Great story. My eyes were glued to the page!! I was thinking "there is no way our society today would believe in such a hoax. Then you said it was taken place 150 years go. I am now impressed with the publicity it took on. I wonder if the news of it being a hoax reached all the people who believed it..
Resteemed @voronoi ! Great read.
Thank you!! Hah, I'd bet some folks still believe it ;)
It's exciting to think that this could have been the first story to go "viral" back in 19th century!