Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1906-01-25
SOME MYSTERIES
Riddles in Life That Have
Never Been Worked
Out.
Lands and Peoples Have Dis
appeared Forever From
Earth.


The public appetite Graves nothing
so much us i, riddle. Il secret to guess,
but nowadays every mans life is sc
bare so exploited, and we live so much
out of doors from the cradle to the
grave that very few facts or fancies
can be kept hidden. There were. how,
ever, certain mysteries which during
the last century the American public
pondered and worried over which are
yet unsolved and. except by Il few old
people. are almost forgotten.
One of these, perhaps the Oldest. is
the question whether beneath the AL
lantic not far from the Bahamas there
Is Sunken continent known to the
Greeks as the lost Atlantis. 1t was
still talked of famliarly in the first
half of the last century. Scafarina
men declared that when the water was
calm and clear they had caught
glimpSeS Of ancient cities beneath. Will
.heir glittering roofs and spires, and
that in certain conditions of the atmos
phere the tolling of the bells could be
distinctly heard. TreatiseS We're writ
ten by learned professors to prove the
probability of the legend, and Other
treatises, as learned and vehement. tc
tiOut and ieer at it as an idle fable.
Certain tlotsam and jetsam, which
was washed ashore after heavy storms
on the coasts of Georgia and Florida
logs Of strange woods unknown to this
generation, coins, bits of carved marble
and beaten hraSS-was aScribed to the
long dead workmen of Atlantis.
The lost colony is now known only
as the subject of an ancient fable. but
years ago it was by most educated
people believed to be an actual fact.
Another much discussed mystery
then was what had become of the 60!
ony of civilized people who at the tine
OF the settlement of the country lived
on the western coast of Greenland
That country is. as you will see by a
glance at the map, shaped something
like the half Of an egg. cut lengthwisie
the Hat side upon the earth, the point
to the south. The rounded center i;
heap Of simpenetrabe ice mountains
AS the centuries go by enormous
and. breaking off, drift slowly down
along our coasts. These are the ice
bergs OF the Atlantic ocean. Now
along the narrow slip OF habitable land
+ which edges Greenland on this Size
tradition says once dwelt civilized
Ntrhn hntI il, n vi 1,r
habits of life. We're far in advance Of
the Laplanders.
They were well known to the cnrly
Danish navigators, who made freuGcn,
mention of them in their logs and re.
| ports. The question yet unanswered is
| Where are they now? Tradition among
| the l.apanlers reports that the whole
| colony two centuries ago emigrated in
| body to the eastern coast of Green
land, attempting to cross the hitherto
! tmpenetrabie masses Of ice in tile cen
| ter. No tidings ever have come back
| from them. Some of the scientific men
| who accompanied the Hayes eXpedi-
| ton made this question a matter of
special study They reported that 4
4 doubt could hardly exist that these
| people did once inhabit that part of the
/ coast and that they now had utterly
| vanished. Ii they had been swept
! away by a pestilence their household
! belongings at least would be left to tel
] OF them. but not a shard of pottery
not single grave, remains to show
that they ever lived 1t was supposed
by the Danish missionaries that they
had persisted in the ranges of ice
mountains, but among the Laplanders
there were traditions that they had
safely reached the western coast and
settled there. now forming a civilized
community wholly isolated from the
rest of the world. One of Nansen's
voyages was in fact, directed to that
coast in the hope of finding this col
ony. He was not able to reach the
northern part of the coast. and the
mystery is therefore yet unsoved
4 Another problem which perpleXed the
last generation WAS the long extinct
pygmy race which centuries ago I'M
doubtedly inhabited the Tennessee
mountains. Legends among the Iii
dianS told of such tribe of dwarfs
who were supposed to be Of more i'll
1 telligence than the red men. But these
legends were very iaay. Il buryiug
ground, however, actually was discov
cred in the early part of the last cen
tury in which all of the skeletons were
OF pygnly proportions. Some of then
We're carried away to college museums
/ But as far as know no scientific i'll
quiry has ever been directed to this
question.
Another curious matter which caused
much speculation in the early part OF
the last century was the fate OF the
| colony Of French emigres who fled te
this country in the eighteenth century
aud took refuge in the northern part
/ Of Alabama. Like those Frenchmen
1 who found safety in Delaware, ther
We're for the most part Of nuoie blood
] Marquises and counts earned their liy-
ing in Wilmington as dancing masters
and even chefs. and their descendants
live there still.
But the poor gentlefolk who went