Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1881 — A Possible Relic of De Soto. [ARTICLE]

A Possible Relic of De Soto.

The Tallahassee (Fla.) Floridan says* A few years ago, about two miles east of Tallahassee, was found a ponderous spur, of unique and curious wm-kmawahip, the like of which has not been seen in modern times. The burr was one and a half inches in diameter, and the bar proportionately heavy. On either side of the rowel dangled small pendant bells, that gave forth a tinkling sound in response to each step of the wearer—doubtless some steel-clad and bonneted warrior of the long ago. Not many days since, while parties were plow- - ing near the identical spot, a solid and shapeless mass was turned up, which, upon dose examination, proved to be an iron stirrup of ancient pattern, as heavy and as massive as the spur spoken of first, and firmly imbeded in a thick coating of clay and rust When this was removed, the stirrup was found to be in a remarkable good state of preservation. The sides represent two Ethiopian figures standing upon the foot-rest, leaning forward facing each other, while they support with outstretched arms what forms the top of the stirrup, or that jstrt connected with the leather. So unlike are both these relics to anything known to the generations of this day and time, and, both being found so near the same place, it is not unreasonable to ascribe them to the same era and individual. Nor is tiie supposition at all improbable that one of ths knightly followers of De Soto, lured on through tins then unknown region and wilderness, like that dauntless eon of Spain, by a thirst forth®, yellow heaps of gleaming gold that loomed up ahead of them in vain visions and heated fancies, here fell a victim to the tomahawk and scalping knife of the wronged and revengeful red; and no doubt, some one of the ‘‘Tallahassee Tribe,” of which “Tiger ’Tail” clamed to be a descendant, boasted, as he displayed at his belt a yet bloody scalp, that he had “killed a Dale-face?’ During a political campaign in Michigan a well known lawyer was addressing an audience composed principally of farmers in Gratiot county. In order to win their confidence, he said: “My friends, my sympathies have always been with the tillers of the soil My father was a practical farmer, and. so was my grandfather before him. I was myself reared on a farm, and was, so to speak, bom between two stalks of com.” Here the speaker was rudely interrupted by some one in the audience who exclaimed: “A pumpkin, by iinyJ”