The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-19
BY WILL T. STEPHAN.

Birmingham, Oct 17.-(Special Cor Yespondence. )-It was a paltry errand, after all, that Pason and his fellow Rrgonauts went on when they ao- ventured after the Golden Fleece There are so many richer things than that tor which Jason and his fellows risked their lives.
 Pizarro, 1t is written, marched his mail clad warriors through Peru and took the Incas prisoner He compeHeo the Incas, did this bearded and strange adventurer from another world, to III a room of the palace with gold untii it was as high as the head or the Peruvian ruler and this he took Tor the ransom for the Incas the most unfor- tunatel of an ancient line of kings. It was an astounding treasure, in those days, but today--why today-Pizarro would be considered no great captain of industry, notwithstanding that some modern methods of frenzied finance very closely approach the strenuous way in which he did business.
 Cortez marched his mail clad war riors into theS ancient heritages or the Montezumas. By right of bloody sword he ruthlessly appropriated the treasure stores of a thousand years oi Aztec rule But after all. when one considers 1t Cortez took no immense fortunes back to Spain. to enrich that old land of splendid adventures.
 And there's the pathetic story Of that other soldier of fortune Hernando de Soto pressing on with his mailed war riors at his back. their swords ever runnig red, harrassed by a brave ana savage foe but ever pressing on. to the fanciful Fl Dorado. the land of gold that he was never to see nor touch. De Soto, looking for the coined and beaten gold that had rewarded the eupidity and brutality of Pizarro and Cortez, stumbled over fighting his way all the time over buried treasures wfose yearly yield. in this twentieth century would have satiated even the rupacious cupidity of a mailed adven- turer of Spain. But he was not to know 1t.
 What de Soto Overlooked.
 Among the red Alabamas, he and his fellow warriors fought until hilt and blade ran with blood, until some Of the bravest of them though sheathed In armor went down to their death and the bluest blood of Spain trickled out and ran in little rills, among the brown and red ores of the Alabama hills, whose riches were themselves beyond the richest dream of the cupidity and rapacity of a Spanish adventurer.
 Stumbling among the hills. fighting and pushing on de Soto passed over treasures that were richer than the mightiest strong box of ancient Castle and Spain. Richer than any strata Of geld he might find, richer than any ransom that Figaro extorted from the Incas of Peru. richer far than the booty which the bloody sword of Cortez won from the Aztec rules of Mexico was the virgin treasures of the Alabama hills that de Soto stepped upon and fought over as he pushed forward to the my thicsl Fl Dorado. He sought treas ure house and found a grave. It was not Fl Dorado to which he came, but to a sepulchre in the dark and lonely waters of the Mississippi and that which he sought and more, too, he passed over.
 For he passed over, when he crossed Alabama, the great store house of nature. whose hoarded treasures, when reduced to gold would have sunk the ships that rocked upon the waves of Tampa Bay and waited in vain for the mailed leader and his adventurous com panions.
 A tawdry bizarre. errand it was that Jason and the argonauts made for the Golden Fleece. Why the iron product for one year from the Birmingham Dis trict would have bought over and over again that fabled and mythological treasure. The income of the iron foundries of Birminghams mineral district. for one single year would have weighed dollar for dollar for all that