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Show PARIS' GIGANTIC HOAX. That Bllllion Dollars For a Year In a Tomb Story Exploded. A gigantic hoax with the longest run on record is at last exposed in the Paris papers. In 1890 an advertisement appeared ap-peared stating that a deceased Russian princess left a million francs to be given to the person who would remain one year and a day in the little chapel over her tomb in Fere la Chaise and watch her body, which was in a glass coffin. The watcher should see nobody during the time he or she remained in the chapel and should not even speak to the servant that would be employed to supply the refreshments. Candidates were politely requested to communicate with the superintendent su-perintendent of the cemetery. The unfortunate functionary soon found himself deluged with letters from fools in all parts of the world, including one journalist belonging to a news agency of Chicago, who declared himself ready to take the job, as it seemed far preferable to the "killing work of a newsgatherer." Paragraphs began to appear in the papers stating that several intrepid watchers had already abandoned the task on account of the uneasiness of the dead princess. In other words, she had a disagreeable habit of getting out of her glass coffin and walking about in her shroud. Then the wag of wags raised the ante. Five million was the sum next offered through the press. Letters poured with increased volume upon the unfortunate unfor-tunate superintendent, some of them from women. Nearly every town in the United States and Canada was ably rer resented among the many men of letters who contributed to this wondrous pile. It is almost too bad to clip the wings of a canvasback canard that flew so long and so far. But it has turned out, just in time to save the superintendent of Pere la Chaise from going crazy, that the Russian princess, the little glass cof fin and the generous bequest never existed, ex-isted, and that the tomb which was supposed sup-posed to contain her interesting and restless rest-less remains really belongs to a French family named De Beaujour. Paris Correspondent. |