I'm sure you've heard the saying, "There's a sucker born every minute."
Most folks will tell you that P.T. Barnum said that. Actually, according to HistoryBuff.com, one of Barnum's competitors said it — and it is connected to a hoax that was perpetrated 141 years ago today.
And, oddly, Barnum was linked to the hoax — but he didn't try to pull it off. He just wanted a piece of the action.
The hoax involved the so–called "Cardiff Giant," a 10–foot tall "petrified man" who was discovered by some well diggers on a farm near Cardiff, N.Y., on Oct. 16, 1869.
The hoax originated when an atheist named George Hull got into an argument at a revival meeting over a passage in Genesis about how giants once roamed the earth. The argument inspired Hull to create a "petrified giant," bury it and arrange to have it discovered.
Hull had a block of gypsum carved out in Iowa, then shipped it to Chicago, where a German stone cutter was hired to chisel it into the likeness of a man. The carving was subjected to various treatments to give the "body" an authentic appearance, then Hull shipped it to his cousin's farm in New York in November 1868.
Nearly a year later, the well diggers were hired and instructed to dig in precisely the spot where the "giant" had been buried the previous year. Upon their "discovery," one of the diggers was said to have exclaimed, "I declare, some old Indian has been buried here!"
Anyway, Hull began cashing in on the "find" almost immediately, erecting a tent over the site and charging admission, which he doubled after a couple of days.
There were scholars who insisted the "giant" was a fake. There were geologists who tried to tell anyone who would listen that there was no physical evidence supporting the digging of a well in that particular spot. Yet there were also ministers who insisted the "giant" was genuine.
Hull sold his interest in the "giant" to a five–man syndicate that included a fellow named David Hannum. They put the "giant" on display and drew such crowds that Barnum made an offer for it, but he was turned down.
So Barnum hired a man to make a copy, then put his copy on display and claimed that his was the original and the other was a fake.
Upon hearing of this, Hannum dismissed both Barnum's claim and those who believed it, saying, "There's a sucker born every minute."
The whole thing wound up in court, where it was established less than four months after the discovery that both "giants" were frauds. Hannum had sued Barnum for calling his "giant" a fake, but, when both were revealed to be fakes on Feb. 2, 1870, the judge let Barnum off the hook, saying he could not be sued for calling a fake giant a fake.
And now you know the rest of the story.
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