The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1944-08-24
Turning Over An
Old Leaf
By PHILLIP A. GLADHEIM

dlt q lew 1oI SSltVli
There were sparks of recognition that
| are not forgotten yet"
The culture-man of the Goth CEN
| tury has a value-measurement that
! is about as comprehensive in its
power of discernment as the mechan-
| ical calculator of mathematical prob
! lens framed within panel of every
known device of numbers located at
Harvard University. The culture
mans value mcasurcment consists in
! the mastery of the coordinated scien-
ces in delving ever deeper into the
remote past. With this knowledge his
mind finds the means to span from
the prime symbols of life across the
centuries of known history. His power
of foresceing and planning the future
penetration into history and pre-
history. Thus there is a gcnetic re-
lationship between the cave-homc of
! our prehistoric ancestors and the
dream mansions of the future. AS
mans functional powers increase,
multiply, and show an ever greater
variation---so do the forms require
the selections of new materials.
The prehistoric man lived within
the narrow walls of instinct. He &C
cepted what he found Nature pro-
vidcd food and shelter without the
addition of effort, other than search.
In July 1914 issue of Harper's
there is an article entitled Our
Search For The Earliest Americans"
by Frank G.. Hibbcn. This earliest
American is known as Folsom Man,
who is believed to have been an in
/ habtant of various sections of the
United States in the Pre- Glacial
Period. The discovery of Folsom Man
was made in Sandia Cave, New Mex
leo. by Inference. No human bones
were found, but a groovcd arrowhead
of flint, unlike any Of the Indian
tribes. was found beside the skeletal
remains of animals living here in
that early pcriod--and which did not
survive in Post-Glacial times. The
search started in Sandia Cave and
has thus far taken its adventures
to an inland lake in Alaska where the
identical Folsom-point was found
among the same skclctal remains,
that of mastodon.
The recent discovery in Sandia
Cave New Mexico, has an important
bearing on observations made in 1926
by the late DR.. David White in an
article reprinted in Bulletin No. 6
of the National Sociological Soci-
ety. entitled: "The archaeological
Exploration of Caves" And what
makes the findings more exciting is
that Dr. White calls attention to an
accidental discovery of fossils in our
mountains. near Cumberland. To
quote: "Whcn extending the Western
Maryland Il. r. through limestone
ridge near Cumberland a few years
ago, the workmen cut into the earth
filling a chamber beneath an old
sinkhole The bones found there were
supposed to represent buried live
stock, and carloads of the earth were
hauled away for filling beneath the
railroad bed. 1t was the final obser-
walton of some strikingly curious
specimens that attracted the notice
of an engineer and led to the col
lection of skulls and other remains
by DR.. J. W. Gidley of the National
Museum in Washington. The remains
of extinct vertebrate animals which
Doctor Gidlcy was able to salvage
included an Gland very closely re-
scmbling the species now living in
Africa, crocodile, five extinct pee
carries, a tapir, a mastodon, an eX-
tinct bear and a horse. This asso-
citation of animals falling into a sink
hole scarcely $50 miles from the
National Capitol, is of striking sig
nificance as to the geographic dis
trihution Of vertcbratcs at that pre-
sumably Pleistoccne moment. and as
to the climatic conditions then pre-
vailing."
Further on in the article Dr..
White says: "There must be scores
,,rnho hl,, l,,,rlrol, &C -,
the Appalachian region containing
animal remains not less interesting
than those found near Cumberland.
part only which were ever recov-
cred"
IT is reasonable to conclude that
these Pleistocene vertebrates iden-
titled by DR.. Gidley several years ago
lived contemporaneouSly with Folsom
man. Therefore it is not too much to
assume that the quest for skeletal
remains of Folsom man might find
its end here in some floor deposit of
a cave.
DR.. White believes that paleonto-
logical research in America will rich
ly supplement that already done by
European scientists. He would dispel
the notion that vertebrate deposits
arc limited to the Eurasjon lands
as prehistoric man was distributed
widely turnout the earth from earli-
est times, Most of such work has been
done in caves and excavations in
EurOpe and Asia Rut todav this