POWER OF THE PRESS

New Zealand Tablet, 4 May 1911, Page 838

POWER OF THE PRESS

As illustrating the power of the press, a Washington writer tells this story : Some time ago a farmer put his feet into a pair of old boots that he had years ago cast aside. An obstruction in the toe of one of them, much to his delight, proved to be aSO dollar bill. The village paper duly recorded the incident, and put it on the wire for the city daily, adding to the importance of the item by multiplying the find by ten — making it a 500 dollar bill. The Associated Press correspondent passed the news item on to the papers of that organisation, and added another nought, making it 5000 dollars. This item was copied far and wide, and eventually reached the old farmer’s relatives in Germany, and in due course he was the recipient of many exacting letters of congratulation over his good luck in extracting 5000 dollars from an old boot. Time passed, and one day the old farmer picked up his family story paper to read, and there he beheld recorded the fact that he had found 50,000 dollars in bank notes in an old boot, where he had placed them years before and had forgotten the trifling incident. Now, the fact of the whole story was, that, having found a 50 dollar note in an old boot, and taken it to the bank, the cashier, dubious about its looks, forwarded it to the subtreasury, whence it was soon returned with the word ‘ counterfeit ’ stamped upon it.