“the account of the volcano”
Date
2-27-1812
Newspaper
Augusta Herald
Page and Column
Page 3, Column 3
Newspaper Location
Augusta, Georgia
Serial Number
762
Abstract
Commentary that the John C. Edwards accounts are fictitious. Notes that the Georgia Argus writes in the same fictitious vein.
Transcript
The account of the Volcano, and the previous description of the effects of the earthquake in Buncomb county, as given by a John C. Edwards, prove as we expected and suggested to be altogether false. How an individual who writes as well as the author of these descriptions [unreadable] can take pleasure in thus sporting with public credulity, or how he could be so depraved as to write deliberate falsehoods upon a subject, calculated to produce more rational effects upon the heart and understand, we know not. Should he not yet be satisfied with his tales of wonder, we would suggest to him to leave the mountains of Buncomb, and connect himself if possible with the editor of the Georgia Argus, and as the paper would then be under the direction of two men of science 'tis possible they would be able to produce a sort of political, or literary. Volcano, the smoke and dust of which would greatly obscure, darken and be wilder most of those within the reach of its influence. In the last Raleigh Star, we find the following notice of this genius, and contradiction of his statements:-- "We are informed by the Post-Master and by an other respectable citizen of Asheville; that the communication published in our page 7, giving an account of the Earthquake in Buncombe, is a gross misrepresentation, and that no such man as 'John C. Edwards' (a name signed to the piece) was ever known in that place. The same person last week passed off a most barefaced hoax upon the Register, making at a single dash of the pen, a widow and thirteen orphans by throwing a fat Taylor on his belly in the Buncomb Earthquake, and making also a Volcano occasion the overflow of 200 acres of rich bottom land, to the great injury of the owners!!--If this scribler wishes to pass for a wit, he will find his claim disallowed by the public. The attempt to lessen the credit of vehicles of public information will not be passed over with indulgence."
Recommended Citation
"“the account of the volcano”" (1812). New Madrid Compendium Far-Field Database. 747.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/cas-ceri-new-madrid-compendium/747
