HOOK'S HOAX.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 9 (Supplement)

HOOK'S HOAX.

Theodore Hook, novelist, eccentric and buffoon, earned immortal fame with ft plan of beautiful simplicity for the greatest hoax ever inflicted on the inhabitants of London. For a guinea wager he 6wore to make prim 54, Berners Street, W., the residence of a Mrs. Tottingham, the widow of a prosperous tradesman, the most famous house in London. In live days ho wrote a thousand letters, in which he summoned practically everyone to be at Mrs. Tottingham's house with everything on an appointed day. Early that day Hook, from an opposite window, Saw many chimney sweeps, all with rival orders, wrangle _ their way past tlio astonished maid into the ball of No. 54. Following were numerous drays carrying Mrs. Tott'ngham beer from the wharves, and soon tliey choked, the little by-way. Then, there were carriages to take Mrs. Tottingham on her honeymoon. Somewhere amid a vast melee of harpsichords, cranberry tarts and coal wagons was the undertaker conveying Mrs. Tottingliam's coffin, sft Oin long. Nothing had been overlooked. With noon came 40 fishmongers with 40 cod and lobsters, and 40 butchers with 40 lcs of mutton. There were accoucheurs, dentists, surgeons, attorneys, parsons and sages to inspect a two» headed child. With his deep backstair knowledge of society, Hook had been] able to lure even the Duke of York, j who drove up in a rich equipage. Thenj followed the governor of the Bank of; England, the Lord Mayor, the chairman of the East India Company, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. All day long the crowd of noble and plebeian dupes yielded a rich harvest to pickpockets, and as late as five in the evening the officers were still turning back troops of servants applying for places,