FACT AND FICTION

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 95, 16 January 1926, Page 20

FACT AND FICTION

THE REPORTER AND THE LADY TRAVELLER

“On arriving in New York alter my expedition, I was interviewed (writes Miss Gwen Richardson, the lady traveller) by :i representative of a large American newspaper syndicate. The New York Natural History Museum Expedition had returned a . short time before from the Gobi Desert with the dinosaur's eggs they had found there. This sensational discovery coloured the mind of the reporter, and before I had time to speak he hurled the question at me.

“ ‘Did you find any preliistori cani mals ?’

“ 'No, I did not!’ I answered m amazement, for, having been far awayfrom civilisation for so long, I had not heard of the dinosaur’s eggs. “He looked discouraged. “ ‘Well did you find any remains of prehistoric animals?’

“ ‘No.’ “ ‘Not even an egg?’ “ ‘l’m afraid not. 1 went to look for diamonds.’ “‘Oh! Then did you find a lost citv?’

“‘No.- The wilds of British _ Guiana seem to have been uncivilised since the beginning of time.’ “ ‘Surelv vou found a lost tribe oi Indians’’’ lie asked in an aggrieved voice. “ ‘I certainly saw some Indians, but thev were not particularly “lost.” ’

“He rutiled iiis hair in irritation. Then a new idea came to him.

“ ‘Perhaps the Indians kidnapped you, and set you up as their queen ?’

“‘Ah! They were fierce—-they hated vou. Perhaps one crept into your tent, imd you woke just in time to see his knife’ raised above you, about to chop off voitr head. You had the presence of mind to snatch your revolver and shoot him.’

“ 'No, the Indians of the Alazuruni arcdocile, charming creatures.’

“Here my interrogator gave me a reproachful look, and deciding that I was a hopeless subject for an interview, he listened to a few fads about my expedition. “When the article appeared it bad gone through the process of what is known in blew York newspaper circles as ‘jazzing,’ and all my statements were so distorted that hardly one word of truth remained. “I gave the paper a photograph of mi-self shooting my automatic. When it appeared, the guu was rubbed out, and in its place was a large snake with the an-.'rv head held in my band and body coiled round my arm ; the caption was ‘Gwen Richardson with the Deadly Bushmaster Snake she Caught Alive.’ The amazing article was beaded, ‘How I Fought with Dea'li for Blue Diamonds.’