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Newspapers throughout Mon-
tana eagerly took up the story.
Miles hoped that it would be
enough to convince crowds in
New York City to attend, many
of whom were Irish and either
adored or hated Meagher for
his involvement with the Irish
Confederation and his famous
Speech on the Dock.
His identification of the body
as Meagher was improbably
complicated, however, by Mon-
tana legend Liver Eating John-
son, then in his mid-seventies,
who saw the body for himself
and proclaimed it was none oth-
er than his old friend "Antelope
Charley," missing some twen-
ty-five years. This sent a new
ripple of stories throughout the
Montana presses, but Miles re-
doubled his efforts to promote
the body as Meagher's.
Whoever he was, Montanans
had begun to see the petrified
man as a matter of state pride,
and his Eastern tour was mon-
itored as would be the progress
of any other Montana boy made
good on the national stage.
Sales began promisingly
enough but began to dwindle
the further out of Montana they
went. St. Paul's box office was discouraging, but the extended
tour in Chicago was even worse. Miles hoped that New York
would still show up in droves. His hopes were dashed, and Big
Apple ticket sales failed to cover his costs. It may have been that
New York City audiences did not want to pay half a dollar to see
something that, fossilization notwithstanding, could be seen for
free on the streets.
