Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1878 — The “Petrified Man” Humbug. [ARTICLE]

The “Petrified Man” Humbug.

Any doubt as to the real character of the so-called petrified man of Colorado is removed by the confession of Mr. Fitch, one of its makers. Mr. Fitih is the proprietor of a manufactory of artificial stone, of a city in the northern part of this State. He says that George Hull, the maker of the Cardiff Giant, called upon him in February, 1876, and suggested the scheme. • The statue was made near Elklan'd, Pa., the material used being Portland cement, colored with metallic brown. Human bones were introduced where examination was likely to be made, and to prevent injury to the upper part of the body the shin-bone of the cow was inserted through the neck from the middle of the head down to the point of the chest, where the statue subsequently broke. When it was completed it was baked. P. T. Barnum was then taken into the arrangement, and he supplied money, and under his directions the statue was carefully boxed and shipped asjine mar chinery, with a false bottom on steel springs beneath it, to Bridgeport, Conn., in March, 1877, and thence to Colorado Springs. The statue is now in a Broadway cellar, where one of the owners has been introducing into its abdomen a quantity of crystals which were intended to make it stand the final test of scientific men.— N. Y. Evening Post, Jan. 28.