The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Haut-Marnais Républicain, Chaumont, France, on October 18, 1954.
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existed only in the brain
fertile in "jokes" of Mr. NARCY
No offense to our colleague who,
on his side had found traces of the craft
This outcome had to happen, despite a media campaign orchestrated by one of our colleagues who, with much ease, taking the worst "canards" for reality and, more importantly, gets angry "in writing" when other journalists refuse to ride the same dead horse.
So then, a few days ago, Mr. Narcy, roadmender in Mertrud, arrived late for work, a little excited by the haste with which he had returned to his post.
His comrades, intrigued by his pale face, asked him a few friendly questions.
Prankster by day and night, Mr. Narcy, in a flash, found an explanation quite in the mood of the times.
Not far from an old tile factory, near the road to Laneuville, he saw and approached a flying saucer and his hairy pilot.
And Mr. Narcy to tell the details of this sensational adventure.
Even better, with two friends, he returned to the scene to, naturally, discover no valid trace.
But it is useless to review the details of a case that all the Haute-Marne residents know about.
Warned by a grateful roadmender to whom he had offered an issue of his newspaper, our colleague we talked about earlier jumped on the case.
Not content with what he was told by Mr. Narcy (which he also took as gospel) and as a good "winemaker" who believes in the harvest only when he sees it with his own eyes, our colleague secretly went to the (approximate) site of the saucer's landing, and stronger than the others, found the traces left by the craft.
A review by more serious people allowed to say that it was, on the one hand, cuts made in the ground by a plow and, secondly, hoof prints of cows and horses.
Based on the persistence of Mr. Narcy in his story, our colleague would not budge from his position and, ironically, told about it.
Unfortunately for him and his future as an inventor, an epilogue to this story is nothing like in its infancy.
The police was, as it should, seized of the matter.
Their investigation quickly enabled to establish that Mr. Narcy could not, in any way, see a flying saucer near the "Old Brickworks" at 7:15 a.m. that day, for the excellent reason that at this hour and date, he was not there (it's not for us to tell where it was then).
Saturday, during a visit by representatives of the law, Mr. Narcy had to admit, very nicely actually, that his "saucer" story was pure imagination.
He had told it to "trick" his workmates, with no other intention.
When the story leaked out, he found himself caught up in it and kept his words to avoid ridicule.
But everything at the end.
The Mertrud "saucer" has its end... Popular common sense had, actually, dealt with that since its alleged onset.
Why would a certain gentleman absolutely want to believe he is better than the others?
He still has enough tricks up its sleeve to give you the explanation and get away with the honors of war of the worlds.
