New-York tribune., 1902-08-31

for final effort one of the group leaned back and
whispered to the visitor;
That's Rip Van Wrinkle Moore We cali hirh
Sam Moore too. He's told this story almost a
thousand times but if you have never heard 1t be-
fore you want to listen. It's remarkable story
and what is best about 1t, it's true"
HIN" broke In the old man. This village mas
got that beautiful park. and yet it can't prove It,
Nhe deed is stolen, gone; but how and where, no
one knows guess the land is worth from $4,000
to 100000 at the present time"
The stranger had become so interested that he
interrupted the speaker by saying:
And did the village ever have a deed TO III!
LAS sure as Dick is making cigars over there
the ready answer. And that's the curious
part of it, Up to 1869 everybody around here
thought that this property had been given to the
city by old Deacon Davis. That was the Joseph
Davis who built the old Presbyterian church, and
his descendants said that the Common had been
given by him to the village for a training ground.
Well it was like a bolt out of a clear sky when
the news came that deed had been found showing
that Deacon Davis had decided the park to the
village for $50. John Oaks. who is living in
Glen Ridge, not mile from here. found it among
his brothers papers, and the deed printed in
the village newspaper. Oaks said that his brother,
who a surveyor. before he died had got from
the town meeting house lot of old papers which
had been kicked around until somebody swept them
into the street. Well, they made two copies of She
deed. and everybody thought that the original had
been recorded. when about ten years ago Mr. Oaks
discovered that the deed was gone again. 1t had
been spirited away. hunt was made high and
low. And now some saying that there never
was no deed
The old mans pipe hao gone out and knocking
out the ashes he reached toward the pile of cigar
trimmings. The other members of the Tobacco Par
lament nodded to another if to Increase the
mystery. lawyer who was present offered a
lighted match to health official in silence while
the Recorder pulled out of his cigars and
began TO puff out white smoke for a change. The
stranger watched the busy hands of the cigarmaker
he leaned over his table and rapidly changed his
pile OF filings and strips of wrappers into gracefully
tapered perfectos. The stranger broke the silence
at last by saying
Whats to hinder me, then, from going in and
pre-emptng the park for a residence site? That's
what came out here for. to pick out location
for home. 1 think that the park would make
a very good site"
We'll" said the spokesman, II don't doubt about
legal consequences for We have copy of
the deed. But do know that the morning after
you went to bed in your home you would wake
to train our boys for the War Of iS12 the civil
is lost or not, or whether Deacon Davis gave the
Common to the town sold 1t for $3.50 there is
fighting stock enough in Bloomfield to protect every
Everybody stopped smoking, the cigarmaker came
to sudden ,standstill, and hurrah went up. The
good natuied remark made the text of a patriotic
speech, but as ne saw the old man smile through
I said was jest-nothing more"
The whole group then got to chatting pleasant
ly until the conversation shifted to the question
whether the town should permit the erection of a
the alderman that the stranger was looking for
happened in, and the two went in search of
building lots. As the two passed down the street
the alderman said:
did Sam Moore tell you about the dream he
had: or why they call him Rip Van Winke?"
No, didn't hear that the answer
ago. when Sam thirty-three years old he
went up into the hills back of Bloomfield and sat
down on a high knoll 1t a clear summer
morning, and in the distance Sam saw the build
cleaning lie hoy
did not tower UP then they do now but there
was the patch of green Of Battery Park and the
Sam looked and looked, ana saw the red brick
change to marble. and the walls rise story above
story. The blue stretch of the Hudson grew white
with the huls of great steamships From the ls-
pipings OF engine whistles Above the marble
buildings swung the graceful spans of huge bridges
black with mulutudes of people passing back and
forth.
Then, as Sam looked he saw an army of men
pouring out OF the city and marching across the
meadows straight for him They soon surrounded
him. Each dressed in rich clothes and in the
height of fashion, but. strange say, each had n
hatchet In his hand and some lumber on his shoul-
DER. Throwing the lumber down. Sam was aston
ished to see them begin to build. until handsome
villas arose all about him. AT last one gentleman
builder came to Sam and pushing him rather
roughly, said:
" Wake up Sam, or you'll have sunstroke'
The gentleman carpenter gave himself another
shape, and sam found himself staring a Bloom
him With a headache from the and the dis
appointment at being walked up, he went down to
the village But on his way he had made up his
Inlnd. he would buy land. for he believed he saw
the Interpretation of his dream. And he did He
bought eight acres those hills But adversity
came ana ne sold out to see in these days his