AMERICA
AND F"AlCEvS
BY JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.
THE present scandal anent the -withdrawal
of the two paintings, "Old
Mill at St. Cloud" and "Near New
port," from the Smithsonian National
Gallery, by William T. Evans, the donor
(who has caused the arrest of the art
dealer who sold .these alleged forgeries
as works of the late Homer D. Martin)
recalls numerous enterprises in forged
and spurious art works and antiquities
which have been exposed by the schol
ars of the Smithsonian and of our other
noted Institutions.
Some time ago a man tried to sell the
Smithsonian's bureau of American eth
nology an elaborate collection of alleged
Idols, tablets, and caskets, said to ljave
been dug out of no less than 162 Michi
gan mounds. They bore a Jumble of Ori
ental hieroglyphics, explained as hav
ing been probably employed by a mixed
colony of Egyptians, Phenlcians and As
syrians, who in the remote past found
their way from the cradle of the human
race, in Asia, across the seas, up the St.
Lawrence and. Lakes to Michigan. Some
months ago Professor F. W. Kelsey, of
the University of Michigan, found that
one large private collector had pur
chased 50 specimens coming from this
pame forger. These included tablets
bearing rudely executed scenes from the
Biblical story of the deluge and a copper
crown alleged to have been found on a
skull. These pictures and the forger's
Inevitable Oriental hieroglyphfcs, always
turned upside down, at once called to
Professor Kelsey's mind a call which he
received In 1S98 from a dilapidated man
with two trunks and a huge box contain
ing a few human bones and a miscel
laneous collection of clay idols, tablets,
etc., bearing similar scenes from the
"Deluge" and the same reversed hiero
glyphics; also a large seated idol, of
baked clay holding a tablet. The mys
terious stranger, after showing certifi
cates signed by persons claiming to have
seen these articles dug out of mounds
in Michigan, asked $1000 for the lot, and
being laughed at, came down to $100. Be
ing assured that they were spurious, he
asked to be allowed to leave them tem
porarily, but he has never yet returned
to claim them. The Professor also found
in the trunks show tickets and handbills
advertising "The Finest Collection of
Prehistoric Relics Ever Exhibited in the
United i States." Upon examination he
found the same reversed hieroglyphics
which had appeared upon a lot of al
leged antiquities said to have been ex
cavated in Montcalm County, Michigan
in 1S90, and which he had investigated
at the time. Great excitement reigned in
that county when these "finds" were an
nounced and people were making the dirt
fly in every direction over a wide area.
One man dug so deep that a cave-in
swallowed him up and snuffed out his
life.
Made by Sign Painter.
Among the specimens exhibited were 30
: caskets a foot to a yard long and cov
ers ornamented with grotesque figures in
relief and the sides with the inverted
hieroglyphics, which, for the saving of
time, the forger had stamped on with a
die. There were also some 75 tablets
with the same characters, a few crude
vases and a small sphinx, all made of
unbaked clay which would soon have
r melted if exposed to damp earth. A
syndicate of unsophisticated Michiganders
was formed to excavate and sell other
such prehistoric art works alleged to be
hidden in the tract, but upon exposures
by Professor Alfred Emerson, of Lake
Forest College, the stockholders pocketed
thir losses and repudiated the enterprise.
The chief promoter of the fraud was
' later found to be one Scotfleld, a sign
painter, of Montcalm County, who has
for the past few years lived in Detroit.
Profiting by the scientific exposures of
his unbaked clay figures, which could
not have withstood long burial, he next
baked the clay, as in the case of the
specimens brought to Professor Kelsey,
but more recently has been dealing in
"prehistoric" copper "relics" artificially
corroded and offered to collectors all
over the country.
Aging "Aztec Antiquities."
An even more prolific distributing cen-
ter of this kind was exposed some time
ago by Professor W. H. Holmes, chief
of the Bureau of Ethnology, who refused
the Michigan "relics" and who, as cura
tor of our new National gallery has been
interested in the weeding out of its al
leged forged paintings. These Mexican
counterfeiters have supplied museums the
world over with "prehistoric" art relics
carved out of wood, stone and metal. One,
plying his trade in the valley of Mexico,
supplies ancient Aztec musical instru
ments wrought with amazing cleverness
from worm-eaten wood. Other spurious
relics turned out from these centers are
Aztec antiquities in clay, mostly pottery,
to whose surfaces have been added casts
taken from other specimens of conven
tional designs more quickly applied with
stamps. The counterfeiter after finish
ing his ware ages It by burying It for
- awhile in moist earth, or by washing it
with a thin solution of clay. Counterfeit
' Aztec vases sent out from San Juan
Teotihuaacan, the principal center of dis
iitnxK? --a ' lilt . . a ?fk Mr ' .,'22 ,.. LiTe vx SlLr v
tribution, sell in the 'City of Mexico foi '
$13. One sent to the National Museum
was alleged to have bem , found 52 feet
down by a man digging a well: another
was alleged to have been picked up in a
cavern beneath an Aztee pyramid.
Made $12 an Hour With Common
Pincers.
Marvelous specimens of chipped flint
which have been sold broadcast over the
country for a number of years and some
of which found their way to the Smith
sonian archaelogists, have been more re
cently traced to a farm In Dane County,
Wisconsin, by A. E. Jenks, of the Bureau
of Ethnology. He caught the counter
feiter red handed In his laboratory, where
he was waxing rich at his trade. The
farm is occupied by a Norwegian widow
with three daughters and three sons, one
of the latter. Lewis Erickson, being the
manufacturer of the spurious flints
knives, fishhooks, cleavers, spear and ar
rowheadsa thousand of which had been
sold for from $2 to $6 apiece. All were
wrought from hint found in the neighbor
hood, with a chippng instrument con
sisting of a pair of common pincers with
one jaw rounded and flattened. To give
the stone an aged appearance the coun
terfeiter smeared the freshly-chipped sur
face 'with earth applied with his thumb
and by thus plying his trade he earned
sometimes $12 an hour. In a few years he
cleared the farm of its mortgage and then
had built a large new house for the fam
ily. A comfortable living was made by an-
other 'counterfeiter who up to a few
years ago turned out spurious Indian
pipes at Flag Pond, v"a.. but he over
played his part and made them in de
signs requiring much higher art than
the Indian ever developed. A Philadelphia
marble yard was, until recently, a dis
tributing center for fake Indian axes and
Indiana had another from which ema
nated various excellent slate carvings and
ornaments, all spurious but sold as an
tiques. A monster with the head of a rhinoc
eros, fore feet of an elephant, hind feet
of an alligator, a parrot's beak and liz
ard's tail, the whole about a yard long
and beautifully carved from smooth stone
was offered to the Smithsonian some
time ago by a Texan, who alleged that
it was a genuine antiquity. But the
carver of this had also overplayed his
part, and it was sent back, the Indian
never having reached such perfection in
stone carving.
Teeth Betrayed "Ossified Woman."
An alleged "ossified woman" was
brought to Washington some years ago
by a man who had paid $500 for it. He
submitted it to several scientists of the
Smithsonian for examination, among
them F. A. Lucas, the well-known
anatomist. The ossified lady's jaw was
dropped, as in death, and her two front
teeth were exposed. As soon as Mr.
Lucas had focuseed hte critical eye upon
these incisors he pronounced the specimen
a fraud. "They are both left teeth," said
he. The owner paled a little, but was
not satisfied. The scientists told him that
an absolute test could be made only by
boring into the stony-hearted beauty, and
the owner agreed, provided this could be
done without defacement. So. her lady
ship wad turned upon her face, and a drill
applied to the crease under her bent knee.
The drill wa3 of the tubular sort, and
when pulled out betrayed a generous
thickness of cement below which was a
button of . the lady's skeleton, which
proved to be of gas pipe. ,
This lady came into being at a cement
works in California, as investigation later
proved. Her owner had numerous testi
monials from physicians who had found
cutaneous scales upon the surface of her
body. The specimen was the most per
fect mold of a human body ever seen
in Washington. There was not a seam to
be found upon any part of the surface,
which exactly reproduced the contour of
the skin. Dr. Frank Baker, of the Smith
sonian, who examined it, tells me that
it was probably molded from the corpse
of a beautifully formed girl, evidently a
mulatto. The scales found upon the sur
face by the certifying physicians might
have been transferred from the skin of
the original when the cast was made.
The San Diego Giant.
The mummy of the "tallest human
giant who ever lived" was being barked
by a side-showman at the Atlanta Ex
position while a number of these Smith
sonian scientists were there. They asked
permission to examine it, and when con
sent was given, applied their tapes and
found that It measured eight feet four
Inches from crown to heel.
The giant had been found in a cave
near San Diego, Cal., by a party of pros
pectors, according to the exhibitor. Over
the head were the remains of a leather
hood, which appeared to have been part
of a shroud. Worn teeth were visible In
the mouth, and the outlines of the ribs
were plainly seen through the skin. The
elongated emaciated body stood erect in
a great narrow coffin, 10 feet long. The
exhibitor agreed to sell it for $500 to the
Smithsonian, which dispatched Mr. Lucas
to the scene. He, Professor W. J. Mc
Gee and others made a careful test. A
piece of the giant's dried skin was re
moved, and when tested in the chemical
laboratory of the Smithsonian was found
to be gelatine. Professor McGee is
shown on the left of the giant. In the
accompanying picture, and the exhibitor,
who was perfectly Innocent of the fraud.
Is shown on Its right.
New Tork State was in commotion in
the Autumn- of '69 over the discovery of
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND, JUNE 14, 190S.
DlSTItSBUTlN& CENTER. OF OS
a petrified giant. lO1 feet tall, upon the
farm of one Newell, near Cardiff, Onon
daga County. Newell stated that he un
covered the monster while digging a well.
A tent was promptly placed over the
pit and an admission fee charged. Peo
ple swarmed about the scene and fought
for admission to the tent, within which
they saw lying five feet below the sur
face an enormous figure with massive
features, Its limbs contracted as if In
agony. Its color indicated - that it had
lain long in the earth, and over its sur
face were miniature punctures, like pores.
The appearance of greaH age was fur
ther giver by grooves on the under side,
apparently worn by water, which trickled
along the rock upon which the giant lay.
A spirit of reverence enwrapped viHitors
once they were inside the tent. They
hardly spoke above a whisper. The
good country people found corroboration
of the Biblical text. "There were giants
In those days." The admission fees soon
netted Newell $150,000, and a joint stock
company was formed to exhibit the giant
about the country. Among the leading
spirits in this enterprise was the original
of "Westcott's character, "David Har
um." "Colonel" Wood, an eminent
showman, was engaged to exploit the
"Cardiff Giant," as it was called, and it
was exhibited In New Tork City and In
other centers. Barnum tried to purchase
it. and finally had a copy made which he
exhibited as the "Cardiff Giant." Pro
fessor James Hall, the State Geologist,
examined the original and.gave, a favor
able opinion, but Professor Marsh, of
Tale, pronounced it a fake. The more
skeptical people of the neighborhood
watched Newell's movements, and he was
detected in sending considerable sums to
one Hull, his brother-in-law. In the West.
At length Hull confessed that he got his
Inspiration of the fraud while listening to
a revivalist, who insisted that "there
were giants in those days." A huge piece
of gypsum was found by Hull near Fort
Dodge, la. This he had transported to
Chicago, where a German stone-carver
wrought the giant, its pores being made
with a leaden mallet faced with steel
needles. After being stained with an
aging preparation, the giant was trans
Hunting Extinct Animals in Alaska
What Smithsonian Institute earned in Expedition Down Great Yukon.
A
ZOOLOGICAL expedition to Alaska
sent out by the Smithsonian In
stitution, last season, and con
ducted by C. W. Gilmore of the
United States National Museum, has
brought back, besides interesting in
formation, many fragments of bones
of early animals, of varieties no longer
living; there. Although there is not
in the lot material from which can be
constructed ancient genera hitherto un
known, the specimens show that over
the Alaska fields at a period long be
fore man arrived on earth, roamed
mammoths, several kinds of buffalo,
musk oxen, sheep, moose, caribou,
horses and bears. Beavers also built
their dams along the rivers.
The official report of. the trip will
be published in the series of "Smith
sonian Miscellaneous Collections" at
about the same time as the appearance
of this article.
Ever since Otto von Kotzbue, nearly
a century ago, brought back from
Alaska a few pieces of skulls and bones
of strange extinct beasts, men of sci
ence have looked upon that region as
a possible source of information con
cerning the early ancestors of our
Northern American animals. Much has
been written about it. Little system
atic was done, however, until 1904,
when the Smithsonian Institution sent
rT Ms - - - i
Wv i i i ifr
ported to a town in New Tork State,
whence Hull hauled it to Newell's farm
at Cardiff by team. Newell sent his
family on a trip covering the time of the
giant's arrival and burial. Hull, who
was a religious skeptic, was undaunted
by the exposure, and felt that he had
gotten even with the revivalist who
preached the giant doctrine. Even after
his confession, the Rev. Alexander Mc
Whorter and Professor White, both of
Tale, continued to believe in the giant's
antiquity, the former announcing that it
was a Phoenician idol upon which he had
found an important inscription. One of
those who from the first branded the
giant as a hoax was Andrew D. White,
president of Cornell.
Colorado "Petrified. Missing Link."
Shortly afterward a petrified "missing
link" was alleged to have b?en dug up In
Colorado. It had a tail and ape-like legs
and feet. Professor Marsli went to see
it and It was discovered to be the work
of the same Hull, promoter of the Cardiff
Giant hoax. The present specimen was of
clay, baked in a furnace, and containing
human bones. This he had buried and
"discovered" in Colorado.
Another petrified man was alleged to
have been found in the Pine River re
gion of Michigan in 1S76 by one William
Ruddock, of St. Clair County, that state.
This was found to be of cembnt. It was
an echo of the CarrijfT Giant, as was an
other "petrified man" alleced to have
been found near Bathurst, Australia, and
taken to Sydney, where it was exhibited
in 1889.
1. Koch's Sea Serpent.
A sea serpent 11 feet long, called the
"hydrarches" or "sea king," was exhib
ited in skeleton form on Broadway, New
Tork, by Dr. Albert C. Koch in 1843.
Great excitement prevailed at the time,
and it was accepted as genuine until
Professor Wyman carefully examined It
and disclosed that it was made up of the
vertebrae of several zeuglodons strung
together. After the exposure Dr. Koch
sold it to the Dresden Museum.
Washington, D. C, June 5.
out
its firs exneditfcn under A. G.
Maddren. TJhis trtp.was so fruitful that
the Instiwfmon last season dispatched a
second expedition, in charge of C.
W. Gilmore, which, while following a
certain Itinerary, was to search for the
remains of the large extinct vertebrate
animals and to investigate the causes
leading to their extinction.
Where the Party Traveled.
The party was gone in all arbout four
months, during; which nearly the en
tire length of the Tukon River was
covered, and several of its tributaries
partly explored. Close upon 1400 miles
of the distance was traveled by canoe.
During the whole time search was made
along the cliffs and in the river bars,
as being the places most likely to show
relics of early, beasts. Mining camps
were also visited on the way for pos
sible traces of significant bones.
The course was laid through Skagway
on the upper part of the river, by train
to White Horse, then by steamer through
Dawson to Rampart, whence came some
ancient bison skulls now In the United
States National Museum. Rampart marked
the beginning of the long journey by
canoe. For 30 or 40 miles below Rampart
the Tukon flows between walls of older
rocks at from five to six miles an hour,
tumbling faster and faster down toward
the rapids. But the rapids once passed,
Fort Gibbon is reached, below which lie
the now well-known Palisades, dubbed m
that region the "boneyard." for from it
have been dug broken remnants of many
early beasts.
The party here spent two days gather
ing remains from the' frozen cliffs 150 to
200 feet high. The almost perpendicular
faces of the cliffs are being continually
undermined by the swift current. Large
masses break off, many times with a
startling report and splash as they fall
into the water below. "Often during the
stay here," says Mr. Gilmore. "the report
sounded so like the firing of a gun that
we were startled by the sharpness of it."
The party paddled on. however, in
search of larger game, and at the mouth
of the Vowitna River information gained
from an intelligent Indian, who had vis-'
ited the headwaters of this stream on
hunting excursions, that he had seen "big
horns and other big bones" on the river
bars and bad picked up the "shank bone"
of some large animal, lured them Into a
side trip up the river. Three days up.
the traveling turned bad and a cache had
to be made of all articles not absolutely
needed.
It is a picturesque region. ?'Often the
water has cut in under the bank." says
Mr. Gilmore, "which extends out over
the stream like a great shelf. The trees
growing on these undermined banks fre
quently lean far over and dip their tops
in the water before being carried away.
Large blocks of the bank, covered with
bushes and trees, cave off Into the stream,
where they remain standing half-submerged
for a long time. Frequently there
hangs down from the top of these under
mined banks a mantle of moss which
serves as a curtain to hide the destruction
the waters have wrought."
The party struggled up the Nowitna
River for nine days, hunting for the
- SEVTnS M
?r?v2' - --I-, 'v.
source of all the pieces of ancient bones
found washed down from somewhere
above. No settlers were met with, and
only an occasional deserted Winter cabin
of a lonely trapper showed that man
had ever scrambled along the banks or
pushed a paddle in the stream. Food
began to give out, so that they were
forced to turn back before reaching the
headwater?. The side trip, however,
was not without results, for from neatly
every bar searched was taken a fragment
or a complete element or a sKeieton rep
resenting such extinct forms as the mam
moth, bison and horse.
Stopping at Mouse Point and at Ko
krines, an Indian settlement and trading
post, they paddled down into a region
of towering cliffs. In places the banks
rise 200 to 250 feet and from thpm were
taken now and then a skull or a tusk or
a tooth of some forgotten animal. Anvik
was visited, and then Andreafski, where
the canoe trip ended.
The rest of the journey was on steamer
to St. Michael, Nome and finally Seattle.
Results of the Expedition.
It was found that the scattered remains
of the very early animals occur through
out the heart of Alaska not constantly
covered by ice and pnow, in three quite
distinct deposits: First, in the black
muck accumulated in gulches and the
valleys of the smaller streams; second.
In the fine elevated clays of early origin,
known as the Tukon slits and Kowak
clays; and third, in the more recent de
posits along the bank? of streams. These
specimens have been either washed out
by the process of erosion or dug out
by miners in search of gold.
The fossil bones secured came from lo
calities on the Bonanza Creek, , Little
Minook Creek, the Palisades of the Tu
kon. the Nowitna River, the Tukakakat
River and the Klalishkakat River.
In connection with the "bone yard" of
the Palisades, and with Elephant Point
farther north. It has been thought that
fartl
i then
might be enough ivory in old im
bedded mammoth tusks to pay for its ex
cavation and shipping for commercial
purposes, as is the case in some loealiti-.'s
of Siberia. In fact, mammoth tuslts for
a good many years have been an impor
tant export of Siberia. But the Alaskan
remains are not In as fresh a state of
preservation, and until a few years aso.
it is said, a man would not take a tusk
as a gift. Now they are used to manu
facture curios of different sorts.
How the Animals Died.
How the ancient animals whose re
mains are now picked up piece by piece
along the rivers, died, has been a subject
of speculation. Mr. Maddren believed tni-j'
met their end on the shores of glacial
lakes, and that their bones, carried out
on the ice in the Spring break-up. were
dropped here and there as the ice m.'lt
ed, becoming imbedded in the silt. Mr.
Gilmore, however, believes that since the
best specimens have been 'found in
gulches and valleys of smaller streams,
and are more common in muck than In
silt, these animals probably at some an
cient period became mired in prehistoric
bogs, then not frozen as now. The bones
were afterwards probably separated by
the "flowing" or "creeping" of the muck.
Washington. D. C. May 14.
The ualwuy county authorities have ap
pointed Miss Alice Perry, who holds t:ie
decree of bachelor ot engrlncerins. interim
county surveyor in the room of hr father,
the late .lames Perry. The appointment is
to be made permanent. London Standard.