Ah.  The old Hocus Pocus.  Or in some cases… the old hoax us, pokes us.  Yes the “Hoax” has been around since the beginning of …  “once upon a time.”

Well, this particular hoax story is just interesting. It is the account of the Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous hoaxes in American history.  I had never heard of this incident before tonight.  So I did some reading on the subject.

Quite a thing, really.  The Cardiff Giant  was a 10-foot-tall “petrified man” which was uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well.  They were working  behind the barn of William C. “Stub” Newell in Cardiff, New York.

The Giant was the creation of a New York tobacconist named George Hull. This guy…. this Georgie “Tobaccy” Hull was an atheist.  He decided to create the giant after an argument he had with a fundamentalist minister.

The minister dude was  named Mr. Turk.

During the argument, George Hull kept calling the reverend….. Holy Turkyboy….  probably.

They argued  about a passage in Genesis that stated that there were giants who once lived on earth.  So old George got a 10-feet-long block of gypsum and he shipped the block to Chicago.

Once in the Windy City,  he hired a German stone cutter to carve it into the likeness of a man and swore him to secrecy. Various stains and acids were used to make the giant appear to be old and weather beaten.  THEN, George buried for a year.

So…. I am not entirely sure what this guy Newell had to do with it…. other than having the farm where Hull buried the giant.  But , one day….. Newell hired two men, to dig a well. When they found the Giant, one of them has been attributed to saying “I declare, some old Indian has been buried here!”.

The giant drew such crowds that showman P.T. Barnum offered $60,000 for a three-month lease of it.  He was turned down by Newell. So Barnum made a copy.  He put his giant on display in New York, claiming that his was the real giant and the Cardiff Giant was a fake.

And the fun continues….. On February 2, 1870 both giants were revealed as fakes in court. The judge ruled that Barnum could not be sued for calling a fake giant a fake.  Both the Cardiff Giant and an unauthorized copy made by P.T. Barnum are still on display.

So….. that judge declared the fake, fake giant…. was indeed….  sort of okay… not so fake… since it was a fake of a fake.  This all in the late 1800s.  Sounds more like today.

I just find this so interesting… from start to finish.  I mean, the lengths this George Hull went to… all for the sake of winning an argument.  He spent a lot of time and energy and money on this.  And for what really?  To be right?

It is my estimation that this occurs a lot.  People going to great, great lengths… just to prove they are right.  I wonder what would happen if that same time and energy, and money…. went into to understanding and helping each other.

If every one focused on “understanding” and “compassion”…. I think we all would… perhaps… be Giants.

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault