Show Historic listol ic Hoaxes By ELMO SCOTT WATSON D o Western Newspaper Union The Cardiff Giant IN TN jN THE late sixties a Chicago to tobacco to to- 1 bacco dealer named George Hull heard a clergyman express the belief be be- lief that men of at gigantic stature once lived d on earth It gave him an rm idea Out of a n foot 12 block of ot stone he carved the figure of a man It was wasa was wasa a hard job to simulate pores in the skin but he managed to do it and after alter giving the stone man a bath in sulphuric acid and ink he shipped it to the farm of his relative William C. C Newell near Cardiff N. N Y There it was buried for a year to age it properly Next Newell hired some of his neighbors to dig a well weIl for him and behold I the well diggers discovered discovered discovered dis covered the giant Four doctors called from town examined it and agreed that it was the petrified remains remains remains re re- re- re mains of a prehistoric man A Syracuse Syracuse Syr Syr- antiquarian declared it was a statue probably made by early Jesuit missionaries at least years ago and offered Newell 10 for it A professor of natural science at nt Rochester university examined ex cx- it arid and wrote that although not dating back to the Stone age itIs it itis ItIs is nevertheless deserving the attention attention attention atten atten- tion of archeologists Within a short time the Cardiff Giant was one of at the wonders of the modern world Newell began charging people 50 cents each to see it and business was so good that a group of Syracuse business men bought a three quarters interest in it for But such good fortune couldn't last always A Yale professor professor professor pro pro- fessor examined it carefully found tool marks on it and other evidence that it had not been buried long Wh When n it seemed that the hoax was about to be exposed the giant was shipped to New York But P. P T. T Barnum who had failed in his efforts ef forts to buy it for his museum suspecting that the giant was a hoax had one of his own made and began exhibiting it This led to public suspicion that Newell's discovery discovery discovery dis dis- covery was also a fake and the Yale professor confirmed that belief So the Cardiff Giant soon became just another forgotten man I 0 The Drake Estate FOR jOR more than half hall a century the theL L Drake estate legend has been used to 0 defraud Americans of millions millions mil mU- lions of d dollars but so long as the get rich quick desire persists it will vill probably continue to harvest its crop of gold for swindlers The story they tell is that Sir Francis Drake naval hero and freebooter freebooter free free- booter boater of Queen Elizabeths Elizabeth's day left an estate which held in trust by the British government is now estimated at 10 billion to 25 billion billion bil bU lion dollars They claim that they have discovered a lost heir to this fortune and offer persons bearing bearing bear bear- ing jag the name Drake or descended from persons of that name an opportunity opportunity op op- to contribute to a fund which will vill be used in establishing the lost heirs title Once that is established they promise that everyone everyone ev ev- who has contributed to the fund will be repaid a The fact is that Drake was never married so he did not leave any heirs Moreover when he died aboard his ship in 1595 1505 his estate was a very small one and that tha was settled long long ago Yet despite these well-known well facts and despite repeated warnings by both the British British British Brit Brit- ish and the American governments against anyone investing in such a asche scheme e thousands thousands of gullible per per- sons have been victimized in the past and its it's only a question of time until the hoary old legend will be revived and other suckers will be betaken betaken betaken taken in by it 0 S Flight Over the Atlantic EARLY three quarters of a century century cen cen- N NEARLY tury before Charles A A. Lindbergh Lindbergh Lind Lind- bergh thrilled the th-e whole world by flying across the Atlantic that feat fent was accomplished in in the imagination tion of at an American newspaper man His name was Edgar Allen Poe Foe later famous as a poet and andin andin andin in 1835 he had printed the first installment installment in in- of a fanciful talc tale about a n trip to the moon However Richard Richard Richard Rich Rich- ard Adams Lockes Locke's moon hoax Inthe inthe in inthe the New York Sun had monopolized public attention so Poe tore up the second installment of his story But in iii li 1844 when he wrote an account account ac ac- ac- ac count of the crossing of the Atlantic by a group of men in three days in ina a balloon or flying fling machine called the Victoria he found that the public pub lic lie was just as gullible as it had been nine years ears earlier His yarn also published also published in the New NewYork York Sun captured the imagination of the public pub lic lie and there was a great demand for tor copies a of that paper Even when Poe explained that his tale talc was imaginary many people insisted upon believing it was true Later Poe Pac said If 11 the Victoria did not absolutely accomplish the voyage recorded it if will be difficult to assign a reason why she should not have accomplished It In view of developments in aviation which were viere to come within the next 75 years Poe was not such a Ll bad prophet |