New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-04-14
<kwv HERELL we dig" said Huck
M "Oh. most anywhere.

w why, is it hid all around
NO. indeed, it amt. It's hid IL mighty
particular places Huck sometimes on ISL
snds, sometimes I'm rotten chests under the
limb OF An old dead tree. just where the
shadow falls at midnight; but mostly I'M
Ger the hoor in ha'nted houses.
who hides it,
why. robbers, Of course. Who'd you
reckon. Sunday school sup'rintendents?"
, IT don't know. II twas mine I wouldn't
hide It; Ia spend 1t and have good time.
so would T. But robbers don't do that
way. They always hide II and leave IL
there"
Don't they come after II any more
mo, they think they will, but they gem
orally forget the marks or else they die
Anyway IL lays there d long time and gets
rusty, and by and by somebody finds an
old yellow paper that tells how to find the
marks, paper that's got TO be eiphered
about week. because It's mostly signs and
.hi'roglyphics.'
with the preceding quotation from
"Huckebsrry Finn" Ralph D. Paine, in
THE Book Of Buried Treasure dhe
sturgis & Walton Company, New York
1911 recalls 10 many Of his readers the
svaricious dreams Of their dime novel days
I'm this tanned. prosac age Of ours.
gays Mr. Paine, treasure seeking might
seem TO be the peculiar province Of felton,
but the fact Is that expeditions are fitting
out every little while and mysterious
.schooners fitting from many ports, lured
nv griny, tattered charts presumed TO
show where the boards were hidden, or
steering their courses by nothing more
tangible than legend or surmise. AS the
Kidd tradition survives along the Atlantic
Coast, so on divers shores of other seas
persist the same kind Of wild tales the
more convincing Of which are strikingly
alike In that the lone survivor OF the RED
handed crew, having somehow escaped the
hanging. shooting or drowning that ne
handsomely merited. preserved chart
showing where the treasure had been hid.
Unable TO return TO the place, he gave the
parchment to some friend or shlpmate, this
dramatic transfer usually happening as
deathbed ceremony. The recipient. after
digging in vain and heartily damning the
departed pirate for his misleading land
marks and bearings, handed the chart
down 20 the next generation. II will be
readily perceived that this Is the stock
motive of almost all buried treasure fiction
the trademark of a certain brand of adj
tanning 10 know that such charts. and
records exist and are made use of by the
expeditions of the present day. Opportunity
knocks at the door. He who would gamble
in shares OF such a speculation may md
sun burned, tarry gentlemen, from Seattle
10 Singapore. and from Capetown to New
Zealand, eager 10 whisper curious informa-
ton OF charts and sailing directions. and
70 make sail and away
RACING YACHT AFTER A eALLEoN.
1T was only the other day that a party
OF restless young Americans sailed in the
old racing yacht Maynower, bound out to
seek che wreck Of treasure gallson on
The eosst OF Jamaica Their vessel-was dis
rnastea and abandoned at sea, and they
had all the adventure they yearned for
One Of thsHa-Roger Derby, OF Boston, Of
family famed for its deep-water mariners
IN the olden times-ingenuously confessed
some time later. and here you have the
spirit Of the true treasure seeker,
"I am afraid that there is no informa
ton accessible In documentary or printed
form OF the wreck that We investigated q
year ago. Most of II is hearsay. and when
we went down there on second trip, after
losing the Msyhower, we found little TO
prove that q gaileon had been lost barring
some old cannon. flint rock ballast and
square iron bolts. We found absolutely
no gold,'"
Nevertheless. treasure there is. as wit
ness: From time immemorial tradition
had II that a great treasure was buried
near the Ribble, In Lancashire. saying
had been handed down that any one stand
ing on the hill at Walton-le-Dale and look
ing up the valley toward the site Of an
Client Rochester would gaze over the great
est treasure that England had ever known.
Digging was undertaken during several
centuries, until in 1874 laborers accidentally
excavated q mass OF silver ornaments, arm
lets, neck chains, amulets and rings, weigh
ing together about thousand ounces. and
more than seven thousand silver coins.
mostly OF King Aifreds time. all inciosed
In ieaden case, only three feet beneath
the surface Of the ground. Many of these
ornaments ana coins are TO be seen in the
British Museum.
1T Is the fashion to consider lost treas
ure as the peculiar property Of pirates and
Eaiieons. and yet what has become of the
Incredibly vast riches of all the vanished
Kings, despots and soldiers who plundered
ther races OF men from the beginnings OF
, history? Where is the loot Of ancient Rorae
that was buried with Alarie7 Where Is the