The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1892-08-13
SOME FAMOUS FINDS.
Inc wonderful Treasures Unearthed In
Spain, Germany and Russia.

'"S " IL iati 40 LiOsO'O
gentlemen who had adventured ElOO
took Is 5000 to F1O, 900. lnnumernbl BILE
have been the disastrous enterprises
which this success promoted. Within
the last few years we saw a company
formed to recover Napoleon's army
chest. sunk, with the vessel that con
tanned it, at the battle Abulir.
Perhaps the most interesting find,
saving those wondrous tombs in South
Russia, was the treasure of Guar
%razar," discovered in lshs. Some peas
ants travelling neal Toledo noticed o Ii
jects of gold and jewel work washed
partly out of the ground by heavy
rains. They broke them to pieces and
divided them. Happily, an intelligent
man heard the story in time, bought up
every fragment, picced them all to-
gether, and fled to Paris, where he sold
the lot to the Musee Cluny. The objects
proved to be eleven crOwns-mostly
"votive" of Gothic monarchs who ruled
Spain during the seventh century. OF
the owner in two cases there is no
doubt at all, for they bear
his name in letters of gold hang
ing by gold chains from the cir
Giles, with a jeweled pendant from each
letter. One bears the simple inscrip-
ton: "Suinthila," who reigned from
e21 to 681 A. d.; the other: "Reccesvin-
thus rex offerret." His date was $40
672 A.. d.. Two, if not more, are
queens crowns. One, the largest, has
thirty big sapphires and thirty pearls
of great size; below it hangs a cross set
with large sapphires and pearls, which,
onoin hos taua1aI pnpInnfo D,t w
must not describe infinitely objects
which are, perhaps, better known, to
a~ntiquarians ut least, han any pieces
of goldsmiths' work existing.
The treasure of Hildesheim" also is
priceless. 1t was found by soldiers
digging a trench for siege practice zeal
the town of that name in 1860. We can
not doubt that this glorious t%rouvaille
was the "camp equippage' of so2.o very
rich traveller, probably Roman general
though conjecture has %boundless field
for specializing how it could find its
way to H~ildesheim, which the Roman
armies never reached. There are stew
pans, pots, plates, a batterie de cuisine
complete, all of silver, exquisite in form
and in ornament; the legs, so to call
them, of a table, stands for lamps,
and other things i~ndefinable, all
silver and all lovely; a complete din
ner service, plates, dishes, cups, COB
lets, of beautiful Greek work, in silver,
with gold wreaths and attachments.
One might say in truth that the gold
smiths art could not go beyond the
grace and richness of these articles
many of which are ascribed to the first
I-I -
finds surpassed them. The Hildesheim
treasure is at Berlin; the Russian at the
Winter palace. That, in truth, is glo-
rious beyond imagining. OF one piece
M. Theirs declared in rapture that a
nation would be justified in making
war on the czar for possession of it.
This is the "Nikopol vase Volumes
have been written and libraries will be
written on these marvels. They nave
been recovered from tumuli in the
neighborhood of the ancient Greek col
onies on the Black sen Chicago Times.
ABSURDITIES IN SPELLING.
English Writers Do Not Take Kindly to
Any Changes In Their Orthography.
Far be 1t from me to appear as the
defender of the American spelling"
which the British journalists denounce.
This American spelling is less alb
surd than the British spelling only in
30 far as it has varied therefrom. Even
in these variations there is abundant
absurdity. Once upon a time most
words that now are spelt with a final
C had IN added k. Even now both
British and American usage re-
tat-e thtz l. &, L-~ ----I |
both British and Americans nave drop
ped the needless letter from havoc;
while the British retain the k at the
end of almanack, and the Americans
lave dropped it. DIR. Johnson was
a reactionary in photography as in
politics; and in his dictionary he wilful-
ly put a final k to words like optick,
without being generally followed by
the p~ublick-as he would have spelt it.
Music was then musick, although, even
as late as Aubrey's time, it had been
m%usique. In our own day we are wit
Messing the very gradual substitution
of the logical technic for the form origi-
nally imported from France-technique.
As yet, so far as l have observed, no at
tempts have been made to modify the
foreign spelling of clique and oblique.
am inclined to think that technic is
replacing technique more rapidly-or
should l say less slowly?-in the United
States than in Great Britain. We
Americans like to assimilate our words
and to make them our own,
while the British have rather a
fondness for foreign phrases. A
London journalist recently held up
to public obloquy as an 'igno-
ant A~moricanism" the word pro-
gram, although he would have
found it set down in Prof. Skat's
chronological Dictionary: PRO
gramme was taken from the French, so
q recent writer reminds us, and in vio-
lation of analogy, seeing that, when it
was imported into English, we had al
ready anagram, oryptogrsm, diagram,
spigram, etc." Tho logical form, pro-
gram, is not common even In America,
and British writers seem to prefer the
French form, as British speakers give q
French pronunciation to charade, which
in America has long since been accept
ed frankly as an English word So we
find Mr.. Andrew Lang, in his Angling
Sketches, referring to the asphalte;
surely the word in u language is
either asphaltum or asphalt
Matthews, in Harper's Magazine.
benevolent Man to framp)-"why
don't you wash up and look decent"
Tralnp-''Because, sir, self-preserva-
ton is the first law Of nature. l read
every day in the papers of men who
are drowned while bathing"
Four Times and Out,
Blake-Narrow escape of Kim's,
wasn't it?
Sohmer-Hadn't heard of it.
B.-Went out fishing with a party
and fell overheard. Had just gone
down for the third time when some n
had the presence Of mind to tie a rope
to n whisky bottle and throw it over.
Swell?
R.-Well, he came up for h fourth
time and was saved.-Jury.
She Was Enough.
The small boy was sitting on the
doorstep whistling, when the policeman
came up.
Can ! see YOU father?" inquired the
officer
,, you can't" replied the boy,
oily.
by can't II"
Jause mans seein' him, that's
,-nafrnif Erae PROSE