The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1920-08-14
HEART OF PARIS
MAY YIELD Up
BURIED RICHES
Famous Treasure of Narbonne
Believed to Be Located.
INCLUDES EMERALD TABLE

For 1,200 Years Parisians Have Been
Pointing to a Certain Plot of Ground
With Mysterious Nods-The Lost
Treasures Are Historical-They
Were Buried Ages Ago by a Few
and Their knowledge Perished With
Them.
The surface ground of the "mys-
terry has been cleared, at last, in mid
Paris. For 1,200 years Parisians have
been pointing to this plot of ground
with wise mods. But for the war, Its
story would have run through the
world already. Doubtless, time is
ripening for Isaac's long-held ire
hinder to be released. Why, the
proletariat around Notre Dame are
talking about "it'' more than any,
I asked a butcher, in the Parvis,
says Sterling Heilig in the Springfield
Republican. ut is subterranean," he
said. "In the revolution, my GRANDPA
Their helped to seek it; but it was too
well hid (waving his hand across the
split of the river). Now the ground is
clear"
1T Is rooms filled with the jewels of
kingsl" said an old dame selling or
anges. "Once there was a crow on
Notre Dame that looked toward it"
Victor Hugo knew all about the crow,
His "Claude Prollo" spent hours,
Calculating the angle at which the
raven looked from the west porch"
of the cathedral. There is a sad bird
still, high up there among the gar
goyles, vast and sinister. draped in
bat-like wings as in a mourning veil.
Most Mysterious Objects of Paris.
They are the chimeras of Notre
Dame, regularly miscalled the gar
goyles-the most mysterious objects
of Paris. Climb the towers of the
cathedral. High up, you come to this
gallery of the roofs, whence, amid a
population of gigantic stone creatures,
you have Victor Hugo's bird's-eye
view aof Paris, Tourists are more
struck by the strange population of
carved monsters than by the shining
city.
There are gigantic bulls and bears,
a c~ontemplative elephant on his hind
3 w@-headed panther owls and
vultures of the pit. In vain, for CEN
turtles, have visitors inquired the
meaning of the collection. In par
t%icular, the human-like figures arouse
wonder-genii, titans, demons, of
stern thought, evil dignity and bad,
unyielding purpose; meditating, star
ing into the far distance or peering
down, right close beside them, into
the city.
There is but one single figure of a
real man. He is Isaac (all Parisians
know HIND. a preternaturally young
looking old man with a venerable
beard. We shall meet him again. He
peers down. more anxious than any.
but benevolent and kindly, as If check
ing off those demons.
Calling them ~gargoyles explained
nothing. Every gothic cathedral has
its grotesque stone r~oof-spouts, to
spout off the rain water; and Notre
Dame has 100 real ones which pass
hiiilOii1Cd ~ itF NnSL uDl XII
features. With their purpose I'M
known, their common attitude had
led folks, in all countries, to ask final
ly: "What are they looking at2' And
the Paris populace answers, as 1t an
swered always: They are looking at
the mystery"
Men AVE carried a %theodolite up
there, to measure exactly, if possible,
what they are looking at" Natural
~, the first thought is a treasure. But
the ground of Paris, all around here,
has been dug up and rebuilt a dozen
times. All but n area. 1t is the
very area they seem to watch.
Hotel Dieu Torn Down.
The old buildings of the Hotel Dieu
covered the watched area. Now, at
last, they are torn down. 1t is a
queer event. The antique hospital of
Paris was founded by st. Landry,
bishop under Clovis II, about A. D.
CSC, for the poor of the cathedral
chapter.
The old buildings Just demolished
(patched, decayed. remodeled, but al
ways covering the surface ground
heretofore) rose up In what remained
(when they were begun of the still
more antique gardens of the palace OF
the city, extending TO the Roman cit
abel or palace of the oaths. AS late
as the year 100 it was still known
as the semi-royal territory of Laas,
always enclosed and protected, being
just outside the island. And when
Philip Augustus, about 1890, built the
new wall of Paris, he took in JUS
this strip of the old gardens. surface,
leaving outside, just beyond them, the
nOM.most ancient little old church nt