Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1896 — A STONE WITH A HISTORY. [ARTICLE]

A STONE WITH A HISTORY.

The Old "Postal Store,” Where Saiiore Used to Leave Their Letters. A stone has just been unearthed in South Africa which bids fair to take its place among the historic stones of the world, iu the estimation of the people of that part’ of the globe at least. It is called the old “Postal Stone,” beneath which, for at least two centuries, the mariners who touched at what is now Cape Town were wont to deposit their letters to await the visit of the next homeward or outward bound vessel. It is of hexagonal shape, about five feet in diameter,'and bears in old English lettering the date of ltig'J. After this homely auxiliary to the precarious letter carrying service of the time was suiterseded, and Cape Town sprung into being, it was lost sight of until the other day. Now it will be placed in a museum. There is no doubt about this stone being authentic, in which respects it differs from many another reputed find, like that, for instance, of the Runic stone, which was dredged up in the harbor at Havre not long ago. This at first excited no end of speculation and controversy, as it was thought to be a relic of the old Viking settlers of Normandy. It subsequently transpired that it had formed part of a Norwegian exhibit at the Paris Exposition in 18t>7, and had been lost overboard on its return to Norway shortly afterward. Though the Blarney Stone—the only and original—was reputed to have been at the Chicago Exposition, and is said to be yet iu this country, the one in the castle wall of Blarney, which has been sanctified by the kisses of so many generations of pilgrims, is still on view, as it has been near three hundred yeais, since Oorinae McCarthy’s soft promises and delusive delays made his liesieger, the Lord President, the laughing stock of Elizabeth’s court. Another example of the occasional fallacy of lapidary legend is furnished by the so-called "Stone of Job,” situated not far from Damascus. From time immemorial it has been asserted that it was upon this hard couch that the Patriarch rested in the course of his wanderings. It was only recently that its inscription was deciphered and found to refer to Raineses 11., or Effypt, who flourished after Job had beeu dead and dust two hundred years. Probably there is no stone in the World about which more legend clings than that upon which the rulers of England have beeu crowned since the days when Edward I. brought it from Scotland to 'Westminster. This coronation stone is also called "Jacob's Pillow” and the "Stone of Destiny.” According to the most ancient traditions it was the stone on which Jacob slept when he-had his dream of the ladder, and was originally preserved iu Solomon’s Temple, whence it was conveyed to Egypt by Jeremiah.