The times., 1901-03-10
e stone heads remain to tell the story

the stone heads remain to tell the story
OF the plague at Rotterdam.
The famous London Stone Is of inter
est to the antiquarian from its having
been the central miliarium, or milestone,
in London (similar to that in the Forum
at ancient ROme). from which the Brit
ish highways radated, and from which
the distances on them We're reckOned. The
stone is now inserted in the outer wall
OF the Church of ST. Swithiu. in Cannon
Street. The top of it is seen through an
oval opening covered with grille. 1t Is
a block of Kentish Rug BOwcr Green
sand. encased in a frame Of Bath stone.
The London stone appears to nave peen
as much of a palladium in. London as
the Coronation stone was in Scotland.
Shakespeare refers to it in Henry ~,
Act " Jack Cade, striking it with his
staff, eXclaims: Now is Mortimer iord
of this city, Dryden alludeS to the stone
in his fableDf the Cock and the Fox.
Nor must the Blarney Stone be forgot
ten The ruins Of the famous old fortress.
Blarney Castle, are visited bE tiloustIiIS IJ
of tourists every year who undergo lle
perilous feat of kissing the Barney
Stone" 1t is supposed, in the language
of Prout. to be endowed with the prop
ertv of communicating to the happy
tongue that comes in contact win us
Dolished surface the gift of gentle, lnslnu-
atinG speech, with soft talk IN an It's
ramiicatiuns. whether employed IN VOWS
and promises as light as air, such as lead
captive the female heart, or elap4r'ile
rnyStifications of a grosSer grain, Such ds
may do for the House Of Commons ali
summed up and characterized by the nlys-
terious term .Blarncv' An attempt has
hoen made to prove that the stone was
originally brought to Ireland by a fHot-
nician colony and that the inhabitants
of Tyre and Carthage dong It's cuSlo-
diansl made use of its powers, giving rise
to the familiar reference to 'Punlca noes
Tyriosque bilingues.' 1t is turther at
tempted to prove that some Cafthagehah
afventurerS carried the stone away 10
MinorCa by stealth. and afterward beng
driven into Cork Harbor, hid their treas
ure away in the laurel copse known as
the groves Of Biarney. whence II was
taken out and inserted in the walls OF
BIarney Castle. II has been well remark
ed that the stone at the Chicago ENposl-
tion purporting to be the real BlaThey
Stone was merely shamrock.
The celebrated MOabite Stone was only
discovered in 1868 on the site of the an
ciant capital of Moab. Portions OF II are
now preserved in the Louvre in Paris
Good impressions have been made OF ITS
inscriDti0n lin ancient PhOeniclan), ana
it is valuable as the oldest specimen Of
alDhab bette writing now known to scholars
II contains every letter of the ancient
alphabet but one. II gives an account OF
the revolt of the King Of Moab against
Jehoram. King of Israel. $50 b {. MeSha
King of Moab. set up this pillar IN ms
native city of Dihon. His inscription is
a curious counterpart OF the scTlptural
narrative in If Kings third chapter
1T came to pass when Ahab was dead
that the King of Moab rebelled against
the King Of Israel etc.
One of the most important discoveries
of the present century, from an historical
point of view is the key 10 Egyptian
hieroglyphics, known as the Rosetta
Stone" now in the British Museum. For
l. 400 years the hierOglyph was a dead Ian
gilaEe and the history of Egypt except
that contained in Genesis. was a sealed
book In August of 1893 the key was acCi-
dentally found. 1t was discovered by the
French EXplorat ton Company, under Ma
pole0n. while making an excavation for a
fort at Rosetta, in Lower Egypt, and
hence is called the Rosetta Stone, What
the Egyptian hierogiyphics is the fact that
it contains an inscription written in three
different anguages-hieroglyph demotic.
and Greek.
The so-called Sunday Stone" in the OK
ford England Museum is a large tablet
taken from a colliery drain, and is re-
markable in that it constitutes a perfect
calendar of Sundays and holidays The
stone is composed of carbonate of lime.
When the miners were at work the water
running through the drain left a deposit {
colored black by coal dust, but when they
were not at work the water ran down
clear and left a white deposit. In time
these black and white layers made a stone
Of c0nsdera BILE thickness. which Consti-
tutes an extraordinary kind Of calendar.
Each day OF work has left a black
streak which is followed by q white
streak left during the night. Wide white
streaks mark the Sundays and other hOli-
days, and from this circumstance the
stone is called The Sunday Stone"