AND even if The Northern Echo did fall for Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch Lincoln, we weren't the only ones...

On January 8, 1910 - days before the General Election - solicitor JF Latimer placed an advert in the Echo defending Trebitsch against the "many slanderous and scurrilous statements" that were being circulated.

Elections in those days were not as circumscribed by legal niceties as they are today: the Oldham and Saddleworth seat, from which the sitting MP Phil Woolas was deposed in 2010, would probably have been regarded as a model of probity in 1910.

Nevertheless, Trebitsch felt the need to tackle the smears of his opponents head on.

"Mr Lincoln has no desire to pursue his candidature in a vindictive spirit, but is wishful and determined to meet the virulent aspersions cast upon him," said Mr Latimer. "I am instructed by him to offer a reward of £100, which sum he has placed with me, to any person who can substantiate any of the allegations which are being circulated."

According to the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator, £100 in 1910 is worth nearly £9,000 100 years later.

The advert appeared five days before polling day. It can't have harmed Trebitsch's chances for him to be portrayed as the hard-done-by underdog whose filthy opponents had resorted to underhand and untruthful smearing in a bid to dirty his reputation in the eyes of the all-male electorate. Trebitsch, the advert suggests, was bigger than that, and rising above it all.

Last week's first installment of the brilliant Trebitsch story showed that our hero was so desperate for cash to fight his campaign, he even wrote a begging letter to the Reverend Lypshytz in London - Rev Lypshytz' wife was one of those whose gold watch had mysteriously disappeared when in the vicinity of Trebitsch.

Given Trebitsch's impecuniosity, can we really believe that he had placed £100 in cash with his solicitor? And one wonders whether Mr Latimer - whose firm, Latimer Hinks, still offers legal advice from Priestgate - ever got paid by this superb shyster.

The second installment of the Trebitsch story appears in tomorrow's paper (Jan 5).