The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-15


 now they are never higher, sometimes a trihe lower.
 Col. P. H. Fawcett the South Amer ican explorer. has advised against the fitting out of another expedition to seek out the $55,000,000 "Jesuits' treasure" believed by number of sage and eau tious London financiers to be still buried at Sacambaya, Bolivia
 He says in a report to one of the several syndicates, "a great amount of good money has from time to time been in vain spent in looking for it. pos sfbly owing to the fact that Bo- hvian gentleman, some 30 or 40 years old, did unearth somewhere in the To- cality. and without any flourish of trumpets. hoard of Jesuit gold. worth about 11.000,00O Bolivian cur rency, or some $4,500OO0, establishing his family in afrluence and influence The hoard actually represents just about what would have been obtained from 32 gold mines over space of seven years--the reputed source of the Sacambaya treasure-as gold bearing reefs in this region produce from one- half ounce to one and half ounce per ton, and alluvial deposits about 9d per cubic yard and were worked very prim- ftively. Another treasure which con tinues to attract attention Is that of Cocos Island. In the National Mu- scum of Costa Rica Is a tree trunk brought from the island, and deeply en- sraved with the inscription. "The bird has flown.' There is, moreover, some ground for believing that one of the two treasures reputed to have been buried on this island was really se- creted on another island which bore the same name It is, of course, sad to destroy the romance of buried treas ures, but it is an infinitely sadder thing to carry out search. always difficult. only to find 1t has been an- ticipated. Cocos Island and Sacambaya treasures. if they ever existed, seem to fall in this category"
 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is just now playing In persona propria the role of Sherlock Holmes, seeking the liberation Of Oscar Slater, who, three years ago, was convicted of the murder of a Mn. Gilchrist, an eccentric Scotch lady, who vas undoubtedly slain by some desperate burglar. lured to her flat in Glasgow by the reports of $15,000 collection of strange gems which she had gathered together during long and lonely life. On the night of the murder Slater started for the United States. This and other facts told against him at his trial
 The Author of the series of Holmes stories has dissected the police evidence and torn it to shreds. The actual mur- derer. IS supposed 10 have been seen fiee- ing from Miss Gilchrists flat by sery- ant girl. Her Identification of Slater was made strong point by the police and crown prosecutor Doyle shows how yeak and seemingly self-contradictory this tes timony really was and enunciates Tho proposition that "of all classes of evi- dence Identification from neeting personal impressions is the least to be relied upon and unless supported by other facts an unsafe basis for the verdict of a fury
 Slater was condemned to death. but re prieyec at the last moment at the in stance of friends whom he made while in the death cell. A poor Wandering Belgian orphan, Skaters protestations of innocence appealed to the warden and to the home secretary. Doyle heard about the case while he was visiting in C;las- gow. He Investigated 1t, covering all the ground with the thoroughness of his own Sherlock Holmes. It is believed that he will succeed In causing a complete pardon to be given the man at present doomed to a living death
 There seems to be no diminution of the scenes of lawlessness enacted week after week in Hyde park. The commissioner of police has at last awakened to a sense of tho aerousness of this epiden,ic oS ,,,,.