The Press: Ghouls

Ghouls or a pressagent? That was the question that newspaper editors had to ask themselves as they read despatches last week describing the theft of the body of Floyd Collins. The corpse had been on exhibition in a bronze and glass coffin in Crystal Cave, Ky., some seven miles from Sand Cave, where Collins died in 1925 after a 17-day effort to dig him out alive. Crystal Cave is owned by a Dr. Harry Thomas of Horse Cave. Ky. The admission price to see Floyd Collins is $2.

Now the reports said that Floyd Collins had been stolen from his coffin, traced by bloodhounds, and discovered in a burlap sack about 400 yards from the cave. Editors pondered because Floyd Collins, martyr, was a creation of the Press. The Press must be true to its own. What to do?

Credulous editors printed the despatches at face value. Skeptical editors (and Kentucky editors were notably skeptical) reflected that the caves were about to open for the season, that tourist trade was desirable, that the alleged theft of Collins’s body was singularly timely for publicity purposes.