The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-08-23
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times.
II HE literature of adventure Is
wv periodically enriched by tales
of search for Captain Kids
treasure, but their common denouement
is disappointing. Nothing is ever found
No matter how plausible the traces of
the old pirate, how detailed in its partic-
ulars the chart conveyed down the years
by some mysterious hand, with all the
pointers and place of deposit plainly
marked down on 1t, the search always
comes to naught. and pretty soon new
locality arrives at the front with a new
set of claims to be considered the right
one.
New Jersey, with It's extended coast
line and numerous bays, inlets. and sand
islets. visited only by the occasional fish
erman and the wandering seagull, has
been one of the favored scenes for this
kind of enterprise. and there is at present
an atmosphere of excited expectancy at
Egg Harbor City. with everybody look
ing for old Spanish leather sacks burst
ing with pieces of eight and boxes of
gold trinketry and jewels. These are ex-
pected to be dug up out of the sand near
by at any time. and the ordinary business
activities of that waterside commune are
thus considerably interfered with. A
learned professor" whose name and pro-
fessional speciality are not given, was the
one to set on foot all this local excite
ment, exceeding that of a right whale
stranded along shore, or the entrance
into the harbor of a real pirate craft
with the black flag at its masthead. 1t
is plain enough that he believed his own
tale of treasure. for he at once proceed
ed without taking public counsel or get
ting out any kind of municipal license or
charter of privilege to shark up a
list of landless resolutes' and set to dig
ging by night to the light of lanterns.
leaving with the mornings dawn hole
in the ground, or sand, worth looking
into.
Captain Kids famous board will no
doubt continue to attract the attention
of the credulous and enterprising for an
indefinite period to come. Stories of
buried treasure which may yield itself
up to successful adventure are among
the most fascinating to be imagined. If
they turn out one after another to be
illusions there is ever the renewed primrose
of reality and success. enough to keep
the quest alive and al,sht and glowing
as the midnight lanterns of the Egg Har-
Dor search just terminated. leaving no
official report of its issue. For the credit
of the learned professor, in whose person
learning herself would be discredited II
it were found that he had been merely
barking at a knot" while pouring forth
his wild, disturbing tales of opulence, 1t
is to be hoped that his search party
found enough to "set them up with a
drink all around after their labors were
completed, but it is equally to be desired
that they did not get off with all the
posthumous assets of the celebrated pirate
in whose names they were operating.
That should constitute a perpetual fund
for curiosity to speculate upon and stand
forever as the Indictment to renewed adj
venture.
A world in which there was no treasure
buried by Captain Kidd to invite search
and recovery would be shorn of beam
OF brightness which 1t cannot afford to
lose Once found and automatically car
ried on to fiow into earth's common tides
of treasure from which 1t was long ago