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Show "CARDIFF GIANT" PURE FAKE Had Its Origin in Hoax Which Is Un. derstood to Have Had Its Inception at Chicago. Andrew D. White gives some of the particulars of the "Cardiff Giant" in a book entitled "The True Story of a Remarkable Deception." The Cardiff giant was the huge stone Image of a man which Farmer Newell of Cardiff, N. Y., claimed to have unearthed while digging n well in the autumn of 1869. After it had been sold to a joint-stock company formed to exploit the wonder for show purposes, Barnum tried to buy it for his own museum, but his offer of-fer was declined. The showman then had an imitation made, with the result that two Cardiff giants were on exhibition exhi-bition at the same time, the duplicate being shown to the public as "the only and original." Doctor White attributes the exposure of the fake to Professor Marsh of Yale; In another account it was Dr. John V. Boynton of Syracuse, N. Y., who laid bare the fraud. The original Cardiff giant was -carved or chiseled out of a gypsum block in a stoneyard in Chicago and was transported trans-ported thence by rail and wagon to Cardiff. According to Doctor White, scientists as well as clergymen were much impressed with the colossal figure, fig-ure, Dr. James Hall, state geologist, issuing a statement in which he described de-scribed the giant as "the most remarkable remark-able object brought to light in this country" and as "deserving the attention atten-tion of archaeologists." |
