The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1914-02-19

/ i'oi OF
Enclosed please find, with title
deed. a memorandum opened In YOU
name by the late John Valiant some
years before his death 1t was hi:
desire that the services indicated In
connection with this estate should con
tinue till this date. We hand you
herewith our check for $236.20 (twc
hundred and thirty-six dollars and
twenty cents), the balance in your IA
yor. for which please send receipt,
And oblige,
Yours very truly,
Emerson and Ball"
"(Enclosure)
He turned to the memorandum. 1t
showed stable initial deposit against
which was entered a series of annual
tax payments with minor disburse-
ments credited to inspection and
care" The tax receipts we're pinned
| TO the account.
! The larger wrapper contained an I'M
sealed envelope, across which was
written in faded ink and in an unfa-
miliar dashing, slanting handwriting,
his own name The envelope con-
tanned a creased yellow parchment,
from between whose folds there
dumped and fluttered down upon the
noor a long flattish object wrapped
In a paper, a newspaper clipping and
letter
Puzzled he unfolded the cracking
thing in his hands. why" he said
half aloud, 'its-it's deed made over
to me-" He overran it swiftly. Part
OF an old Colony grant
plantation in Virginia, twelve hun
dred odd acres, given under the hand
of a vice-regal governor in the six
teenth century. | had no idea titles
in the United States went back so far
as that!' His eye fed to the end.
ut was my father'sl What could he
have wanted of an estate In Virginia?
II must have come into his hands in
the course of business"
He picked up the newspaper clip
ping. II was worn and broken in the
folds as II It had been carried for
months in pocketbook
1T will interest readers of this sec
ton OF Virginia 1.-THE paragraph be-
gam to learn, from a recent transfer
received for record at the County
Clerks office, that Damory Court has
passed to Mr.. John Valiant, minor"
He turned the paper over and found
a date; 1t had been printed In the year
OF the transfer to himself, when he !
was six years old-the year his father |
had died
John Valiant. minor, the son of |
the former owner.
There are few indeed who do not |
recall the tragedy with which in the
public mind the estate is connected
The fact, moreover. that this old home
stead has been left In its present state
tfor. as is well known, the house has
with all its contents and fur
untouched) to rest during 80
long term of years unoccupied, could
not, OF course, fail to be commented
on. and this circumstance alone has
perhaps tended to keep alive melan-
choly story which may we'll be for
gotten"
He read the elaborate, rather stilted
in the twenty-year-old pa
per with a wondering interest. IAN
Did house" he unused. with a bad
name Probably he couldn't sell it,
and maybe nobody would ever live In
L. That would explain why 1t re- /
NAMED so long unoccupied-why there
ire no records of rentals. Probably
he land was starved and run down.
Its an offset to the hall-bedroom
dea, at any rate he said to himself
1t holds out an escape I
rom the noble army of rent-payers. !
When my twony.eight hundred is ,
zone. could live down there a landed ,
proprietor, and by the same mark an /
colonel. and raise the cab I
ages / was talking about-eh, Chum? "
while you stalk rabbits. How does 4
hat strike your"
He laughed whimsicaily. He, John a
'aliant. of New York, flrst-nlghter at b
Is theaters. hailfeIlow-well-met In It's s
hub corridors and welcome diner at .
ny one OF a hundred brilliant glass d
misunderstanding supper tables, en- v
ombed on the wreck of a Virginia b
lantation, a would-be country gentle s
ian, on an automobile and next to
othing year! a
He bethought himself of the fallen c
liter and possessed himself OF It I.
uickly 1t lay with the superscrip-
on side down. On it was written. In II
le same hand which had addressed Il
10 other envelope: s