Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-07-15

mlI1ar daSnlng, SlanLlng handwriting,
his own name The envelope con-
tanned creased yellow parchment,
from between whose folds there
dumped and futtered down upon the
floor long fiattish object wrapped
| in paper, newspaper Clipping and
a letter
Puzzled he unfolded the cracking
thing in his hands. Why" he said
half aloud, 'it's-it's a deed made over
to me-" He overran it swiftly. part
Of an old Colony grant a
plantation in Virginia, twelve hun
dred odd acres, given under the hand
of vice-regal governor in the six
teenth century. l had no idea titles
in the United States went back so far
as that" His eye fed to the end.
1T was my fathers! What could he
have wanted of an estate in Virginia?
1t must have come into his hands in
the course of business"
He picked oup the newspaper clip
ping. It was worn and broken in the
folds as II 1t had been carried for
months in a pocketbook
1T will interest readers of this sec
ton of Virginia (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; it 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
(for, as Is well known, the house has
nishings untouched d. to rest during SO
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 well be for
gotten"
He read the elaborate, rather sttlted
phraseology in the twenty-year-old pa
per with a wondering interest. An
old house." he unused, with a bad
name. Probably he couldn't sell it,
and maybe nobody would ever live in
it. That would explain why it re-
NAMED so long unoccupied--why there
are no records of rentals. Probably
the land was starved and run down.
IT'S an offset to the hall-bedroom
idea. at any rate" he said to himself
humorously. 1T holds out an escape
from the noble army of rent-payers.
When my twenty-eight hundred Is
gone, could live down there a landed
proprietor, and by the same mark an
bages ! was talking about-eh, Chum?
while you stalk rabbits. How does
that strike your"
He laughed whimsicaI1y. He, John
Valiant, Of New York, first-nighter at
it's theaters, hailfellow-weli-meti in its
club corridors and welcome diner at
any one of hundred brilliant glass
tombed on the wreck Of a Virginia
plantation, would-be country gentle
man, on an automobile and next to
nothing year!
He bethought himself OF the fallen
letter and possessed himself CT 1t
quickly. It lay with the superscrip-
ton side down. On it was written, IN
the same hand which had addressed
the other envelopes:
For my son, John Valiant,
Whom he reaches the age of twenty.
| five.
That, then, had been written by his
| father-and he had died nearly twenty
years ago! He broke the seal with a
strange feeling as If. walking in some
familiar thoroughfare, he had stun
| bled on Hchened and sunken tomb
stone.
When you read this, my son, you
! will have come to mans estate. 1t is
| curious to think that this black, black
| ink may be faded to gray and this
white, white paper yellowed, just from
| lying waiting so long. But strangest
| Of all is to think that you yourself
whose brown head hardly tops this
desk, will he as tall q hope) as /!
How / wonder what you will look like
then! And shall 1.-The real, real l,
mean-be peering over your strong
broad shoulder as you read? Who
knows? Wise men have dreamed such
a thing possible-and 1 am not BIZ
| wise.
John, you win not have forgotten
that you are a Valiant But you are
also a virginian. Will you have dis
covered this for yourself? Here Is the
deed to the land where / and my
father, and his father, and many. many
more Valiants before them were born
Sometime, perhaps. you will know why
you are John Valiant of New York In
stead of John Valiant Of Damor1
Court l can not tell you myself, be
cause 1t is too true a story, and have
forgotten how to tell any but fairy
tales, where everything happens right
where the Prince marries the beautiful