The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-07

Special Correspondence Of the Globe.
COLUMBUS, o., Nov. 4.-For the
benefit of the people of Ohio AMI Of
the United States who might be in
terested, think it advisable for me to
stamp once and for all as a falsehood
the statement that the Indian mounds
of Ohio, contain buried treasure.
They do not, and what is more, no
archaeologist who has ever explored
any of these mounds can truthfully
says that he has ever discovered any
thing which can be called treasure, as
treasure is regarded by the public.
The treasure Of the mounds is purely
Of that value, the standard Of which,
is fixed by the archaeologist.
[ am aware Of the fact that 1T is a
we'll grounded, popular superstition
that the Indians of old in North Amer
ica like the Incas Of Peru, had store
houses or caves, artificial or other
WISE in which precious metals were
bearded, but looking at it all from the
basis of common sense and the knoWl-
edge that is open to ALL it IS singular
how the senseless traditions relative
to buried gold have gained ground
among men. [ often hear Of the lost
silver NINE" or the lost lead mine,"
at which the Indians obtained metal
for exchange and for bullets. Yet In
dams knew nothing about the reduc-
ing of ores and only had a faint idea
that metal was dug out Of the ground,
and the strange fancies some men
have.
An old man told me in Adams coun-
ty, last year. that the Ohio lead mine
was on his fathers farm. Then think
of this. In Muskingum county we
" ere told that the grandfather of one
of the best known citizens saw the In
dams shoot silver bullets which they
obtained from vein of pure metal
somewhere in the Muskirgum hills. A
newspaper printed this and said And
the state geologist and all our scien-
lists know not where this valuable
mine is" I only wish it were true, we
would surely locate it.
In old Chillicothe, the largest town
of the Shawanoes, the traders dis
tributed goods to the amount OF
thousands of dollars each year. Here
is another place that is said to have
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much time and money in d search for
the spot but, of course, II Vain. A
party, of which 1 was d member, once
opened graves there, but only found
the usual run Of Indian trinkets. The
old sites of Wyandotte, MonseE, Miami
and Delaware towns in OHIO also have
their buried treasure traditions. Did
any one ever find treasure? of course
not.
One of the most amusing experiences
[ ever had has a bearing upon this
subject A few years ago myself and
several others were digging in mound
of unquestioned prehistoric date. The
owner, who had the prehistoric treas
ure bee in his bonnet, compelled me to
sign paper to the effect that all gold
and silver found was to be his. He
was at the scene of our operations
every morning before we began work,
sat on the edge of the hole we We're
digging and intently watched every
shovel full of earth. In the middle Of
the mound we uncovered skeleton,
and lying beside it were some small
copper beads, such as are often found
with ancient remains. The old man
contended that the beads were gold
and compelled me to stop work, drive
an opinion upon them. Even when the
jeweler said that they were copper, the
old fellow declared that the jeWeler and
myself were in league to defraud him.
[ made up my mind to play little
joke on the old man, so [ went to Gin
cinnati the next day and bought 100
old fashioned large copper cents. [
coated these with printers gold dust"
Cbrass fillings) and secured an old ket
tie which [ filled with a large lamp of
bright yellow clay and plastered the
coins fiat upon the top. At a short
distance it looked like a pot of gold.
Then 1 cracked the kettle so that a
blow of the pick would split it open.
We drove out to the mound before
daylight and buried the kettle in one
corner of the excavation. Withdraw
ing quietly we circled around the farm
and came rafting up the pike at the
usual time. Of course the old man
came out, watched our operations and
began another talk upon buried
treasures. L had told each workman
what to do the moment the pick struck
the pot When the pot opened I sprang
forward and attempted to seize both
pieces. TIL old man dived off the bank
like a frog crying, Gold, gold" and
yelling for his sons like one mad. The
men threw him down and also held
me. His sons came running over and
for a moment we came near having
free fight. The old fellow was so ex-
cited that he did not notice that the
coins were colored and as he pocketed