Untitled

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 217, 12 September 1908, Page 2

Says "Ariel," in the Dunedin Star: Barnum, the great showman ? used to say "the American people like to be humbugged." The American people are by no means singular in that, and I remarked last week, when recording the fiat of some religious body in the States, upon the marvellous capacity of the human race for superstition and absorbing bunkum. Dr. Johnson believed in the famous Cock Lane ghost, which turned out to be a half-crazy servant girl. In my student days some fellows I know (of course, I was no party to the joke), manufactured a hybrid butterfly. We—l mean they— carefully glued the body of a wasp to the trunk of a bettle, and, in a similar way, affixed the wings of the butterfly. Then they asked a shortsighted but dear old professor to be good enough to enlighten them upon the species of the remarkable insect. ' 'Gentlemen," said the dear old man, "I think this is a bug of the species hum!"