Show 1 Hi Historic sto l i c H Hoaxes Hoaxes By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Western Newspaper r Union That Rare Old Sale Bill BillA BillA BillA A A BOUT every so often some newspaper records the fact that thata thata thata a sale bill of an auction held near near- nearly nearly nearly ly a century ago is the rare pos poSe possession session of John Jones of this vicin- vicin ity Then it reproduces the tho con con- tents as follows Having sold my farm and am leaving Oregon Territory by ox team will offer on March 1 1 1849 1649 all of my personal property to wIt to All AU ox teams except two teams Buck and Ben and Tom Id Jerry two milk cows v 1 J gray mare and colt pair oxen and yoke joke 2 ox carts 1 Iron plow with wood mole board boord feet leet of ol poplar weather boards 1000 3 3 foot loot clap boards 1500 10 foot fence lence rails 1 I 60 gallon soap kettle 80 60 sugar troughs made of white ash timber 10 gallons of ol maple syrup 2 Z spinning wheels 50 pounds mutton tallow 20 pounds of beef tallow 1 large loom made by Jerry Wilson poles split oops poops empty barrels 1 gallon 32 32 gallon barrel of Miller Johnson Johnson Miller whiskey 7 years old 20 gallon of apple brandy 1 40 gaU 40 galhn n copper still tanned oak-tanned leather 1 dozen real books 4 handle hooks 3 scythes and cradles 1 dozen wooden pitchforks one half Interest In tanyard lanyard 1 32 caliber rule rifle bullet mold and powder horn rifle made by Ben Miller 50 gallons of soft Jams bacon lard 40 gallons sor sorghum sorghum molasses 6 head of fox lox hounds all aU soft mouthed soft mouthed except one At the same time I will sell my negro slaves slav s. s two men thirty five and fifty years old 2 boys twelve and eighteen and two mulatto wenches forty and thirty-six thirty years ears old Will WUI sell seU together to same party as os will not separate them Terms of sale Cash In hand or note to draw drawf f 4 per cent Interest with Bib McConnells McConnell's McCon- McCon McConnell's McConnells nells nell's security My M home Is two miles mUes south of ol Versailles Ky on McConn's ferry lerry pike Sale begins at 8 o'clock a Il a. m m. Plenty to drink and eat J. J L L. Moss That sale bill biU is interesting only because its publication is a modern echo of the beginning of the bitter dispute which once shook the na nation na- na tion the tion-the the slavery anti-slavery crusade For Forit it originated in the mind of some Abolitionist propagandist and it was widely circulated as an example of the horrors of oC slavery Although the insinuation was that other slave slave- owners were not so thoughtful and would willingly break the hearts of their slaves by separating husband from wife and sons and daughters from their parents when the un unfortunate unfortunate unfortunate fortunate blacks were put on the auction block C S Monkey Cotton Pickers TN IN 1934 the secretary of the Cham Cham- Chamber Chamber Chamber ber of Commerce at Victoria Texas received a letter from the executive editor of a publishing company which said I have in in- instructions instructions instructions from a very prominent national magazine to dig out and write up the story of some man who imported monkeys some years ago and attempted to train tram them to pick cotton My search for the facts seems to indicate that this experiment experiment experiment ment was made somewhere in the vicinity of Victoria The Chamber of ot Commerce man wrote back to the editor and told him the real story of the cotton picking monkeys It was this Back in 1884 Editor Jeff J efI McLe McLe- McLemore McLemore more discovered that his Victoria Advocate was going to be mighty short of news one week So he set his imagination to work and when the Advocate came out no one was more surprised than was Ranch Ranch- Ranchman Ranchman Ranchman man James A. A A McFaddin to learn that he had imported a large larce num num- ber of monkeys and was training them to pick cotton for him But he had a good laugh over the story as did his friends and as did the readers of the Texas Siftings Sittings at Austin when the yarn was re re- reprinted reprinted re- re reprinted printed in that paper Everyone recognized the story for what it was wasa a a hoax But 50 years later it bobbed up again as a true story thereby resembling so many other true stories which we hear ev ev- every every every ery day Were Their Faces Red A A POLITICIAN is always willing willingto to constituent else oblige a hes he's no politician So when several high government officials in Washington during the Hoover administration received a letter from Ithaca N N. N Y they were glad to comply with the request in it It said that a group of Cornell students were going to hold a dinner in honor of the sesquicentennial sesquicentennial centennial of the birth of Hugo HugoN N. N Frye a little-known little patriot of central New York who has been de de- deprived de- de deprived of the fame that should be his for his part in the organization of the Republican party in New NewYork NewYork NewYork York state Wouldn't these officials send messages to be read at the dinner They would indeed 1 lOne One of them wired It isa is a pleasure to testify to the career of that sturdy patriot who first planted the ideals of our party in this region of the country If he were living today he would be the first to rejoice in evidence everywhere present that our gov gov- government government government still is safe in the hands of the people Others paid like tribute to this pioneer Republican And then their faces grew ex ex- exceedingly exceedingly ex- ex exceedingly red when it was revealed that there never had been a real Hugo N N. Frye That was the name used by the editors of a humor column in the Cornell Daily Sun in publishing their flippancies s in that newspaper Another pronunciation of his name is you go and fry which in the student slang of those days was the equivalent of O 0 go and lay an egg or Go and sit on ona ona ona a tack Sometimes a politician can be just justa a little bit too obliging |