near the village of Cardiff in western New York. Clergymen and scientists alike asserted that it was a fossilized human being from ages past, perhaps a confirmation of the Biblical account: “There were giants in those days.” Many commented on the detail of the figure, seemingly far finer than a mere artisan could have carved from stone. Why, there were even networks of tiny blue veins. But others were less impressed, including Andrew Dickson White, the first president of Cornell University, who declared it to be a pious fraud, and execrable sculpture to boot. A meticulous examination then revealed it to be of very recent origin, whereupon it emerged that the Cardiff Giant was merely a statue, a hoax engineered by George Hull of Binghamton, who described himself as “tobacconist, inventor, alchemist, atheist,” a busy man. The “blue veins” were a natural pattern in the sculpted rock. The object of the deception was to fleece tourists. But this uncomfortable revelation did not faze the American entrepreneur P.
