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Wild Life · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. It pays to get along with your coworkers.
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  Speaker 1: If you're the person who microwaves fish in the office
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  Speaker 1: kitchen or clips your nails at your desk, you might
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  Speaker 1: find your work life a little more unpleasant than usual.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're Johann Beranger, you might find your whole
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  Speaker 1: life the worse for wear. Johan was a professor in
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  Speaker 1: Germany around and an arrogant one. At that a year old,
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  Speaker 1: he was put in charge of his university's botanical gardens,
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  Speaker 1: which was a very important job. Much of modern medicine
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  Speaker 1: during the seventeenth century was based around plants and herbs,
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  Speaker 1: but Johan wasn't just fascinated with new medical discoveries and techniques.
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  Speaker 1: He was obsessed with the history of ancient plants and animals.
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  Speaker 1: He would often explore the nearby Mount Eibelstadt to hunt
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  Speaker 1: for what he referred to as petrofactions. We call them
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  Speaker 1: fossils today. On many occasions he'd take his students along
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  Speaker 1: with him. Whatever he'd bring back he would put on
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  Speaker 1: display for his peers and other students to study. On
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  Speaker 1: one excursion to the mountain, Johan came across some new specimens.
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  Speaker 1: They were butterflies, frogs, and spiders, a generous hall for
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  Speaker 1: the day. However, these fossils, or stones as he called them,
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  Speaker 1: were different. They've been inscribed with the word Jehovah, the
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  Speaker 1: Hebrew name of God, as well as words written in
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  Speaker 1: Syrian and Babylonian. Johan was amazed. Among all the fossilized
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  Speaker 1: shells and animals he normally found, these were entirely new
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  Speaker 1: ones with what he believed to be a more supernatural origin.
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  Speaker 1: He packed them up and returned to the school to
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  Speaker 1: add them to his collection, which he enthusiastically showed off
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  Speaker 1: to anyone who would give him the time. To Johan,
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  Speaker 1: the fossils were there for a reason. In his mind,
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  Speaker 1: God himself had put them there to be found, maybe
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  Speaker 1: for fun, or perhaps to inspire faith in the faithless.
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  Speaker 1: Not everyone saw the divinity in these stones. However, whenever
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  Speaker 1: he encountered a nonbeliever, he would escort them out to
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  Speaker 1: the mountain and have them dig around for themselves. Often,
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  Speaker 1: when they pulled out their own inscribed fossils, they'd be
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  Speaker 1: converted into believers, just like Johan. Emboldened by his discoveries,
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  Speaker 1: he published a book about the stones. But when word
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  Speaker 1: about it made it to two of Johan's colleagues, ja
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  Speaker 1: Ignates Roderick and Georg von Eckhart, they tried to discredit him.
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  Speaker 1: They started whispering around campus that the fossils in his
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  Speaker 1: collection were fake, and that they had even sold their
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  Speaker 1: own stones directly to him. Naturally, Johan was livid these
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  Speaker 1: men were trying to ruin his discovery out of pure jealousy.
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  Speaker 1: They envied his success and how quickly he'd risen within
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  Speaker 1: the university at such a young age. He published his
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  Speaker 1: book anyway, then sued Rodrick and Eckhart for defamation. The
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  Speaker 1: problem was they hadn't defamed Johan at all. You see,
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  Speaker 1: Roderick and Eckhart weren't jealous of the twenty seven year
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  Speaker 1: old professor. They simply hated him. They thought he was
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  Speaker 1: an arrogant jerk who needed to be taken down a
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  Speaker 1: few notches, so, with the help of a seventeen year
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  Speaker 1: old students, the two men had carved over a hundred
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  Speaker 1: animal fossils out of limestone inscribing words and drawings on
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  Speaker 1: many of them in different languages as part of an
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  Speaker 1: elaborate hoax. It's just that they had never counted on
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  Speaker 1: Johan publishing his findings. By the time they realized how
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  Speaker 1: far their joke had gone, it was too late. His
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  Speaker 1: career and reputation had been irrevocably harmed by the stones.
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  Speaker 1: Rumor had it that he even spent his entire fortune
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  Speaker 1: buying up all the copies of his published book in
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  Speaker 1: an effort to hide his embarrassment. However, when Johan's book
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  Speaker 1: was translated into English hundreds of years later, scholars discovered
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  Speaker 1: the truth. Roderick and Eckhart the real hoaxers were the
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  Speaker 1: ones who had been ruined by their prank. Rodrick himself
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  Speaker 1: was banished from the university entirely, while Eckharts lost many
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  Speaker 1: of his privileges at a famous archival library. Johan went
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  Speaker 1: on published two more books after his first, but the
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  Speaker 1: incident with the stones followed him as a footnote for
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  Speaker 1: the rest of his life. Despite his poor judgment and
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  Speaker 1: unbridled arrogance, Johann Berenger still holds a place in our hearts.
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  Speaker 1: Why because you see, he had a particular name for
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  Speaker 1: the place where he stored his stones and fossils, and
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  Speaker 1: whenever he invited someone to take a peek at his collection,
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  Speaker 1: he would invite them to look inside his cabinet of curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: We are often judged by the company we keep. Hang
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  Speaker 1: out with criminals, and no matter what we say or do,
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  Speaker 1: we will be considered a criminal. To spend time in
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  Speaker 1: scholarly circles and will be thought of as intellectuals even
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  Speaker 1: if we never crack a book. The painter Elizabeth Vilma
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  Speaker 1: Laffe Parley kept unique company as well. Born in Hungary
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty three, she studied arts all over Europe.
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  Speaker 1: She was talented, and one of her portraits was so
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  Speaker 1: good it was displayed by German Emperor William the Second himself.
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  Speaker 1: Her portraits of European royalty put her on the map.
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  Speaker 1: Between eighteen ninety six and nineteen o eight, she traveled
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  Speaker 1: the world, married a Russian prince and had a child
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  Speaker 1: with a man who was not that Russian. Prince. But finally,
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen o eight, the newly divorced Princess settled down
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  Speaker 1: in New York City. She didn't have to live in
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  Speaker 1: a house, though, or a fancy brownstone. Instead, she opted
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  Speaker 1: it to live in an elegant and expensive hotel, the
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  Speaker 1: Plaza Hotel, where she occupied a fourteen room suite on
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  Speaker 1: the third floor. Attending to her every need was her
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  Speaker 1: personal staff, including a guard, a surgeon, two secretaries, three butlers,
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  Speaker 1: and gold Fleck. Gold Fleck had been an entertainer from
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  Speaker 1: a young age, but was reluctant to leave his troop
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  Speaker 1: of performers to join the princess at the Plaza. It
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  Speaker 1: wasn't until General Daniel E. Sickles, a Civil War veteran
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  Speaker 1: and former subject of one of Vilma's portraits, stepped in.
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  Speaker 1: He encouraged the young gold Fleck to join the princesses entourage.
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  Speaker 1: He even gave the troop two hundred fifty dollars in
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  Speaker 1: good faith. The Princess's newest edition accompanied her on her
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  Speaker 1: return to Berlin and assisted with her portraits. They didn't
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  Speaker 1: spend long there, though, however, and in October of nineteen eleven,
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  Speaker 1: Princess and gold Fleck came back to the Plaza to stay.
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  Speaker 1: Upon returning, rather than occupy one of her fourteen rooms,
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  Speaker 1: gold Fleck took over the hotel director's room. He was
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  Speaker 1: loved by many of the guests and never really bothered anyone.
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  Speaker 1: He did have a mild panic attack when a photographer
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  Speaker 1: took a flash photo of him, sending the poor gold
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  Speaker 1: Fleck fleeing through the hotel. It caused quite a stir
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  Speaker 1: until he finally calmed down. Sadly, his life with the
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  Speaker 1: princess did not agree with him. Gold Fleck passed away
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  Speaker 1: from gout in nineteen twelve. After his wake, which she
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  Speaker 1: held in her suite, he was taken to the Hartsdale
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  Speaker 1: Pet Cemetery for burial. Yes, Pet Cemetery. Gold Flek had
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  Speaker 1: been more than a performer, you see, he was a
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  Speaker 1: lion cub born at Madison Square Garden as part of
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  Speaker 1: Barnum and Bailey's menagerie. When the Princess was unable to
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  Speaker 1: purchase him herself, she asked General Sickles to use his
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  Speaker 1: clout to persuade them. Gold Fleck was then presented to
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  Speaker 1: her as a gift from the General. She treated him
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  Speaker 1: as a pet, taking the cub with her wherever she went.
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  Speaker 1: He was part of her collection of exotic animals that
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  Speaker 1: lived with her in the Plaza hotel. She had a dog,
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  Speaker 1: of course, of Pomera Indian. There was also a cat's
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  Speaker 1: and a guinea pig. Nothing out of the ordinary there
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  Speaker 1: but peek inside her sweets and you might have also
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  Speaker 1: seen a bear, cub, an owl, a couple of alligators,
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  Speaker 1: and then ibis, the large waiting bird often found near wetlands.
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  Speaker 1: You see, the Plaza was the only hotel in New
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  Speaker 1: York that would accommodate the princess's lavish lifestyle and her
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  Speaker 1: wild companions. She spent twenty five thousand dollars a year
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  Speaker 1: to live there, plus the cost of feeding her animals. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: the onset of World War One reduced her portrait business
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  Speaker 1: to almost nothing, and without a steady income, she was
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  Speaker 1: forced to find new lodging elsewhere for both herself and
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  Speaker 1: her animals. She held onto her dog and cats and
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  Speaker 1: even added a few more to make up for the
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  Speaker 1: exotic creatures that she had to give up. But things
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  Speaker 1: only got worse for the princess as time war on.
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  Speaker 1: She had to change homes several times and fell into
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  Speaker 1: serious debt. She also suffered from diabetes, which kept her
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  Speaker 1: bedridden later in life. By the time she died in
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  Speaker 1: ninety three, the former artist was broke and out hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars in mortgages, but she never gave
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  Speaker 1: up the lifestyle which she had grown accustomed to. Even
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  Speaker 1: in death, she insisted on the finest things in life.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, her final moments were spent on a golden
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  Speaker 1: bed once owned by another royal personality, Marie Antoinette. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
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  Speaker 1: Ye