The discussions of the press were very rich; the "Sun," of course, defending the affair as genuine, and others doubting it. The "Mercantile Advertiser," the "Albany Daily Advertiser," the "New York Commercial Advertiser," the "New York Times," the "New Yorker," the "New York Spirit of '76," the "Sunday News," the "United States Gazette," the "Philadelphia Inquirer," and hosts of other papers came out with the most solemn acceptance and admiration of these "wonderful discoveries," and were eclipsed in their approval only by the scientific journals abroad. The "Evening Post," however, was decidedly skeptical, and took up the matter in this irreverent way: "It is quite proper that the "Sun" should be the means of shedding so much light on the Moon. That there should be winged people in the moon does not strike us as more wonderful than the existence of such a race of beings on the earth; and that there does still exist such a race, rests on the evidence of that most veracious of voyagers and circumstantial of chroniclers, Peter Wilkins, whose celebrated work not only gives an account of the general appearance and habits of a most interesting tribe of flying Indians; but, also, of all those more delicate and engaging traits which the author was enabled to discover by reason of the conjugal relations he entered into with one of the females of the winged tribe." The moon-hoax had its day, and some of its glory still survives. Mr. Locke, its author, is now quietly residing in the beautiful little home of a friend on the Clove Road, Staten Island, and no doubt, as he gazes up at the evening luminary, often fancies that he sees a broad grin on the countenance of its only well-authenticated tenant, "the hoary solitary whom the criminal code of the nursery has banished thither for collecting fuel on the Sabbath-day." CHAPTER XXXIII. THE MISCEGENATION HOAX.--A GREAT LITERARY SELL.--POLITICAL HUMBUGGING.--TRICKS OF THE WIRE-PULLERS.--MACHINERY EMPLOYED TO RENDER THE PAMPHLET NOTORIOUS.--WHO WERE SOLD AND HOW IT WAS DONE. Some persons say that "all is fair in politics." Without agreeing with this doctrine, I nevertheless feel that the history of Ancient and Modern Humbugs would not be complete without a record of the last and one of the most successful of known literary hoaxes. This is the pamphlet entitled "Miscegenation," which advocates the blending of the white and black races upon this continent, as a result not only inevitable from the freeing of the negro, but desirable as a means of creating a more perfect race of men than any now existing. This pamphlet is a clever political quiz; and was written by three young gentlemen of the "World" newspaper, namely. D. G. Croly, George Wakeman, and E. C. Howell.