Booby Trap

"... A new and honest era in journalism, one which might well spread to big city dailies," wrote New York World-Telegram and Sun Columnist John McClain last week, as he attributed the following society item to the Mobridge (S.Dak.) weekly Tribune (circ. 2,783):

"Miss Jennie Jones and Bob Henry were married at the Jones mansion last night. The bride is the daughter of Constable Jones, who has made a good officer and will undoubtedly be re-elected ... He offers a fine horse for sale in another column of this issue.

"The groom runs a grocery store on Main Street and is a steady patron of our advertising columns. He has a good line of bargains this week. All summer he paid two cents more for butter than any other store in town.

"They were married by Rev. Josiah Butterworth, who last week . . . gave us a nice order for handbills. Jennie and Bob left ... to visit the bride's uncle, who, we understand, has lots of money."

If Big City Columnist McClain had bothered to check his sources, he would have discovered that no such story ever appeared in the Mobridge Tribune. It was written in 1939 by the Tribune's Randall Hobart as a satire on country newspapers, first appeared in the Reader's Digest, has since been widely and solemnly reprinted as genuine. Just before Columnist McClain swallowed this old chestnut, :he Milwaukee Journal and Radio & TV Funnyman Arthur Godfrey also cracked heir teeth on it.

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