Show Historic ic Hoaxes By 81 ELMO IO SCOTT WATSON C 0 W western Newspaper Union The Lost Explorer FROM Ladysmith Wis in hi January January Jan Jan- uary 1925 1920 came a story about an Important historical discovery which caused something of a sensation sen sen- sensation in the Middle West Two woodsmen Art Charpin and Walter Latsch bad had found fO In a hollow tree a petrified body which was Identified fied fled by the clothing and a piece of paper in one of the pockets as Pierre D' D DArtagnan lost member of the Marquette JolIet expedition of 1873 1571 The story first published In the Rusk County Journal at Ladysmith was reprinted in many Wisconsin papers then spread to other parts of the Middle West and finally to all sections section of the countr country But after aft er two months it was waa exposed asa as asa asa a hoax boax A bulletin of the Wisconsin Historical Ills His society pointed out the many absurdities In hi the tale the tale the claim dalm that mineral matter in the sap of the tree bad had acted as an embalmIng embalming embalming embalm embalm- ing fluid that the clothing of the explorer ex ex- plater should have bave been preserved and the piece of paper in his pocket should have been readable after years After this expose M. M D D. Hinshaw and Edward Richardson publishers of the Ladysmith paper who turned out to be the woodsmen of the tale admitted that the yarn had been concocted as a promotion stunt for the newspaper But Dut they also pointed out what had been obvious to anyone who had read the first story carefully that carefully that although it was printed in the the Rusk County Journal it was credited to the Rusk County Lyre Lyrel I l C e Columbus' Columbus Diary IN 1924 Angel Delmote a Mexican lawyer announced that he had obtained from some Jews in Havana Cuba an almost priceless historical document It was the original diary of Christopher Columbus which enclosed enclosed en en- closed in a wax casing had been thrown overboard when it appeared certain that his ship was about tobe to tobe tobe be shipwrecked in a storm near the Azores In 1493 Thereupon the experts on historical historic historic- al documents laughed long and loud So the original log of Columbus has haa bobbed up again they said Well its it's about time time time-it it comes to light about every ever two years They know It its it's a fake for the very good rood reason that the diary ii Is written inGerman in inGerman inGerman German and so 10 far as Is known Columbus could neither speak nor nor write German More than that the language of the diary Is excellent modem modern German but resembles that spoken in the Fifteenth century nomore no nomore nomore more than the English language of today resembles the English of Chaucer's time A year previously this diary ha had made its appearance in hi San Fr Francisco The two men who had bought this year old year old document took It to a paper company to establish es eSt its authenticity by chemical tests The tests were made and proved that the paper on which the diary was written was scarcely 30 years olds What's the answer Simply that forgers of historic documents continue to ply their trade confident that they can can always find a 8 victim to buy their spurious antiques W. W DURING the Spanish American war Joseph Pulitzers Pulitzer's New NewYork NewYork NewYork York World had reason to believe that Hearst's Journal was stealing its news by rewriting stories which had-appeared had on its bulletin board or In hi early editions of the World So the World laid a trap for the pirates One day it carried canted a list of Spanish Spanish Span Span- ish officers reported to have bave been killed in battle This list was a along along along long one and the World had bad paid expensive cable tolls toils to get it Included in it was the name of Recipe W W. Immediately Immediately Imme the Journal came out with the same list of names including that of Lieutenant Then the World printed a story atory featuring this mythical officer whose name spelled backward read We pilfer the news and the Journal was caught red Similarly the Jacksonville Fla Star was caught during the Balkan troubles of 1912 when it appeared with a front page story about an airplane battle batlle near a Greek town named which it had bad borrowed from the Jacksonville Jackson vile ville Metropolis The next day the Metropolis announced that the name of this Greek town when spelled backward was Stolen from the Met |