to bev it but a local syndicate already had obtained control and Us offer was rejected this new company one of whom Is said to have been the original from which the character of david harum was drawn paid for a three fourths interest the success of the exhibition led barnum to have carved a similar figure which was likewise exhibited as the cardiff giant the owners of the original sought to obtain a restraining order against the barnum counterfeit but it was refused both giants therefore continued to draw the crowds now the assumption had always been that the discovery of the figure had been accidental but there were those who doubted this version residents of the county in which the well diggers worked began to recall that about a year before the discovery a mysterious four horse team was observed drawing a wagon which carried a huge iron bound box it was headed in me direction of cardiff professor marsh of yale a paleontologist examined the figure and asserted that it was clear ly of recent origin and a most decided humbug then a lawyer of fort dodge iowa seeing the figure at syracuse wrote back home 1 I believe it Is made out of the great block of gypsum those fellows got at fort dodge a year ago and sent back east gradually the story came to light in the summer of 1868 two men arrived at fort dodge and attempted to make a bargain for a block of gypsum at least 12 by 4 by 2 feet explaining that they wished to exhibit it in new york they leased some land and hired a quarryman to get out a block of the required size its owners announced that it was to be shipped to new york but freight office records showed that it was billed to chicago here a german stone cutter carved the gigantic figure from the block great care was taken to give it an ancient appearance from chicago the finished statute was shipped by an indirect route to union N Y here the mysterious four horse team appeared and the giant encased in an iron bound box began his wandering in search of a likely grave this hoax paid big dividends Divi denis one of the men was george hull a relative of william newell the farmer on whose property the giant was discovered under the personal dl of newell both men made thousands of dollars out of their unique venture another hoax which goes on from generation to generation Is one concerning the original log of columbus despite the fact that the only undoubtedly authentic handwriting of columbus a four page letter Is in alie possession of tha king and queen of spain the original colum bus log turns up every few years in 1924 it turned up in mexico strangely enough it was written entirely in german I 1 the literary hoax seems to be the most popular form of tooling and almost the easiest of perpetration A recent one fooled the literary editor of the new york times who conceded that while the diary of a young lady of fashion 1784 ca had not any of the importance that at baches to such a monumental record as was left behind by the author did throw the beams of her candle here and there on the tea tures of her times now the new york times itself discovers that a nineteen year old miss Is the author of this successful hoax some hoaxes go unchallenged until the author can retrain no longer from informing the public how he has fooled it such Is the history of the bathtub hoax put over several years ago by henry L now the editor of the amerl can mercury menchen wrote a short informal account of the origin of the bath tub in america the first tub he said was installed in the home of a wealthy he traced the rise of the tubs popularity and declared that at first physicians were violently opposed to its use on grounds of health several states were said to have passed laws against the installation of the new sanitary equipment exposes bathtub hoax only recently exposed his trick no one he commented in all the years since this bit of imaginative history has been current ques the facts he cited his original story has been quoted all over the world and incorporated in solemn treatises one of the most celebrated literary hoaxes was that of the scotch school teacher macpherson who having learned a little old celtic and gaelic language and literature brought forth hla poems of ossean it aroused the world and has been cited as one of the causes of the romantic movement in literature that swept europe in the late eighteenth century there Is the eloquent hoax known as patrick henrys agte me liberty or give me death speech thought to have been delivered by the great orator in 1775 at st johns church near richmond va but really written by his blog eapher william wart years after henry died and all of us know that beloved fake known as the washington hatchet and cherry tree story invented entirely by first biographer parson mason weems lengthy explorations have been made into the facts surrounding both the foregoing fictions and the inevitable con elisions elusions elu have been in agreement with those given here edgar allan poe once announced in a baltimore newspaper that on a certain day he |