South Bend News-Times, Volume 30, Number 244, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 25 August 1913 — Page 2

1

s? m Tl Til - n

Live

r

tS through the South yet 13 W7" t' doing an annual cash busi

er hundreds of thou-

of dollare ; living in

tents like gypsy nomads

yet the owners of many city lots and rateable town property, some of it worth a thousand dollars a front foot ; such Is the strange life of the Irish clan of 'Carroll, Riley & Co.," composed of the CarrolLs, Riley?, Sherlocks and Gormans, all from County Roscommon, Ireland. luxurious seems a strange "word to apply to the mode of life of this or any other wandering clan, but luxurious it is indeed, for it must be realized that "whole squares in many of the largest and most thriving cities of the South are owned by this clan and held vacant throughout the year that they may, possibly, spend a few weeks each year camping there. Close down in the very centre of Atlanta, Ga., they own a whole city block; all

alout it are towering office buildings, factories and a few residences, but the Irish clansmen refuse to Fell or build permanent structures of any port upon this property. It is well piped with city water and sewers, however, and when the tents are pitched there for a summer stop beneath every spread of canvas la a hydrant and a sink, for these Irish are healthloving, sensible people - and know and observe the laws of hygiene and sanitation & great deal more closely than do the majority of people who live more sheltered lives indoors. In other cities of the South, too, they hold much property, in Chattanooga, in Xashville, in Rome, Ga., and Cartersville, Ga., in several smaller towns in Georgia and other States through which they wanfler. The vacant lot on which the clan, or the Atlanta branch of it (for there are nearly five hundred members scattered throughout the South, though all keep In touch with and are governed by Thomas Carroll, head of the Atlanta division), camp in Atlanta each summer occupies a whole square at Bellwood avenue and Ashby street and is estimated to be worth between $S0.000 and $100,000 by real estate dealers of that city. Ia each of the other cities where the clan owns property at least one big square is kept vacant and ready for their use whenever they may want tx camp there, but on much of their property there are big business houses, mills, factories and res!-

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dences, for this is a thrifty clan and they their tents and their open air life, as all build houses for other folks to live in humans do when they can get free of the anl pay them rent; owning wood and restrictions of conventionality and settled brick and metal wails and roofs, they lot life. others occupy them, while they live under Thrifty horse traders they are, too, and

canvas on neat, smooth wooden floors in einro thn memu th ctrm twent-v 3"ears a& formed the asso-i property they bought in Atlanta and

f .nt Th rpwn u f,,f t 1 i mt,on they have vastly increased their Nashville and Chattanooga and other every tent. J.ne reason is tnat tney love 7ition came to America from Ireland .... j uvu came 10 .vmenca irora ireianu, wealth by shrewd dealings, while the towns when they formed the association

A Typical Irish-Gypsy Camp in the South.

has grown enormously in value and multiplied their wealth, though they were in dependency well to do when they fint

came to Aac-ca. Every mother ?nn of them as much ns thirty ye.irs old or thereabouts was born in County Roscommon, Ireland. Each division of tne Dig era a ca rw? summer headquarttrs. In the warm weather they have little to do except collect their rents, for summer is their rest time. When the blood is thin tho Cairrolk and Riley3 and Sherlocks and Gormans live as naturally as the animal instincts of man prompt him to live, idly and at ease, in cool shade and unworried comfort. But when the blood thickens with the first cool weather forecasting winter, even beforo the snow flies in tho States further north, they fold their tents and discard their Idle ways and move South with the birds, plying their honest trade In boapta of burden as they go. Though no outsiders enter the community, through marrUge or otherwise, the laws of the Catholic Church against intenr.nrringo with relatives closer than tLird cousins (and then only by special dispensation) are rigidly observed. Inasmuch as the second generation is Just now at the marrying age and the first

'generation has no tics of blood, this observance is not difficult.

"We celebrated a wedding the other day," said Mr. Thomas Carroll, head of the clan, to a newspaper man who visited

the camp at Atlanta recently. "The bride was one of our young. ladies nnd the bridegroom camo from the Gainsvillc (Ga.) i contingent, which Is now moving toward Chattanooga. The wedding was solemnized in the Immaculate Conception Church,

here in Atlanta, and the celebration, afterward in our camp was a big affair. Lots of our friends in Atlanta were invjted. The young couple will staj with our camp." Prohibitionists will pronounce their benediction upon the Carroll, Riley & Co. camps, "for," said Mr. Carroll, "there's not a man among us that touches liquor." Lovers of peace will al.o pin a badge on Carroll, Riley. & Co. "We leave fighting to cats and dogs," said Mr. Carroll. "We never have to put down any trouble, because there is never any trouble to put down. Rut" (and there was a twinkle in his blue eyes as he spoke) "we let the youngsters have their fill of it, if they want to fight, while they're young. It's their nature and it's

good for them. It teaches them not to be afraid of trouble if it comes looking for them." Deprived of the usual advantages of public schools, the members of the clan of Carroll, Riley & Co. pay well for the schooling of their children, when the youngsters get to an age when they can learn readily. And the Church for they are to a man good Catholics and their parents look well after their morals.

5v , iyyvX A.N CE, nd venture, cu-

Jkifi riosity, greed all these

RP are mighty factors In the activities of men. lid There is a little island

TvVTJ Mtuated about four miles

from the town of Chester in Nova Scotia whose history bears witness to the astonishing energy which may be engendered by a combination of these motives an energy tireless, persistent, dauntless, not to be turned asidt? from the task it has set out to accomplish, however difficult, however hopeless this task may teem. Beneath the thick, unyielding clay of this little iedaud tradition for more than a hundred years has declared that there lie buried huge chests of Spanish gold, gleaming ornaments, cumbersome antique pieces, barbaric in their splendor,, fit to deck kings and courtiers in the days when kingly state recognized no obligation to play a part in the drama of simplicity. Oak Island, of all the pirate islands in which later generations have delved for treasures, has offered the most stubborn resistance to the excavators. In the case of other buried treasures the difficulty which has beset the seekers after pirate gold has usually been the exact determination of a locality. Complicated maps offered by mysterious natives, the descendants of the friends or relatives of the original pirates, and to Le had only for fahulous prices from the heirs, have usually figured as of paramount importance in the organizing of expeditions to search for the treasures. In Oak Island the problem of regaining this long sought for wealth has been a different one. The FDot where the chests containing the

treasures are buried has for more than a century been pretty well a? reed upon. The difficulty has been to set deep enough down underneath the island to dig out the treasure without flooding the shaft with water and thus compelling a cessation of latx-tr. Rut in spite of these difficulties the old haunts of the pirates have been allowed to rest in peace, untroubled by those who crave the buried sld. for only a few years at a time. Excavation expeditions hav continued to spring up from time to tini eince 171."i, when the first important effor to find the treasure was put forth. Sim then science has ccme to the aid of ?.: venture and systematic attempts ha been made to dig up the treasure, but a' in vain. Seionce has even por.e so far i: the case of an expedition headed by engineer to dnry, after a failure to 'ixat the treasure, the possibility of any su buried wealth. This, however, has n deterred later adventurers from puttin their couraze to the test in the search, an there ia now being organized another cx

Ho! for Oak Island's Pirate Gold Sought Since the Year 1795, It May Now Be Found

1 m i mmpmmmmmmmmimmim .in ' . t- l,f Smi Cove. Showing theOW Fashioned HoisUngWilm t23 'j

f'Jyy

ploring party which will seek to mine out. th AO nl r intrrrvl rnld o n inn-ale T'

fessor C. L. Williams, of Soldiers Grove, Wis., is the leading spirit in this latest treasure hunt, which, if all goes as well as its sanguine promoters believe, will solve this fascinating puzzle. Perhaps the pirates considered that the great depth to which they sunk their treasure chests was Fufficient of a guard for them, or perhaps time played them a trick in exposing certain appearances of the earth which gave evidence that it hal been disturbed for extraordinary purposes. At any rate, the sign of pirate visits to the island were by no means obscure even so long ago as 170.", when three men whose names were Smith, Mac(linnis and Vaughn, who had paddled over from the mainland on an idle visit to the island, in the course of a desultory stroll came upon an old clearing on which zrew plants foreign to the locality, rl "lover among them. A Iarse tree which tood in the centre of th;. clearing bore abalistic siens, puch as were in common :e among the freebooters, and on exmining the spot more closely the young ien discovered a depression, circular in

hape, about twelve feet across, nnd very vidently due to some artificial condition. Later explorations of the island reilted in equally interesting find. A -cat stringbolt was found fastened to a c' in the landing place of the island, w known na Smith Cove: a boatvain'i whistle, cf-the scrt ia rogue In e days of the buccaneers, wig found

a coin dat:d 1713 was picked from the soil. It was only a copper coin, nnd although it weighed an ounce and a half its value was infinitesimal. Nevertheless, it was the last link in the chain

an old shaft The walls were hard, and here and there the pick mark? could be een. The earth inside the haft wa$ so loose that it came away easily. At a

depth of ten feet they came upon a layer

which connected the peculiar discoveries , of planking, a second layer of planking;

with pirate treasure. The young men at once began digging ia the depressed spot under the great

oak tree, nnd it was evident before they

third

was found at tweaty feet, and a

layer ten feet further down. Superstition interfered with their con

unumg the search further, for many. wild

MAP OF THE WORKINGS ON OAK ISLAND 1. Monr; Pit fit. 11 fc-t; cm turf 14 '1 Pit. 10O f.f: ttiy yrr old 4. rtt. 73 ft; Fifty jttn old; o watec 0- Pit. &j fwl; fifty ytn old: wtter ft. int. 113 frpt; fartjfif ynfiKld; wifer 7 rlt. CO fort; fmj-flv jrM 'd. wattr & Exraratioo oo !rr. 9. Vrmt' TnnnrL la fiaUth't hoaae. 1L Bars. 12. Iit 130 feet: frwfc mtrr 12. rit. 115 fwt; bo f r 14- Tit. 90 ft . cd ia. 15. T'lt. ia fm. raTj la ia I'it, IU fret; Mir water. 17-1J K) to 00 ft; !t water. 2). C'o.k Ktsc. aiL 33 to 40 frtt.

flames and startling apparitions

Some of the residents of the neighborhood even declared that they had f-een strange seafaring men striding about in their broad-topped sea boots, cutlass in belt, ribbons ia their beards and their heads bound up in gory bandages. Shocking oaths that hurtled over the water, the sound of a ship making moorings, the grating of a dory on the shore and the Kteady Reverberation from the picks coming through the black midnight furnished the orchestral accompaniment to the ghostly drama. After a few of these stories had gone the rounds it was not easy to win recruits for the excavating expedition, and the project of getting at the pirates' gold was temporarily abandoned. The next important effort to disinter the treasure took place a few years later. At this time the shaft was sunk ninetyfive feet in the spot m which work had already been started. In addition to the oak planking which wan found to be laid at intervals of tea feet the workmen found layers of charcoal and of putty, these being laid on a matting of cocoa-

nut fibre. At a depth of ninety feet the

.car the bolt, and, most thrilling of nil, had gone very far that they had ftruckjtales were told of the hideous proaaings.j which issued from the diggings at night. jworkmen discovered & large stone whlch

was curiously inscribed with engraved characters. The stone was taken out and set in a fireplace which belonged to Mr. Smith, one cf the trio of original investigators. The digging went on beyond the point where the stone had lain and five feet further down another wooden platform appeared. The men quit work for two days, as it was Saturday night. To their disgust when they returned to work on Monday morning they found the ;aft filled with water. It was impossible to bale out the water, and they decided to sink a new shaft east of the first one. The first pit was later distinguished from later excavations as "the money pit." The new shaft was sunk to the depth of a hundred and ten feet without striking water, but when the diggers attempted to drive a shaft toward the money pit, with the object of getting underneath the first shaft and possiblj

striking the treasure, water rushed in

from that point and the workmen had to flee for their lives. It was not until 1S49 tht another com

pany was formed for getting at the pi

rates gold. In the meantime interest in the venture had been greatly excited by the deciphering of the signs on the large stone which had been found in the first shaft. This stone had been taken to Halifax and studied by many persons, and at least one of these men had been able to give a direct translation. He

declared that the message on the stone was: "TEX FEET BELOW TWO MILLIOX POUXDS LIE BUKIED." The new expedition decided to work the old money pit, but this and all sub

sequent efforts were defeated by the flow of water, which it was by this time believed came from the subterranean tunnel which had been dug by the pirate. A search was made for the entrance to thin tunnel, and it was found on the beach hidden from sight by a compact mass of beach rock. After these rocks had been removed five drains were discovered, formed by lines of rocks laid like the ribs of a fan. Innumerable attempts have been made at intervals of a few years to reach the treasure, but when the water has not driven the workmen from the fhafts the money of the company has given out In VjOo one of the diggers brought further proof of the existence of th treasure in a few links of a Spanish chain and an old Spanish coin. Thofe who live ia tbe neighborhood of the Island have all ihe faith ia the world in the buried wealth, and whenever an excavating expedition is formed the survivors of former nearching parties are g!id and ager to bccoan members of the new compaaj.