INCREDIBLE CREDULITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5698, 17 October 1896, Page 7

INCREDIBLE CREDULITY.

In a certain village in Shropshire, an old farmer and his wife, who had by their long labour and commendable thrift laid by a goodly sum in gold to keep them in their declining years, secreted their savings in their home, having lost faith in the banks. By some mysterious method an old gipsy woman discovered their secret, called upon them, and took considerable pains to persuade them that if they deposited their money in a deserted nest in a wood near by, and preserved a discreet silence for three days and nights without approaching the nest, the gold would be multiplied fourfold. For this advice the dusky prophetess demanded a fee of five shillings. Strange, to say, the credulous couple believed her absurd statement, obeyed her directions implicitly, and, as may be supposed, saw neither her nor their money again. Their incredible credulity landed them in the parish workhouse at last. There lives in County Limerick an old man who received very little education in his youth, but who rose from poverty to be very rich, and he was recently victimized in a marvellous manner % One day a well-dressed stranger called to see him, and, after conversing for a few minutes, produced a piece of stone from his pocket, and seriously affirmed that it was a portion of the North Pole. He stated that he was a traveller, and had personally ascertained that the abstraction of the stone from the Pole had done it so much injury that unless it waa speedily repaired a collapse would occur, with awful consequences to the entire globe. He said he was collecting funds for a proposed expedition to the Pole to repair the damage* and to this he invited contributions. He recieved no less than .£3O, on the strength of this preposterous fallacy, and vanished with an alacrity calculated to land him at the North Pole long since. On one occasion, -while the Carl Eosa Opera Company were performing in Belfast, ,an announcement appeared in aioeai paper

to the effect that any person, sending a few stamps to a certain address would receive. in return a free ticket for the opera. During the following day or two more than five hundred applications were sent in response to this generous invitation, but the tickets were not. forthcoming, and the police authorities investigated the matter, only to find that the author of the advertisement was an enterprising swindler, who thrived on the joint product of hia own subtle wit, .and th« guileless confidence of a credulous public. • : .•;■• When the Imperial Mint of Belgium was to be removed from its ancient and! inadequate environment to the splendid pile of buildings it now occupies, one of the newspapers of Brussels publicly intir mated that all the five-franc pieces made on the last day jn the old Mint would be told to the public at a discount— about half their actual value. '

This notification created general interest, and myriads of excited citizens besieged the gates of the Mint very early on the morning of the day named, only to be informed, however, by the astonished authorities that the announcement was nothing but a heartless ho&x.-r-Tit Bits.