rs, the
total damage amounting to two dollars. Thus ended the incident reported to have caused “ damage to the amount of nearly a
thousand dollars.” A few years ago a distinguished gentleman lectured in a small
city during the Christmas holidays. A few days later a gentleman , who had not himself heard the lecture, wrote to the local morning
papers protesting against certain statements he had heard it said the lecturer had made. Although both papers published the letter,
they accompanied it with a statement that the lecturer had said precisely the opposite of what was attributed to him . The press far and wide, however, copied the letter without the explanation of the local papers , enlarged on the statements, transferred the lecture from the city to a neighboring college, and added that
“ the college students gasped at the advice, ” — all this when the lecture was given two miles and a half from the College , it was given during the vacation when not a student could have heard it, and the lecturer said exactly the opposite of what a person who did not hear him reported on hearsay had been said .
The love of jesting is behind many statements that unless sub sequently explained , must be puzzling to the historian . The Nation , April 1, 1909, published a letter from a correspondent who quoted a eulogy of the art of printing, said to be from the
Latin of Cardelius, and then inquired, " Who was Cardelius? " Two correspondents proffered detailed but differing accounts of
Cardelius, and were then followed by a letter from the author of the eulogy, who wrote, “ All the truth about him is told in this letter of mine. Cardelius is a child of the imagination ; rather, he
was born of the union of a printer's composing-stick and a font of 60 point Cheltenham ;" and he then gives a long account of
“ the evolution of Cardelius" from his own experiments with a printing press and types.
The illustrations are almost endless of the jokes played through the press on persons not well-known in the community but on
friendly termswith jesting reporters. One may be represented as receiving a $ 5 ,000 touring car from his employer, or the quiet
home marriage of another in a distant city may be described as having taken place in the cathedral in the presence of a large and
fashionable gathering.
