| Show THEY FORMED A PAIR on saturday last there was published by request jonathan wilders wilder Is wierd story atory of the to earths insides ss it was interesting because of the views still held beld by many regarding the symmes hole bole and other theories respecting the interior of the plautt ou on which we dwell it was written by Ja richard ichard adams locke and next to his article regarding sir juhu john her on the moor moon was one of the most successful hoaxes ur t the day it was for a time accepted as true by people getie rally and was seriously sly by men it war entitled the lost manuscript if f mungo park s and its fictional character was not recognized till the exposure othe of the moon hoax 2 the latter was revived less than two years ago in the following lol lowing mauner manner while tearing down an old oid building in brooklyn in october 1891 the workmen came upon a box that had been under the cornerstone in 1835 and contained besides a number of old daily papers ty two 0 large engravings and a pana pamphlet these purported to 10 be BD an account and illustrations 0 lunar animals and other objects discovered by sir john job u He herschell rachell in his observatory observatory at the cape of good hope Is the moon hoax 91 was probably one of the most moat success successful ful hoaxes ever perpetrated pet r grated rated on an unsuspecting public 99 sir air gohd herschell He rechell the astronomer had gone down to the cape of good elope akope to make observations of the this much was authentically known but of the exact nature of the observations observation and of the instruments to be need there was not much known emer either in england or this country it was wag not very difficult therefore to make 0 the public believe almost anything as ae long as an it had a certain amount 1 of I scientific consistency richard adams locke at that time an editor of the sun conceived the idea of perpetrating a gigantic hoax set it 11 a very direful way he published an article in an the sun entitled great astronomical discoveries lately made by sir joan herschel LL D P F B R 8 S etc at the cape of gf good hope it opened with the following boasi in this buia unusual addition to our journal we have the hap happiness happi nees to make mabe known to the british thence to alx lx the whole civilized world recent discoveries in astronomy which will build an imperishable monument to ghe age in which we live and confer upon the present generation of the human race a proud distinction through an future time it has been poetically add that the stars of heaven are the hereditary regalia of man as the in tel sovereign of the animal creation he may now fold the around him with at a loftier consciousness of 0 his mental supremacy 21 then followed an account of how sir oft johna john to expedition had bad been organ teed and a statement sta rement of the funda furnished by well known scientists and ten even by the heir to the british throne the telescope was minutely and solen described it consisted of ft bulge lens lene weighing about pounds which cast an image on a can vail V from which it was magnified times by a microscope to make the outlines clear artificial light was fk transfused through the microscope the description of this telescope was so 90 good that a number of scientific journals were deceived into believing it tu to be true objects on the moon were said to be brought into a proximity equal to eighty terrestrial yards when this had bad been accomplished the pamphlet went on to state most wor denul things were seen been on the surface of the moon there were vegetation animals ani mali ano ami things resembling ling human beings the latter were thus described they aver average agea ii four feet feel in height were covered except on the face with choit t and glossy copper colored hairs hair and had bad wings comp sedof a thin membranes membrane without hair lying snugly upon their backst backs from the top odthe of the shoulders to the calves ot of the legs lege the lace which was of a yellowish flesh calor was a slight blight improvement on that of the aurang boutang being more open and intelligent in its expression and a much of forehead to 22 one of the engravings accompanying accompany ing the pamphlet snowed showed a lunar scene with these wonderful inhabitants flying about lunar animals were also to be seen gamboling tamboling gam boling by the side t if f a lunar river the other engraving showed a lunar temple tula this was supposed to be a fane of devotion or of sc science lence s it was waa an equiangular temple built of polished sapphire or ol of some resplendent blue stone which like it displayed splayed oi a points of f golden light twinkling and scintillating in the sunbeams the roof was wag composed of some yellow metal and divided into compartments which were not triangular planes inclining to the center but subdivided sub divided curved and separated so as to represent a mass man of violently agitated planes ss the account then went on to tell of how the lunar inhabitants sat around under the trees near the red fruit that strew grew on the lunar trees these beings were even polite and offered one another large specimens of the dainties s it seems preposterous that anyone should have believed this wonderful story etory or that the press could have thought that sir john herschell had actually written such a letter but it IL wits was printed and reprinted discussed discus aed among scientists and widely believed it was not until sir john published an authentic account of his ob observe serva that ajl ail faith in the hoax was wae abandoned then the author of the hoax was wae sought after many thought that it was waa an astronomer named nicollet who had fled from prance france in 1830 so ao likely were the astronomical details of the hoax but it eventually became known that richard adams adama locke bad written the marvelous marve louB tale |
