The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-01
Neapolitan May Day Mystery Was Solved
 By Ragged Beggar

Not long ago there died at Man turna, Italy, a prosperous farmer, Anniba1e Tosci, who gained the wealth and ease of his latter years by soIv- ing a mystery which had baffled some of the keenest intelleets of Italy, For nearly half a century the first of May was observed by many people 1of Naples in an attempt to find a solu- ton for the baffling riddle 9presented by a marble shaft erected in the vi cinity of the monastery of San Vito. It was about a century ago that a wealthy but very eccentric French man who had long lived in the Ital- ian city erected a monument to him self in. a busy street not far from his home and near the monastery. It was a plain shaft, surmounted with a. bust Of the Frenchman. When first erected the column bore no in scription, but when the Frenchman died a little later he left instructions in his will that the shaft bear the following inscription:
 ttOn the first of May every year I have a head of gold.'
 The head of goId'' aroused the cur iosity of every Neapontan. and when May Day came around the streets in the neighborhood of the column were llbloeked with people. The credu1ous and superstitious portion of the pop ulation expected a miracle to take place, and many believed that the
 
 ter a few hours the crowd about the | memorial began to thin, but many re- ma1ned all day, with their straining | eyes fixed on the shaft. Nothing l happened. and the FTenehman's head on the marble column remained as it had been, the marble lips twisted in an inscrutable and cynical smile. 1 The next year, when May Day came, the same scene was repeated on a smaller scale, and when the shades of night fell the peaple went away as before, disappointed and dis 1 gusted. The Frenchnan was believ- | ed to have been the possessor of a considerable fortune, but when he died he left behind barely enough to pay the expenses of a modest funeral and to provide for the cutting the strange epitaph. The wiser men of Naples reasoned that the inscription was in some way connected with the disposal of the fortune, but, alth hough high officials and savants brought all l their intellect to bear upon the prob lem, they could reach no solution. Nearly half century passed and the shaft and its strange inscr1 ptfon remained a, mystery. The authorities had unearthed the foundation of the it. Experts had examined every inch | of the shaft and the bust, but the I marble was solid
 At length the people came to be- Il I1eVe that the whole thing was a hoax, and the May Day pilgrimages to the l'monument ceased, except for a de- l voted few. Then AnnibaIe Tosci, a ragged beggar, shiftless as were all his I kind, found the answer to the riddle, ] and all Naples rang with his name.
 The solution was simplicity itself, and, when Tosci's discovery was made known. all Naples joined in the cry, sNow. why didn't think of that?''
 The beggar noticed that the shaft cast a long shadow, and on the next May Day, at sunrise, he went to the spot armed with pick and dug at 1 the place where the shadow of the I shafts head rested. Only a foot be- meath the surface he found a rotting bag filled with gold. The amount of the beggars find has been various1y stated, but it is known to have been a very large sum. Tosci was permit ted to keep the greater part of the money, and became wealthy farmer and landlord, as industrious as he had previously been lazy. When he died he left a large fortune in valuable real estate to his heirs. The shaft
 has been removed. for it no longer 1 speaks truth.