The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-12-28
BEATS KIDD's TREASURE.
Hundred Barrels of Whiskey Buried
in River Bed Since 1886.

in River Bed Since 1886.
A dispatch from Elk Point, 8. D.,
says that much interest Is being man
ifested in the recovery of the cargo
of the old steamer Leadora, which in
1866 sank in the Missouri near that
place with 100 barrels of good wflis-
key on board.
It adds that several gentlemen
have associated themselves and rafs-
ed funds for the purpose of explor-
ing the wreck and securing the i'm
prisoned whiskey. If they are sue
cessful, they count on making a
small fortune out of the enterprise,
as the whiskey has been valued by
some as high as $4,000. Ii
We should think there would be
a good deal of interest in the plan!
And we should also think that the
interest would not be confined to
the little town of Elk Point There
is a human appeal in it which can be
relied on to cross State lines, and
wake an answering thrill from Cam
ada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Stories of lost galleons weighted
down with cargoes of doubloons and
pieces of eight, and waiting at the
bottom of the sea, covered with coral
and with shells, move the souls OF
only a comparatively limited num-
ber. Tales of the treasure buried
by Capt. Kidd on island and sea-
shore awaken the personal thrill in
comparatively few.
But 100 gallons of good whiskey,
lying tangled in the wreckage Of an
old river steamer since 1866, aging
in good tarred barrels against the
day Of their deliverance- that is
something like it! It comes straight
home to mems business and bosoms
with personal appeal that there fs
no mistaking.
Down in Kentucky the news that
100 barrels of old whiskey are await
ing the fairy prince that is to awake
them from their long slumber will
no doubt stir a tenderness that is
akin to tears. In Maine the news
will be heard with conflicting emo
tions. But nowhere, it is safe to
say, will it be heard with indifference
not even in the w. C. T. o.!
There are, however, some extreme.
ly painful thoughts that always in,
trude in connection with these tales
of long-lost whiskey. Will it not be
spoiled as a result of untoward sur
rounding conditions? Will not the
long years have been wasted after
all? May not the enthusiastic res,
cuers find, after all their labor and
expense and anticipatory relish, that
they have raised nothing more than
a thick, syrupy, unpalatable stun
from the mud? Or 100 barrels Of
muddy Missouri river water?
The possibility of disappoint-
ment like that is certainly enough
to make man hesitate before un-
dertaking such an enterprise. 1t is
no doubt this possibility that ac-.
counts for the fact that the 100 bar
rels have so long lain neglected at
the bottom of an old channel of the
Missouri river-that Successive gen
erations have passed the great op-.
portunity by and devoted their at
tention to other and more prosaic
enterprises.
However, it seems that Elk Point,
S. D., now boasts men of the true ex-
plorer's, the true adventurers,
breed-men who are willing to run
the risks of receiving a great, pos
sibly a fatal, shock in pursuit of the
enterprise that appeals to them-men
who understand that he who would
greatly gain must also dare the haz-2
ard of greatly losing.-Chicago Inter
Ocean.