The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-23

From the New York Mall
 The United States cruiser Tacoma Is on her way up the Atlantic coast of South America after an unsuccessful search for lost island in the Pacific, supposed to lie somewhere between Honolulu and Cape Horn. Ships have mysterionsly dis appeared In those vast and empty sea spaces that He between the known islands of the South Pacific and the South Amer
 ican continent, and the notion still pre-
 vais among mariners that these vessels have come Into collision with an un- charted small island. Shippers have even
 reported that they had sighted such an island on their voyages. In A paper read
 at the geographic congress in this city
 the other day. James D. Hague told the | story of the supposed loss of the United States sloop of war levant, which mys- teriously disappeared in the year 1860
 on the island, But If the island ever had
 real existence. 1t has lost 1t now. It is an old and a fascinating legend
 that of an island, river, mountain or
 house which Is seen once and again, and
 then seen no more. It crops up often In illtTdluIt. IHt " dHutIluB JtW1 hA-
 holds Gipsy Scholar, New England's Pe-
 ter Rugg, find their counterparts in nat
 ural objects.
 It seems that we have such a legend here in New York A recent English
 magazine repeats a story, said to have
 been told by James Russell Lowell, of
 vanishing farm in "the enyirons of New York'-so near the city, indeed.
 that it could be reached by an hours
 walk. In the edge of a stretch of woods,
 as you sauntered along, you came upon
 an old farm house, manfestly occupied,
 yet with no one in sight The doors and windows are open, the milk pans are
 drying in the sun, the well worn grind l stone stands In It's place, the hoes and scythes hand in the shed. You note the look of quiet content about the place, and
 wonder where all the people are.
 Returning that day, or passing at ans.
 other time, you look for the old farm to see, perchance, what sort of people h. | habit 1t; but no such farm Is there. You
 search-it is gone Lowell said that he heard of the place. Walking one day | in the vicinity, he passed the farm, yet as he did so he failed to recall the legend. | When he was well out of sight of the
 house the story came back to him.
 Everything had been there-the milk pans, the scytEes, the grindStone He l quickly turned back to repass the farm
 and perhaps make inquiries. It was | gone! Not a vestige of the house or It's
 immediate surroundings remained. Mrs Vim of Chicago wrote weird story few years ago called "The Little Room" which was founded upon a l legend about a room in a house in New 1 England which had this trick of dis appearing According to the legend-I do not remember whether the story Is 1 thus told in Mrs. Winn's tale-when the
 room had disappeared. as it regularly did after you had once been in it. measure
 ments of the wall space revealed the cir
 cumstance that it could not possibly be there. Yet many people had been in 1t,
 and all agreed as to it's size, appearance | and furnishings.
 l The interest in this legend led to the l formation of very charming club of | literary people in Chicago called the Lit | tie Room. I do not yet know whether | this club. too, has vanished but I should say it was doomed to disappear.
 i In California they tell you the story
 of the Lost Gold Lake During or soon