Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-10-18


all the Mexican and Central American
literature so far as it has come down tC
us, that such catastrophe occurred Ii
the dim past and that these countries
were peopled by those who escaped from
it. The story as both Plato and Dio
dorus Seculus tell it, includes not only
the Atlantis but great continent be-
yOnd 1t to the westward, and Plato tells
about a people from these lands, the
"Atlantidae," that overran and conquered
a large part of Europe and were finally
beaten back by the Greeks long before
the dawn of written history. 1t is more
than a theory, therefore, supported by
discoveries in recent years in Brazil
pointing with geological comparisons tC
civilized life $500 years B. c., as well as
by all Peru and Mexico and Yucatan,
that the ruins of unknown antiquity in
the Americas were the homes of great
peoples and the seat of great civilizations
long before they were known in Asia OF
Europe-and naturally so, as geologi-
cally America is the oldest of the con-
tinents. But besides all this, it is now
proved conclusively that the Chinese and
japanese knew and visited and traficked
with our Pacific coast under the name of
"Fusang" full thousand years before
Columbus's journey. The wonder is,
not that Columbus got hold of some
thing of all this, but that it should have
so long been believed that his was an or.
iginal discovery.-Brattleboro Reformer.
>oo~
GUlLlBILiTY OF PEOPLE IN GENERAL.
The fact that the people of this land
love to be humbugged has been known
to numbers of its bright and shining
lights for many years, and some of
them have not been ayerse to swelling
their bank accounts by taking advantage
of the knowledge. The Prince of Hum
bugs and those he humbugged died
some time ago, but other princes and
other fools have been born and have
multiplied and today their numbers are
as the sands of the sea.
The latest invention of the humbugger
the sovereign story-originally sent
out from Fair Haven would have fooled
swallowed by the Bennington cores
poudent of the Associated Press. Tel
egraphed as it was by him to the four
corners of the United States it fooled its
tens of thousands. The Bennington
scribe may claim that he was fooled by
the yarn, but those who know him best
think him too old and far too clever to
be caught by one of the fabrications of
an eX-postmaster of Fair Haven.
ict .l,o
people that accepted the fable for fact
and fairly tumbled over one another
that they might make bid at the shrine
of Folly. No sooner had the knowledge
of the pretended find of sovereigns
reached New York, Chicago, Indianapo-
lis, Kansas City, aud other places, then
letters began to come from the presi-
dents of banks, stock brokers, seed
merchants, coal dealers, U. S. consuls,
publishers and others asking for the
price for specimen coins. At first
amusing, it soon became nuisance
and an annoyance to the business con-
Germ whose name was heralded from
the Atlanta to the Pacific as the depos-
tory of the treasure.
When the shrewd and far-sIghted presi-
dents Of banks, capitilized at from ST.
900, 900 to S., 000,0 900; promoters of big
enterprises, the nations diplomats and
long headed and sound business men
swallow so easily such an improbable tale,
one that savored so much of the Thousa and
and One Nights, what can be expected of
the rank and file, the common everyday
people? TO them the extracting of gold
from sea water, the production of the
more valuable from baser metals, the
manufacture of the diamond ia crucible,
the tempering of copper and many of the
heretofore supposedly impossible things
have only to have woven about them the
glittering generalties of fact, by merry
romancers, to have them accepted, taken
up and absorbed, to become part and
parcel of the established order of things,
until savant or an honest newspaper
lets the light of science and knowledge
peIcolate through them, and 10 and be-
hold, they are not even air-have nothing
to rest on, sit on, stand on, but have only
been used to again fool the people, all of
whom can be fooled part of the time but
all of whom cannot be fooled all of the
tlme.-Fair Haven Era.
900
SITUATION In SOUTH AFRICA.
The Boer war has now entered on its
third year and, to all appearances, may
go on indefinitely. The situation as de-
scribed from the Boer side is about this
The commands in the field, while
shedding those who become physically
unfit or undesirable, receive recruits from
among the disaflected Dutch and others
In Cape Colony and Natal, and, notwith-
standing reports TO the contrary, have
sufficient arms and ammunition to last,
with care, for prolonged period. Ac-
cording to reports from perfectly trust
worthy sources, President Steyn and
Gen. Botha are confident of their ability
to continue the war for quite two years
longer. AT present they are using the
Lee-Metford rifles taken during the war,
for which they obtain ample ammunition
in the conveys they capture and in the