The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-14

there was not another stone in Rhode
Island like IL. It's weight was, perhaps,
4OO or more. Nose said that he could lift
300 pounds, but that stone was too much
ior MIN, II was the heaviest for its size
ne ever saw, and was more like iron than
any stone he had ever handled. How
came that stone there in ground that had
not been disturbed for more than 100
years. So far as his experienced eye
could tell it was all virgin soil just as 1t
existed in the beginning" and this stone
was six feet below its surface. No In
oian could have placed 1t: The crosses
settled that. 1t was the work Of
European, unused Nose Then Charles
Barrlnger. the actor, who lives near by,
was called in consultation, and it was
decided that unique curiosity had been
found.
Within stones throw of the spot Is
Jonn Washington Babcock's old farm
house. Before that was erected no other
mouse stood within quite assistance Of the
place. No descendant of the Babcocks
remembered TO have heard that the soil
had ever been upturned, and Nose Hen
messy said that the ground all about 1t
hadn't q stone much bigger than his fist
Inc soil was inclined to be sandy. and
moisture had not penetrated to the depth
OF the new-found curiosity. 1t was a mys-
Terry sure enough. The Italians looked on
indinerently while the consultation was
being held. Another link in the chain of
disappointment had been added to their
experience in the land of gold. Hennessy
and Foreman Webb put the broken stone
IN wagon and took it to the junction Of
Broad and Eddy streets and Washington
avenue, where it was placed at the street
side OF pretty flower bed owned by Col.
Isaac L. Gof. The lead ring or handle,
and the iron bar, however, are missing,
because In the excitement attending the
expectation of gold, the Italians shoveled
them INTO cart, and they were taken on
70 the dump. A search failed to find
them, and Hennessy deplores their loss.
About an hour after all this had hap
pened Martha de Blois came upon the
scene. She had heard there was digging
In her dreamland. True enough, the very
ground where twenty-five years before she
had IN fancy seen so much, was upturned
she asked Hennessy If he had found a
pecullar-looking stone where the earth
had been removed. She also gave very
good description of it and its handle This
naturally aroused Hennessys curiosity,
for the old colored woman had no posi-
bic means OF knowing that he had found
sueh a stone Martha then told him her
dream, and in less than two minutes
every one of Hennessy's Italians were
digging like mad around the place where
the stone was found. They dug a circle
nine feet in diameter and went down
under the level of the stone nine feet
more, bound to have that pot. The up
turned earth was carefully raked over,
but no glinting gold appeared. They kept
on digging ana dug enough to demon
strate that some dreams are snare and
o delusion. After the big hole was re-
filled there yet fingered belief that per-
haps the gold might be there after all,
and If Hennessy had said dig again, the
Italians would have worked cheerfully
until doomsday.
Hennessy says that he is, not particu-
larly credulous, but he proposes to search
for the pot again. Even if he fails to find
1t he regards the uncovering of the stone
as an episode in his life, and he will
always wonder how it got there, for it
must have been in the earth almost from
the beginning of Providence, long enough
TO destroy the fiber of wood and make
iron rotten, for the circular band of iron
was as fragile as pipestem. 1t was no
boom for Washington park, for there was
the stone, there was Martha de Blois, the
old Babcock farmhouse and an eye wit
ness. s;aAT tt-. s"<.
The reporter suggested that 200 or 300
years ago some one might have owned a
boat and rugged the heavy stone for an
anchor Sailors are inclined TO the en-
graver's art in the rough, and that would
explain the crosses, Then the boat owner
might have sold the boat, and had,no fur
ther use for an anchor Then he might
have taken the rude anchor for a land
mark, and one of the first settlers might
have dug cellar and with no regard for
the landmark, buried it with the earth
from the cellar This would have helped
make the bank at the beginning of Indi-
ana avenue, and time and the elements
combining in a few hundred years could
have made the surroundings look like vir-
gin soil. A tragedy or unique life his
tory may have been buried with the
stone. Who knowsl The pot of gold is
missing, however.