The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1917-06-26


the Granville estate. The only In
scription on the statue, or, rather, Its
pedestal, is the date of Richard Gran
ville's birth And not only is the date
given, but the hour and minute
OF all topics connected with the
statue probably the giving Of this NIL
mute information was most discussed.
No one who saw 1t could remember
having seen any memorial giving either
the hour and minute of a birth or the
hour and minute Of death. But one
generation after another passed away,
and no plausible reason for either the
statue or its singular inscription was
suggested.
During the civil war Eiwood Gran
Vile, the owner of the estate at that
time, fought for the maintenance of
the system in the Introduction of which
his progenitor took so important part
Colonel Granville was q religious man
and one of those who traced authority
for slavery from the Bible. After the
war he returned to his plantation and
began to run 1t anew under the system
that had been born during the struggle.
A few papers that had belonged to
the original Granville were handed
down through his descendants. They
had been preserved time and again by
different persons, but appeared to con-
tain nothing to throw any light on the
puzzles connected with the writer or
receiver One day Colonel Granville,
while amusing himself with these doc
uments, read letter from the founder
Of his house to q clergyman, in which
the former said that he would like to
leave at his death fund for the bene-
fit of the negro race in America, but
the time would not come for perhaps
one or two centuries when such q be-
quest could be utilized.
Probably the statement had been
read hundred times by Richard Gran
ville's descendants without making any
marked impression. But Colonel Gran
vile read it at a time when the negro
slave had been just emancipated and
called, In all the ignorance induced by
his condition, to citizenship. The
meaning of the statement, 1.-THE time
would not come for perhaps one or two
centuries" was plain to him. More
than one century had passed and
brought the changed conditions. This
led Colonel Granville, who was eager
to help the negro, now that he had be-
come a freeman, onward and upward,
to think Of the benefits that would ac-
crue from such bequest as was men
toned In the letter
Then suddenly two connected ideas
entered Colonel Granville's brain. The
first was: Might not the writer have
secretly carried out his intention, leav-
ing fund for the purpose that would
turn up a century or two after his
death7 And might not the statue have
something to do with It's location7
Though he did not know it, he had
made a mental leap bridging a century
since his ancestors death. He deter
mined to make study Of the statue
and everything that pertained to 1t.
Every morning he devoted an hour to
sitting before the bronze, looking at IL
and thinking about it. Perhaps he
| fancied that by thus mentally dwelling
upon it through some spiritual process
the secret would be impaired to him.
The inscription engaged his attention,
but he could make nothing Of 1t. And
yet there must have been an object In
putting it there alone, and especially
with the hour and minute of birth.
One morning Colonel Granville was
sitting, as usual, studying the statue.
The sun spot was crawling slowly over
the wall as it had been travelling year
In and year out for 100 years. The
colonel was watching it as he had of.
ten watched it before. A third new
idea came to him. Might not this sun
! spot have some meanlng2
There seem to be two kinds Of ideas
In the human brain, those that are
original or parent ideas and those that
are offspring. The present case is an
illustration. The conception that the
sun spot might have some meaning
was in measure original Though ev-
erything, after all, Is but link in an
eternal chain), and 1t suggested anoth-
er idea-viz, Might not there be con-
nection between the sun spot and the
date of birth on the statue?
Colonel Granville sprang from his
chair He was confident that he had
made an important discovery. what
that discovery would lead to was an-
| other matter. He had little expecta-
ton that it would work out his first
conceptions which had come from the
letter he had read, but he hoped it
might solve the mystery of the statue
and the date inscribed upon 1t. He
was not long In iDferring that on the
day, hour and minute recorded on the
statue the sun spot would rest on a
part Of the wall which would give
some information or injunction intend
ed by the man who had erected the
statue.
The inscription gave the year, which
could be Of no importance since thu
/ sun traverses the same apparent path
annually, the day, June II; the hour,
10 o'clock, and the minute, the twen-
ty-fifth. In other words, If this were
j the true explanation, on June II, at
twenty-five minutes after 10 o'clock,
the Iosition Of the sun spot would