Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-10-17
INGENIOUS BUT FALSE.
Finding OF 10, 900 English sovereigns
"a Dream

a Bennington newspaper Corresponds
with a vivid imagination sent out, on sun
day Sep. - a false story which was pub
lishod in several of the leading papjerS Of
the country the next day and later copied
by other papers. The Boston Herald on
Friday made the following rs traction:
"a tale of the fneing of 10000 English
suVereigns in an old hulk at the bottom
Of east bay. Lake Champlain, which was
sent out from Bennington, VT, Sunday and
published in newspapers all ever the Am
trIcan continent on Monday, originated in
the mind of dreamer.
There is not a particle of truth in IT,,
and the people of CarVor's Falls, where
the gold was said to have been discovered,
and the officials OF the Allen National
Bank of Fair Haven, Vt, where the story
said the severe igns We're deposited, are
seeking to discover the indemnity of the
person who sent the creation to the news
Papers.
he is supposed to be young man who
a few months ago furnished the news
papers with weird tale of the finding of
the skeleton of a murdered F'rench-Cann-
dian girl under the wall of an ancient
building at Carvers Falls, where. 1t was
related. it had remained bound in chains
for almost a century, and If the suspicious
some Of the bank officials have are correct
the Young man may have ride to the
! limits Of Vermont or rail.
There IS tradition among the older in
hahitants of Carver's Falls a small village
four miles from Fair Haven, that in IN a
vessel laden with gold FOX the Enrlish
army was lost somewhere in Lake Cham
plain. Iiut no one about CarVer'S Fails has
ever lost any sleep looking for the treas
urc.
"Ten thousand English soverclgns. after
lying for nearly q century and IA quarter
in an old hulk at the bottom Of East bay
Lake Champlain." wrote the Bennington
man with the imaginative brain, have
been recovered and are now deposited in
the Allen National Bank at Fair Haven
The gold, he says, was whipped from
| Quebec in a small sloop, with a crew and
| "A guard of 10 men, the expedition being I'M
der con mand Of Capt. Johnson, and va,
10 have been delivered To Gen, BurgOync
/ at Ticondcroga, to pay the soldiers of tho
ENGLISH army. At TcOnderoga, the story
gees on, Capt. Johnson found that the Am.
| orican forces had bCCn defeated at Hub
lardton and he went to Carver's Fails
! where ne thought he would meet Gen
Rurgoyne and his men, on their was to
Skeencsboro. American soldiers fired ~
the slOop at CarVcr's Falls, Capt. JOAN
sen saw there was no chance TO escape
the story said, and rather than lie. the SOW
oreigns fall into tho hands of the enemy
he scuttlod his craft and he and his me,
were shot to death as they swan towar,
the shore. During all these ia years tn,
treasure has lain at the bottom of the ba Y
the Bennington tale went on. until 1t wa
found a few days before Sunday by Mr.
George b. West, a civil engineer, and de
posted in the Allen National Bank
George b. West or George b. West, a
he really signs his name, is an engineer a
the Carver's Falls electric power plant
and a short time before the alleged soyer
cgn discovery went to New Jersey, wher
his wife was passing a vacation. He hai
never even thought seriously of the tradi
tions about gold at the bottom of Eas
bay, and he had never seen the portion
of the gold laden hulk, which the rapi
currents of IA freshet OF last spring ha
exposed to view"
In fact" said Mr., Albert Tuttle prcsi
dent OF the Carvcrs Falls Electric Powe
Company ana director q the Allen Nat
ional Bank, where the money, accordln
to the Bennington story was deposited, t
Il Herald reporter at The Adams Hous