Hughes was a paper-box manufacturer and founder of the Dollar Savings Bank.
Once he "donated" a plot of ground in Brooklyn to the Board of Aldermen who planned to have it made a public park. It turned out to be a 2x8-feet plot of ground near 6th avenue and 63rd Street. He also donated a mansion he claimed Lafayette had lived in during the American War of Independence - actually a badly-kept house at 147th Street and Concord Avenue in Bronx.
Hughes might have been the first to drop fake diamonds in front of the Tiffany's jewelry store and watch greedy people try to grab them. Once he placed a empty picture frames and tools in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which lead to a search of apparently stolen paintings. He also distributed tickets to non-existent events.
Once he masqueraded as a Prince of Absdam, Cyprus and Aragon and pretended to hoist a title of Princess of the order of St Catherine of Mount Sinai to actress Lavinia Queen.
Hughes "forgot" expensive umbrellas in public places with an expectation that someone would try to take them. They were gimmicked to drop a sign "stolen from Brian G. Hughes" when they were opened.
He claimed to have organized an expedition to find a rare animal called reetsa ("a steer" backwards). He also scandalized people fond of pedigree animals by placing an alley cat in a cat breed show (and he won) and trying to win a horse show by a old horse he had purchased from the local trolley company.