| Show historic hoaxes ea by JELMO ELMO SCOTT WATSON 0 western newspaper union two famous scientists therence PHE HE worlds fundamentalist con ference was meeting in toronto canada one of the speakers a certain doctor brown had defended the story of jonah and the whale against the doubters who refused to take that familiar bible story literally so he was delighted when he received a letter from the city editor of the toronto mail and empire which seemed to back up his belief the next evening doctor brown read to the delegates to the conference the letter which described how two well known german scientists herr dok doktor tor butter brod and herr doktor Smear kase while delving in some ruins near nineveh had found the skeleton of what they believed was a whale it had a sort of muscle arrangement working a trap door which gave access to the stomach this the scientists declared proved conclusively that it would have been scientifically ly possible for jonah to live contentedly for three days inside the whale the delegates cheered the reading of this letter and doctor brown was well pleased but he so pleased the next day newspaper men came to interview him to get more particulars on the story he was quoted as saying that the two germans were men of international reputation then the mail and empire came out with a story which announced that the names of the two eminent scientists might be otherwise translated as doctor bread and butter and doctor cheese and that the letter was a hoax planned in its offices it did not reveal where it had secured the manuscript and it was not until several years later that the author of it was revealed as one of its reporters named charles langton clarke who had bad written the story foghis own amusement many months before the fundamentalists met in toronto an an ancient cin stone IN TN THE year 1875 the brooklyn N Y argus reported that a hunter in the catskills had made a discovery which was of extraordinary antiquarian interest while resting on a grassy hillside he glanced idly at a boulder and then rubbed his eyes in astonishment on it were plainly engraved these words 1643 TH ISS TO NEWA ER CH THE IR BA TH ON IE in what language was this inscription written was it carved there by some survivor of a lost race was it some magic formula or the key to buried treasure no one knew but for days everyone w was talking about it and guessing as to its me meaning geanine anine and then s somebody had the bright idea of writing the syllables down and leaving out the dashes between them in a moment the translation became clear it was this stone was put here for cattle to scratch their backs on S B anthonie who was S B anthonie the au thor of the hoax no one ever aviv why the date 1643 probably just a whim of the playful mr anthonie put there to lead its discoverer to believe that lie he had found something of extraordinary antiquarian interest I 1 international april foolishness TF F WE americans think that the i best april fool jokes are made in america we need to think again for the nations of eastern and central europe have had longer years of practice at it than we have and newspaper readers in those countries expect on april 1 to read in their journals fantastic news items which are believable enough to fool all except the most sophisticated several years ago a polish newspaper published a photograph of the leaning tower of pisa erect as thi the day it was was built over it was the startling headline straightened by order of 11 II duce such was the reputation of mussolini for getting things done that many rea readers ders believed he had indeed had the tower of pisa restored to its original position one warsaw paper carried a photograph of charlie chaplin arriving at the principal railroad station which resulted in hundreds of calls at its office to learn where the inquirers could see the famous american movie star but the prize hoax was the one published in a bucharest paper it told in great detail of the arrival of george bernard shaw at a local hotel and made its reporters interview with that witty irishman so true to life that even seasoned reporters on other papers were gulled believing that they had been scooped they rushed down to the hotel en masse to get interviews for their papers before shaw left town only to be greeted with an april fool or the rumanian equivalent tor for it by the smiling hotel clerk |
