The Moon Hoax of 1835

 

 

 

Library of the World's Best Literature by Charles Dudley Warner, Vol. XLIV (1896), Synopses of Noted Books, p.35

The Moon Hoax (1859) by Richard Adams Locke. [A Review]

 

     This pretends to announce the discovery of a vast human population in the moon. It’s contents appeared originally in 1835, in the New York Sun, under the title, 'Great Astronomical Discoveries lately made by Sir John Herschel,' increasing the circulation of that paper, it was said, fivefold. The skit was soon afterward published in pamphlet form, the edition of 60,000 being sold in less than a month.

     This account pretended to be taken from the supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science, and was most circumstantial and exact.The discovery was asserted to have been made at the Cape of Good Hope, by means of a new and vastly improved telescope invented by the younger Herschel.

     The article described beaches of gleaming sand; lunar forests; fields covered with vivid rose-poppies; basaltic columns like those of Staffa; rocks of green marble; obelisks of wine-colored amethyst; herds of miniature bisons, with a curious fold or hairy veil across the forehead to shield the eyes from the intolerable glare of light; troops of unicorns, beautiful and graceful as the antelope; and groups of some amphibious creatures, spherical in form, which rolled with great velocity across the sands. Moreover, the telescope discloses the biped beaver, which constructs huts like the human savage, and makes use of fire; a semi-human creature with wings; and a race about four feet high, and very unpleasant in appearance, which certainly has the gift of speech.

     After observations which fill many pages, the account goes on to explain that an unfortunate fire has destroyed the telescope, and that the expedition could not make the discoveries certainly at that time imminent.

     The sensation produced by this nonsense was wide-spread and profound. The press took sides for and against its authenticity, and for some time a large public credited the statements made.

     Of course the absurdity of the tale soon revealed itself, and then the whole matter became known as the ‘Moon Hoax.’ But the whole invention was set forth with the most admirable air of conviction, and the book takes its place among the best of Munchausenish tales.

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American Potato Bugs, Science, and Bogus Certificates

UTICA HERALD AND MORNING GAZETTE.

 August 2, 1879

 

SCIENTIFIC.

—Thollon's new map of the solar spectrum is ten metres long, and contains 4,000 lines, Angstrom's contained 1,000 in a length of three metres.

—The patent committee of the German Chemical Association say that neither a novel substance nor a novel application of a substance obtained chemically can be patented in Germany.
—Fifteen years ago there were only 2,000 miles of submarine telegraphic cable in existence, and the cables were of a very imperfect description. Now there are 66,000 miles of cable in operation, representing about $100,000,000, or about two-thirds of all land lines.
—Dr. T. L Phipson says that the purer a water is the better it will dissolve lead, and that many a good spring-water has been spoiled by storing in lead cisterns, being supplied by lead pipes, or ‘pumped thro' a leaden pump. Slate cisterns are preferable, but they should not be tightened at the joints with red lead, as is usually done.
—At the last meeting of the American Library association, Mr. Poole, in regard to the question of the spreading of contagious disease by means of books from circulating libraries, drew the conclusion from extensive investigations, that the dangers of infection from-this source are little or nothing, for out of nineteen letters from the librarians of the largest libraries in the country, not one gave any fact tending to show that such disease was ever imported by books under their care. It was thought, however, that a possible danger, even if it be small, should be guarded against by such provisions as are prudent and practicable.
—Professor Baird, in his Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1879, recently published, alludes in complimentary terms to work done by women. At the Harvard astronomical observatory, Miss R. G. Saunders regularly makes the mathematical calculations of observations made with the meridian circle. Professor Maria Mitchell is still director of the Yassar College observatory. and she and her girls photograph sun spots every flare day. Besides that, observations of Saturn were taken during fifty evenings in the past year. Professor Mitchell herself contributed a paper on "Jupiter" to Sillimun's Journal some months ago. The Annual Record further commends a Ceramic Hand Book. written by Jennie J. Young. In the American Naturalist for last 0ctober, Sarah P. Monks reports a case of mimetic coloring in tadpoles discovered and prescribed by herself.

 

BOGUS CERTIFICATES.

It is no vile drugged stuff, pretending to be made of wonderful foreign roots, barks etc, and puffed up by Iong bogus certificates of pretended miraculous cures, but a simple, pure, effective medicine, made of well known valuable remedies, that furnishes its own certificate by its cures. We refer to Hop Bitters, the purest and best of medicines. See "TRUTHS" and “PROVERBS” in another column. 

THE only combination of the true Jamaica Ginger with choice aromatics and French brandy, for colds, chills and fevers, Malarial fevers, pains in the bones and joints, symptoms of rheumatism, neuralgia, and gout, cold extremities, suspended circulation, and depressed condition of the vital forces, is SANFORD’S JAMAICA GINGER.

Ask for SANFORD’s.

 

MORNING TOPICS

July 30, 1879

 

Several American potato bugs, disgusted with the frequent doses of Paris green [insecticide] they received in this country, have emigrated to Ireland and are now doing a flourishing business in County Cork, much to the terror of the numerous potato raisers there. The latter should insist at once upon their wearing of the (Paris) green.

Sunshine Week

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Sunshine Week 2013 is made possible thanks to the generous support of Bloomberg LP and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know.

http://sunshineweek.org

Albany Can Do More--Buffalo News editorial

Secrecy Shadows Our Government--Syracuse Post Standard editorial

Spinning the News, July 29, 1879

News, Utica Morning Herald and Daily Gazette.

July 29, 1879.

 

Foreign Items

     Signor Bennedetto Cairoli, the Italian Premier, has paid a long visit to General Garibaldi. It is believed he obtained the promise of his support for the present government.

     At Ottawa, a party of a hundred “Young Britons,” while returning home late Saturday night from escorting the Montreal Britons to the cars, were fired upon by some 300 Union men. One of the Britons was wounded. The prompt arrival of the police prevented a serious riot. Several arrests were made.

Varieties

     A crowd of men were watching a calf in North Carolina choke to death with an apple in its throat when a small boy stepped up, knocked over the calf, and laying its neck across a rail, smashed the apple from the outside.Then the calf swallowed it and got up well.

     Colonel McLaughlin and Professor Miller, the celebrated wrestlers, had a tussle at Titusville Saturday night that lasted from early in the evening until after mid-night, when it was declared a draw.

 

A Working Woman’s Argument With Fall River Strikers.

     The Boston Advertiser reports the following interview with the mother of a Fall River employee who had been threatened if he did not quit work.
 

     The mother said: Last night three spinners called at her house. One of them asked for her son Joe. He wanted him to come downstairs, as they wanted to have some talk with him. She said she could not allow him to go out of the house. They told her that they wished Joe to come out of the mill. She said that she could not take him out: she said she had no husband to rely upon for the support of herself and her children, and that she needed his earnings to furnish food for her family. The spinners said that they were fighting for the return of the fifteen per centum, and that when they got it, it would make a difference in the earnings of her children of thirty dollars a month, for all the help in the mill would get the fifteen per centum when the spinners got it.
 

     In the strike they had a hard battle to fight, and they would not allow her boy to continue working in the mill: they must have him out first, and then they intended to take out the others, and he would be supported from the union.

     Woman: How much support would the union give him?

     Spinner: We would get him $3 a week now, and more after a while.

     Woman: And will $3 a week keep my children in bread? This morning my milkman, my butcher and my storeman all shut down on me.

     Spinner: But your boy is taking the bread out of my mouth; has he any right to do that?

     Woman: No, he hasn’t, and if you go down to the mill in the morning and if he is working on your mules, you can take them, and go to work, and he can go on another pair if there are any, and if not he can go to his light looms, but if you won’t have your mules you can’t say he is taking the bread out of your mouth if he works on them to earn food for himself and his little brothers and sisters.

     Spinner: But we are working for him to get more pay as well as ourselves, and it’s a shame for him to be a “lobstick.”

     Woman: Yes, it is a shame for him to be a “lobstick” but it is a greater shame to be a beggar when you are strong enough to work for a living.

     Spinner (with an oath): What do you mean by a beggar?

     Woman: I mean that every week I should have to go up to the Union and drop my shoulders and my head down and ask for my $3 like a common beggar. I’m an honest woman and try to earn my living and pay my debts. I owe $13 now as the balance of my debts I contracted during the strike four years ago, and the only way of paying my debts is to earn money by working for it. I take in washing when I can and sewing, and we must work for the most we can get. We would like to get more but it is no use throwing away what we can get.

     This morning the boy went to his work as usual, but she was warned that trouble would happen to her and the boy if he did not stay away, and so this afternoon he did not return to his work.
 

Spinner at Fall River

 

 

Recommended reading:

Strike by Joe Bakewell.

www.joebakewell.wordpress.com

 

CSEA Opposes Voluntary Clean Up in Cortland

     CSEA union leaders representing City of Cortland Department of Public Works employees have filed a lawsuit against the city. They claim the city violated its contract with CSEA when volunteers, including city officials, cleaned up city streets and side walks last year before the Jets arrived for training camp.
     The union claims the work should be done by DPW employees exclusively. The mayor and city council contend otherwise, and have hired outside counsel to defend the city's position on this dispute over volunteerism and union contractual rights.
     The Cortland Contrarian has not always agreed with Mayor Tobin and common council. We have figuratively tweaked the mayor's beard, we have alleged that a respected Republican alderman is a zombie and, on a more serious note, we have exposed a 2011 political cabal and a series of secret emails in connection with the vengeful overthrow of former Mayor Susan Feiszli. Be that as it may, on the issue of volunteerism (we have too little of it), the Cortland Contrarian supports Mayor Tobin and common council.
     If the union wins this dispute, will volunteer firemen be the next target of union lawsuits?
     DPW employees are respected and appreciated in this city. We wish the same unqualified sentiment could apply to CSEA leaders, but their narrow-minded war against city volunteers is surely alienating the public.
    

Tell Me When The War Is Over

CSS Shenandoah, Melbourne, Australia
 

     Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union forces on May 11, 1865, and the last confederate troops surrendered May 26, 1865.

     However, the Civil War continued in the Pacific Ocean as far north as the Arctic Circle.

     At the end of the American Civil War, the Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah continued to raid and burn ships in the Pacific. Near the end of June, 1865, the ship was located in the Bering Strait between Russia and Russian-owned Alaska. Her captain and crew were raiding New England whaling vessels. Many of the whaling ships were captured and burned after personnel and provisions were removed. Some of the captured ships were bonded or ransomed to the Confederacy and allowed to go home. Those returning ships carried survivors from the ships that were destroyed.

     On November 9, 1865, after a long journey around Cape Horn, Confederate Commander James Waddell surrendered CSS Shenandoah to the British on the Mercy river near Liverpool. Many of the Shenandoah's crew were English citizens but during the "staged" surrender they claimed to be Americans. For his part Waddell claimed that he was not officially informed of the Confederate defeat until August 30, 1865. But Captains William Thompson and Francis Smith informed him of the Confederate defeat as early as June 22, 1865 in the Bering Strait, when Commander Waddell captured their whaling ships.

     Northern newspapers called Waddell a pirate. People in the South called him a hero. In 1871, an International Court at Geneva awarded the United States damages of 820,000 pounds sterling against England. James Waddell remained in England for ten years. How he managed to procure a living for 10 years in England remains a mystery. He returned to the United States in 1875. He was not charged or arrested for any crime.

                                                   End of the Shenandoah.
                                      She Goes into a British Port and Surrenders.
                                                   Perplexing Questions Ahead.
                                                   Comments of the British Press.

Albany Evening News, Nov. 20, 1865, Utica Morning Herald and Daily Gazette, Nov. 21, 1865.

     --The pirate Shenandoah arrived in Mersey and surrendered to guard ship Donegal, and is now in the hands of the naval authorities. Capt. Waddell states that the first information he received of the close of the war was on the 30th of August, from the British war vessel, Barracouta, and that he immediately consigned the guns to the hold and steered for Liverpool.
      The Daily News says: “The Americans may be inclined to say it was only a fitting end that her end should be as British as her origin was;” but the Daily News cannot help asking “how the Shenandoah has been able to pursue her course without the least interruption of the American navy? Can it be possible that the expectation of recovering compensation for losses resulting from her depredations from the English Government made the Americans less eager for her capture? If the world should come to that conclusion, it would be one of the strongest practical arguments against the admission of such liabilities as Seward is now endeavoring to establish against England.”
     It is stated that Waddell sent a letter to [British Prime Minister] Earl Russell; contents unknown. The captain and crew remained on the Shenandoah.
     The Star says that the vessel will undoubtedly be claimed by America, and there is no reason for refusing the request.
     The Times says that the question of personal liability and surrender after capture, will probably give rise to perplexing discussions; but that at whatever cost, strict justice will be done by the British tribunals to which it is submitted.

The Pirate Shenandoah.

New York Times editorial, reprinted by Albany Evening News, November 21, 1865.

     The Shenandoah, like a good many other Rebel curses, has gone “home to roost.” She turned up one fine morning in the port of Liverpool, carrying the Rebel flag, and was surrendered by her commander to an English man-of-war.
     It will be seen by the extracts from English papers which we publish elsewhere, that her welcome is by no means cordial. It has ceased to be for English interests, and has therefore become immoral, to welcome the Rebel flag and fete the captains of Rebel privateers. The English, moreover, feel that the untimely arrival of the Shenandoah involves them in new and somewhat embarrassing responsibilities. It is susceptible of proof, we believe, that the Captain of this vessel, long after he had received authentic information of the termination of the war, pursued his career of plundering and burning peaceful and unarmed vessels, and that fifty or sixty whalers thus fell victims to his cowardly prowess in the Arctic seas. He claims to have received official intelligence of the close of the war only on the 30th of August; but what particular form and style of information is requisite to check the black and bloody cruise of a privateer, it will now become the duty of English law courts to determine.
     The responsibility of dealing with Waddell devolves wholly on the British Government. If he was in command of a privateer, duly exercising belligerent rights, England cannot surrender him, nor shall we ask her to do so. If, on the contrary, he pursued his career of devastation after those rights had ceased to protect him, he became simply a pirate, and violated the laws of Great Britain quite as truly as those of the United States. And it devolves upon the English authorities to hold him responsible. The fact that his depredations were continued to American vessels, and that British commerce suffered nothing at his hands, cannot, of course, alter the principles of justice and of law applicable to his case; though we should hesitate, in view of the recent events, to say that it will not alter the actual application of these principles by the British courts of law.
     One thing, however, it may be well enough to bear in mind. The future application of whatever principles may now be laid down by English tribunals is of much more importance to England herself than is the fate of Waddell to anybody on the face of the earth. We wish the English neutrals joy of the return of their belligerent rover.



Former Confederate Naval Officers in England late 1865.


 

Reference:
1) Wikipedia--James Waddell
2) Ahoy--Mac's Web Log