Murder; Pygmies; Babies

Last week U. S. newspaper readers were offered three outlandish tidbits from three outlandish sources:

P: At least 300 years old is the story of the boy who leaves home to make his fortune, returns in manhood to be robbed and murdered by his greedy parents who fail to recognize him. Every few months this item, with setting and characters changed, pops up as gospel fact. Last month the Associated Press carried the story as a news dispatch from Oravisa, Yugoslavia (TIME. Jan. 28). Last week Hearstpapers printed a Universal Service report beginning thus:

"Out of the hills has come the story of a family tragedy suggesting the work of a Russian novelist. At Oravitza a mother and her daughter killed and robbed a stranger at their inn--not knowing that he was their son and brother. . . ."

Variations in the Hearstpaper version: 1) The mother & sister buried the body without discovering its identity until the victim's wife inquired for him. 2) The victim, who was last identified as George Nikolau, now becomes Peter.

P: From Vadnagar, India, north of Bombay, last week flashed exciting words. "Experts in anthropology" announced that they had found fossil remains of a pygmy man 15 in. tall, a pygmy cow 18 in. high. The Press earnestly began gathering learned speculations on this "cradleland of the human race." But when the backwash of inquiries engulfed the town of Vadnagar, local authorities called the story a hoax, either the work of a practical joker or, as the Associated Press found, "the result of an old Hindu superstition that spreading a false rumor sometimes aids toward solving a domestic problem."

P: "The Dionne case leaves me cold. I have something to show you." Thus spoke Obstetrician Edward Armin Schumann of the University of Pennsylvania last week, at a gynecologists' meeting in New Orleans. Upon a screen flashed a lantern-slide picture of six wizened black babies, alike as shoe-buttons. Continued Dr. Schumann: "Here are sextuplets, born to a mother on the African Gold Coast, without the help of modern medicine, without any Dr. Dafoe. These babies were alive and well after eight days, I am informed in a letter from a missionary friend. . . ."

The story was a front-page wonder until Dr. Schumann belatedly recalled that his picture was taken 30 years ago.

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