Word: hoax
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...Hoax. During the early part of last week, the Detroit courtroom buzzed with rumors that Mr. Ford would soon appear, although the judge and the lawyers knew that he was lying in a hospital with painful injuries and that he would not testify for at least two weeks (see p. 34). Suddenly, a U. S. deputy marshal escorted a man who he thought was Mr. Ford to a front row seat, while photographers set off flashlight powders. The man laughed, admitted that he was James G. Goodrich, treasurer of Lockmoor village, double of Mr. Ford. The U. S. deputy marshal...
...time, workmen roped off a main London thoroughfare, spat on their palms, swung picks all morning, sat on the edge of the gaping asphalt to eat their lunches, continued their havoc until sundown, then returned to their colleges and usual clothes. Weeks of traffic congestion failed to reveal the hoax...
Finally England and the U. S. are being diverted by an anonymous "hoax book,"* in which the late King Edward VII receives praise for his high living and higher diplomacy, and almost everyone else from Cecil Rhodes to Margot Asquith and from Lord Kitchener to Lord Northcliffe is flayed and tittle-tattled about...
...Franklin", says Balzae, "invented the lightning rod, the hoax, and the republic". Yet in all fairness it must be admitted that he did more. In fact, not only did he show himself a statesman during his stay at the French Court as well as in his political work at home, but also he was perhaps the foremost writer of America at the time, as well as something of an inventor and man of science...
Over the week end, however, something "unforeseen" occurred, for in Monday's papers the John Lane officials begged the public's pardon: they were sorry but, entirely innocent themselves, they had fathered the hoax. The book was quite spurious, and was written by one who was ignorant of those about whom he gossiped and lacked the background necessary to such in time chatter. Would everyone who had bought the book please return it to the publishers and get their refund? If the purchasers would be so obliging all would again be serene, feelings would be soothed, and the whole matter...