The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-11-29
A Message
An Ingenious
Way of Leav-
ing a Request
By F. A. mitchell
Convrieht 1911 NV American praaa
Copyright. 1910, by American Press
Association.

one of those imposing colonial edifices
for which that state is famous II
was built during the times when the
southern settlers, requiring laborers tc
work on their tobacco plantations, were
importing large cargoes of African ne
groes. who were held as slaves. 1t is
Of brick, with large pillars in front
and. considering its age, is in a re-
markable state of preservation. This
is because a recent owner has put il
in repair.
Like other houses of its kind dating
back to the seventeenth century. IL
was built out of the proceeds of ne
groes captured in Africa and sold as
slaves in America. But the slave trade
and its twin brother, piracy, were
not in that day deprecated as they
are, or rather would be, today. He
who built the house referred to be-
came one of the most prominent men
of his time. Richard Granville was
not his name, but in bringing out the
antecedents of his descendants it is a
far safer name to use than his own.
He began life as a sailor, visiting ev-
cry country where there was trading
to be done, and few of his older
slaves, who were house servants and
thus enabled the more readily to be-
come conversant with his secrets,
handed down a tradition that their
master started his fortune in piracy.
Be this as it may, up to the middle
OF the last century his descendants
did not deny that much Of his money
had been made in the slave trade. In
his old age his conscience troubled
him, and those who were nearest him
said that he desired to make some
reparation for his misdeeds. He had
a statue of himself made of bronze
and set it up on a pedestal in a bay
window of his library. The left hand
rests on an anchor, and the right holds
sextant-not a mock sextant; a real
one, though not Of brass. but of the
same material as the statue. He left
orders that no headstone should mark
his grave. and it was supposed that
he intended the statue as a substitute
Tor one. AT any rate. no one now
knows where he is buried.
Different generations of his descend
ants discussed the statue and won
dered at the within which led their
progenitor to erect it. One thing
about it excited special attention.
Every morning the sun, shining in
upon it. strikes the eyepiece of the
sextant and, passing through the tube,
casts solar image on the opposite
wall. The track of this round spot of
light changes with the season, travers-
ing slightly different path each day.
There is another thing that puzzled
the owners of the Granville estate.
The only inscription on the statue, or,
rather. its pedestal, is the date Of
Richard Granville's birth. And not
only is the date given, but the hour
and minute.
OF all topics connected with the
statue probably the giving of this
minute information was most discuss
ed. No one who saw it could remem-
Der having seen any memorial giving
either the hour and minute of a birth
or the hour and minute of a death
But one generation after another pass
ed away, and no plausible reason for
either the statue or its singular in
scription was suggested.
During the civil war Elwood Gran
vile. the owner of the estate at that
time, fought for the maintenance Of
the system in the Introduction Of
which his progenitor took so impor-
tant a part. Colonel Granville was
religious man and one of those who
traced authority for slavery from the
Bible. After the war he returned to
his plantation and began to run it
anew under the system that had been
born during the struggle.
A few papers that had belonged to
the original Granville were handed
down through his descendants. They
had been preserved time and again by
different persons, but appeared to con-
tain nothing to throw any light on the
puzzles connected with the writer or
receiver One day Colonel Granville,
while amusing himself with these
documents, read a letter from the
founder of his house to a clergyman In
which the former said that he would
like to leave at his death a fund for the
benefit Of the negro race in America,
but the time would not come for per-
haps one or two centuries when such
bequest could be utilized
Probably the statement had been
read hundred times by Richard Gran
ville's descendants without making any
marked impression. But Colonel Gran
vile read it at a time when the negro
slave had been just emancipated and
called, in all the ignorance induced by
his condition. to citizenship. The
meaning of the statement, "The time
would not come for perhaps one or
two centuries" was plain to him.
More than one century had passed
and brought the changed conditions.
This led Colonel Granville, who was
eager to help the negro. now that he
had become freeman. onward and up
ward to think of the benefits that
would accrue from such a bequest as
was mentioned in the letter.
Then suddenly two connected ideas
entered Colonel Granville's brain. The
first was. Might not the writer have
secretly carried out his intention. Ieav.
ing fund for the purpose that would
turn up century or two after his
death? And might not the statue have
something to do with its location?
Though he did not know it, he had
made a mental leap bridging a cen.
fury since his ancestors death. He
determined to make a study of the
statue and everything that pertained
to it. Every morning he devoted an
hour to sitting before the bronze, look
ing at it and thinking about it. Per
haps he fancied that by thus mentally
dwelling upon it through some spirit.
ual process the secret would be
impaired to him. The inscription en-
gagged his attention, but he could make
nothing of it. And yet there must
have been an object in putting 1t there
alone. and especially with the hour and
minute Of birth.
One morning Colonel Granville was
sitting as usual studying the statue.
The sun spot was crawling slowly over
the wall as it had been travelling year
In and year out for 100 years. The
colonel was watching 1t as he had Of
ten watched 1t before. A third new
idea came to him. Might not this
sun spot have some meaning?
There seems to be two kinds of ideas
in the human brain. those that are
original or parent ideas and those that
are offspring. The present case is an
illustration. The conception that the
sun spot might have some meaning
IL