The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-10-05
REMARKABLE FIND
OF Poor Laborer Who Discovers
Fortune in MumifIed Hand.

tLesueur (Ainn.) Cor. st. Louis Re
publican
N. w. Brook, OF 81 Paso, the seat OF
government of DoddiIdge Township. in
thiSeounty, is an humble man, hither-
to unknown to fame, bat who is now
very likely to have his name 20 down
10 posterity in something of the same
way that the names of the men who
found the Reset Stone" have been
preserved.
Brook now is and for many years
has been day laborer in the employ
OF the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis
and Omaha Railway Company and was
engaged, few days gao, in working
on the tracks in st. Paul, between the
Mississippi River and the high, rocky
bluffs upon which the capitol city
stands.
The formation of these luffs is very
peculiar, and most interesting page
from the great book of nature for the
perusal of the geologist, for here are
exhibited, in the face of the blum, the
edges of layers of glacial drift, com
posed of yellow clay and rounded
stones and gravel, buried 80 feet deep
in some places beneath tumbled and
earthquake-tossed strata of limestone
that must have been inconceivable ages
in forming above the glacial drift on
which they lie.
Brook is saving, economical man,
and took his dinner with him IN a pail
when he left FL Paso in the morning,
while all of his fellow-laborers went
uptown at noon to take hot meal at
a restaurant
He was sitting under the bluff the
other day, in the shadow OF vast
ledge of upheaved limestone that juts
in seemingly dangerous fashion over
the tracks, when a heavily loaded
freight of the Milwaukee line rumbled
by, jarring the earth as it passed, and
loosening considerable clay and gravel
and stone about the size vi a goose
egg, which had been brought down
from the North by glacier and round
ed off on the trip many dizzy centuries
ago.
The stone rolled out of the bed
where it had lain quietly so long and
foI1 cnuoro doxyn rs. tax 80 D.nol-sc
head, nearly taking away his senses
and making him to see more stars than
there are in the armament.
Then another surprise awaited him,
for just in the opening made by the
falling out of the Northern traveller,
after its myriad-century rest, he saw,
pointing down at him in unearthly
fashion, long, slender. brown finger,
on which was cleaning ring Of beat
en- gold. set with a diamond of the
prrest water and immense size.
His hair rose on his head with fright
and superstitious horror, and he stood
for several moments, perfectly motion
less, gazing like bird charmed by the
eyes of serpent, at the finger that
seemed to threaten him from the cen
turtles of the dead and buried past,
and at the jewel that seemed to beckon
him to come down to the past and live
over again the vanished days.
He climbed up the rocks and drew
from the opening mummified hand,
broken OF at the wrist, a woman's
hand, delicate in size and manicured
nails and with eight rings in all deco
rating the fingers. 1t was round and
smooth, but hard and firm as sole
leather.
He hid it away in his vest and did
not tell his companions about it, when
they returned, but exhibited it only
after his return to FL Posa that night,
and at the request of his wife, who is
Of an intensely romantic temperament
and great student Of all paleontolog-
ical matters, he sold two cows and
bought fine fireproof safe, and will
keep this wonderful memento Of the
past as treasure and heirloom in the
family.