The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-03-17
FIVE OLD THINGS IN AMERICA
New York Press.


 New York Press
 An ancient Japanese coat of mail was recently uncarthed In the vicinity of Victoria, British Columbia. Some workmen engaged in digging we'll came upon this interesting relic tour feet below the surface. It was com plete piece of chain armor, composed of thousands of diminutive iron rings the diameter of common pencil. When worn the coat covered the breast, back and right side, leaving the left side, where 1t was fastened, to be protected hy the shield. The right sleeve extended to the elbow. From the neck to the end of the skirt the length Is twenty and one half inches In the side of the coat, below the arm, is gash two inches long, resembling a cut from heavy weapon, which has been repaired by what appears to be piece of native silver. The armor was made by the Japanese two or three hundred years ago. It is impos- sible to explain how this interest ing object came here, but there are other evidences of early Japanese occupancy in the surrounding section. A few years ago large number of ancient Japanese coins were found In cairns or stone graves in the neigh borhood of Victoria.
 Probably the oldest violin in the Uuited States is owned by Rev w. NJ. Beauchamp of Baldwinsville, N. Y. It was found in the ruins of Glastonbury abbey, which was dis solved iii l53S. It was brought to this country seventy-flve years ago, and antiquarians who have examined it are of the opinion that it dates back to the twelfth century. Be this as it way, 1t Is a very interesting relic. 1t differs somewhat in form from the modern violin, being longer in the body and having C-shaped instead of S-shaped openings. It has seven keys instead of four-thrce on one side and four on the other---and tho end of the handle is carved in the shape of a ie- male head. The neck Is hollow, and at the base of tho finger board Is a large gilded rosette. The body is in- laid above and below with a darker wood. Even now it can be played in the ordinary manner by using four strings, and its tone Is said to be full and sweet.
 The venerable American Philoso- phical Society of Philadelphia, still possesses the chair in which Thomas Jefferson sat when he wrote the Dec laration of Independence. It has broad leaf arm. In one of it's rooms may also be seen the chair in which Ben jamin Franklin, it's first president, presided when the meetings of the soc ciety were held in his own house, where he was confined by the infrmities of old age. A library ladder is attached and folded under tho saat. Dav.d Rittenhouse's clock, which was made in 1754 for the observation of the transit of Venus, Is also a treasured memento. Among other valuable possessions of the society are several genuine tribute rolls of Montezuma, emeperor of Mexico, which are painted on maguey paper, and a Roman tombstone from Carthage, which bears the symbols of Osiris worship ard is ascribed to the third century, A. D.
 An ancient land tortoise was recently found in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. A gentleman and his niece, while strolling through the forest on the property of Reuben Beale, discovered pair of tortoises close together. On the under part of the male the following inscription was deciphered: "H. Deibert, l7l7." The name proved to be that of man who owned and cleared the land in the earliy colonial times.
 On the shell of the tortoise were signs of great age, part of the letter. ing being almost tbliterated. There could be no reasonable doubt that the animal, which was still living, was upward of ITO years of age.
 E. $. Thompson, of Miffiintown, Pa., Is in possession of spiDet which is believed to have been brought from Scotland by Colonel James Burd of the Revolution, who fought the In- dians at Fort Augusta, which he built. The instrument Is almost tri- angular in shape, the keyboard occu- pying almost one entire side.