Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-09-05
STORY OF THE cRgDuLous..
/. Tells How Britisher Found the


Long-Souoht Philosophers Stono.
A story comes from England to the
effect that British subject In India
found during the war, the long-sought
philosophers stone, and accomplished
the miracle of transmitting base metals
into gold. AS the story goes, the brit-
iSh government, fearing that this dis
covery would overturn governments
and destroy the existing gold standard
of international exchange. arrested the
modern Merlin, Scourt-4nartialed him
on trumpcd up charge of treason
and executed him. fe =
This preposterous yarn Is believed
bv many, according to English papers,
Those that believe 1t also probably be-
lieve that Joan Of Arc was not burned
to death in the pyre at Rouen, that
Doc Cook discovered the North Pole,
that Lord Kitchener did not go down
to his death in the North Sea. The
credulous, like the poor and the pro-
fiteers, are always with us.
Even If the story were true, there
would be, nothing new in it. Men have
been killed before because they boast
ed of possessing the philosophers
stone. Wasn't it Tiberius Caesar who
dashed out the brains of an all-too-
clever mechanic who declared that he
had accomplished the miracle OF max
ing malleable glass? Unbreakable
;..ss mas had y Srrange fascination for
the inventors Of all ages. 1t has been
almost as great a desideratum as
Il lausmutng iron and pig lead into
raw gold. Old Friar Bacon put the
feat of making malleable glass in the
forefront Of the list Of wonders to be
accomplished by his great elixir. our
esteemed chronicler Harrison, who was
interested in all things and whom
nothing escaped, comments thus upon
the fascinating problem: If the phil
osoDherS stone were once found, ana
one part hereof mixed with forty parts
OF molten glass it would induce such
mctallical toughncs3 thereunto that
fall should nothing hurt it in such
manner"
So far the philosophers stone has
eludcd the avaricious grasp OF man,
though time and time again has II
been announced that somebody or
transmitting the baser metals into pre-
cious ore. But in spite of these an
nouncements the tranquility of our IL
nancial system remains undiSturbcd.
And from time to time there are re-
ports in the papers OF the secret OF
malleablc glass having ut last been
discovered Only the other day a
news dispatch from Bridgeport, Conn,
announced the discovery of q glass
with this "metallical toughness." But
l dare say that this grand desldera-
tum is no nearer fulfllment than 1t
was in Friar Bacon's time or in Canon
Harrison's day. AS for the story OF
the man who was shot in India FOR
having found the philosophers stone.
l am inclined TO believe that 1t was an
old, old story in the days when Cyrus
the Great was spreading his peculiar
kultur throughout the eastern world.
Doubtless if VIC were to eXcavate copies
of the Thebes Herald or the Memphis
Gazette, we should find there in that
Ptolemy, or some other Egyptian
kaiser, had executed scores OF magi-
clans for daring to upset the financial
system OF Egypt by turning copper and
iron into gold.
It's an old world, and in it there is
nothing new under the sum-. n. H.
in Rochester Post-EXpress.