The Syracuse Journal, Volume 20, Number 40, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 2 February 1928 — Page 8

Sisters Have Reunion After 25 Years I r ? I i ■ ' j kaftFol-''<7 ,r* 4 * ,, n| <' ~ mMMIi gj® njnk -1 k -gBP Br w MBT- yWS or v jaflllw 3&J For the first time in mure than twenty-five years, Mrs. Thomas Davison of Johnston City, lit, and her six sisters assembled during the holidays for a reunion. The eldest is seventy-nine and the youngest fifty-three, all in excellent health The seven sisters are as follows, left to right, top: Airs. Frances Duff, Jackson, Tenn.; Mrs. Lydia Nelson, 'Murphysboro. Ill.; Mrs. Margaret Johnson, New York City. Bottom: Mrs. Ada Crain, Carbondale. 111., Mrs. Fred Watson, St Louis, Mo.; Mrs. Thomas Davison. Johnston City, 111- and Mrs. Alice Hestetter, Detroit. Mich.

Pirate Gold Is Sought on Isle

Treasure Hunters Quit Panama for Cocos With Clews to Loot Ancon, Panama. —In quest of the reputed fabulous wealth which three pirates are said to have left behind them on Cocos island, a tiny volcanic island 300 miles southwest of Costa Rica, under whose flag it is governed, George Williams, former British naval lieutenant, has left here armed with charts and documents collected by the ex-governor of the island and a secret electrical gold-divining rod. he claims already to have located buried Indian treasures in ' Panama. The documents which Williams possesses, and on which he says he is gambling all his proceeds from previous treasure hunts, were given to him by August Gesslier, governor of Cocos island for 20 years, and were hitherto kept secret. Not only do these indicate the approximate locations of the iron-bound chests of gold and rare jewels ravaged by pirates from stately Spanish galleons scores of years ago, but, according to Williams, throw a whole new light on the history of the principal treasure, for which the island is famous. It is that which Captain Morgan took from the Peruvian capital, Callao, in 1820, when besieged by a Chilean force. To Arriye in March. ' Williams, who holds a special concession for treasure hunting in Panama, granted by President Chiari, will stop at the Island of Chepillo on his present expedition, arriving at Cocqs island at the end of the rainy season, in late March. Then brush may be- burned from the sections where ’he will employ his “scientific gold finder.” According to the documents of Gesslier, coupled witb facts volunteered by Peruvian officials, Captain Morgan, a British adventurer in the Peruvian navy, did not set sail in the Mary Dear when the Peruvian government intrusted him witb ths wealth,of Callao and the wives and daughters of officials, in 1820, as the Chileans threatened to sack the city. Instead, he commanded a small bark, manned by a jerew of 20, which suffered such distress during a storm that Morgan decided to put in at the little Island of Cocos and not sail for Spain, as be bad./been instructed. Four days were, .consqmed in burying the treasure, ’the work carried on under the second mate, one William Thompson, an English adventurer like Morgan. When the bark set sail for Peru again, however, with its cargo of fair ladies. Thompson gathered members of the crew |n a mutinous uprising, in which Morgan was stabbed to death, that they might return to the island and make off with the treasure, variously estimated at $50,000 to SIOO.000. The account from here grows less official; dealing witb Thompson’s return to the treasure island, the murder of the women, a second mutiny of the crew, Thompson’s capture by Peruvian soldiers and escape and his fruitless efforts to return again to the island. His secret of the treasure’s location was passed on to a certain Keating, then to a Fitzgerald and a Captain Bogue. Ex-Governor Gives Clews. Gesslier himself while governor spent years in searching for the rumored wealth. Before her death recently, in New York, his wife extracted a .promise from him that he would

SEARCH OCEAN LINERS IN NEW DRIVE ON SMUGGLERS

Government' Officials Are Determined x to Wipe Out Traffic in Narcotics. Los Angeles, Calif.—Determined to wipe out the smuggling of narcotics into the United States via Oriental steamers, the government has just inaugurated a new system of checking on all shipments ob such steamers, as the result of a conference -between Collector of Customs Hamilton of San Francisco and Collector of Customs Schwaefe of Los Angeles. It was stated by the officials that one targe loophole tn the, fight to keep narcotics out Os California ts in the activities of employees of large Pacific liners. Most of the opium, morphine and cocaine Hat comes to this country ts raid to have been smuggled in tn this manner. With the approval of the government. <•. ” . Hamilton now hag in

never return to the island of thwarted quest for gold and tales of violent death. He has passed on his knowledge of buried treasure on Cocos island to Williams, according to the latter, to whom in a letter he writes of his own search: “I put all the clews together which 1 had collected I set out to test my information, and within 100 yards of where I expected to find something I. came across the hollow stump of a tree, yielding a rusty iron bar, a broken knife blade and 23 coins dated between 1773 and 1799. Near this place lies the Peruvian treasure.” Only a part of his search will be devoted to this treasure, however. Williams says, for Gesslier has given him other information, documents and charts which tell of trore buried pirate hoards on the little island, the value of which has not even been guessed at. In the same secret letter to Williams, Gesslier writes as follows of the pirate’s loot which “Ok Mack” likewise buried on the island: “I was a sailor adventurer in the South seas when 1 first heard of Cocos island. I ran away from a luxurious home on the Rhine. It was on the Sandwich islands that 1 met an old ex-pirate called by the beach combers ‘Old Mack,’ who told weird tales of his life under the black flag. While he was dying he told his daughter of a treasure he buried on Cocos island, hoisting it to a cliff running like a wall to the beach and depositing it in a natural crevice in the ground. The daughter copied full Instructions of where the treasure could be found and told them to htr husband. “With him I went into partnership to search for this treasure and we finally reached the island in a small boat with three peons from Punta Arenas in Costa Rica. We found a tunnel under the rock as described by ‘Old Mack.’ rusty eyebolts used by the pirates with their hoisting tackles, and, in the thickets above the cliff, rusty pots, broken swords, a knife and the breastbone of a man. But marks of a natural crevice were obliterated by time and 1 jtnew that a large area would have to be explored. While camping, “Old Mack’s’ son-in-law was stricken with fever and died. I returned to Costa Rica, obtaining permission to hoist that flag on the island, still unclaimed, and was appointed as governor.

PRIZE POSTER

This is the poster that wtft first prize of SSOO in the National Safety council poster competition. It was drawn by Thomas A. Keller of Dayton, Ohio.

service at San Francisco seven expert searchers, who regularly are placed on Pacific liners. It is planned to have a larger crew of such searchers and to increase the force of Collector Schwaehe so that a similar system may be satrted at Los Angeles harbor. Customs officials, limited by the number of men to conduct such a search, have been handicapped. The usual plan for the smugglers, it is said, ts for some one employed on the liners to drop off a large number of tins of narcotics, carefully tied together and buoyed by large cork sacks, at some designated place along the coast This usually ts done at a time when the tide will carry the long string of tins shoreward so that watching smugglers can catch them as they drift in. Importation of narcotics byway of th* California coast and borders, al-

Farmer Asserts He Has Perfect Potato Kildeer, N. D. —A potato that is said to be “bugless.” and apparently resistant to scab and other common diseases, has been developed by A. J. Reems of Kildeer Four years ago Reems found an odd hill of white-skinned po tatoes in a Red Triumph planting. He fostered the strain by special cultivation and now claims a virtually perfect potato. Except for one carload that was shipped this year to a South Dakota seed house for double the market price, the entire production of the unusual tuber is stored on two farms at Kildeer. The strain matures two weeks earlier than other Triumph varieties. but requires no more moisture than any of the common types of potato.

“I pursued my search for the treasure of the Saracen, that being the ship of ‘Old Mack,’ when 1 returned. Exploring a cave 1 discovered a natural passageway to a great interior chamber, 100 feet across, strewn with rusted cutlasses, and pieces of wood that had once been treasure chests. Over the floor were scattered many coins of gold and nieces of jewelry. It is likely that the whole treasure is buried somewhere in the floor.” , Other documents and information in Williams’ possession relate h the treasure of the buccaneer. Bonito, who is the third swashbuckler rumored to have used the little Island as a bank when his loot became too heavy for convenience in sailing. Some Gold Uncovered. Search for the first and last of these treasures already nas occupied the attention of numerous expeditions. Certain of these are said to have uncovered small deposits of gold doubloons and the like. Williams confidently expects to make a really large find. A similar expedition to Cocos island, which Williams organized last year, fell through and English papers accused him of fraud. In Panama, however, he has made important finds of Indian gdld ornaments and armor in excavated tombs as well as a considerable treasure of geld coins and precious stones, supposed to have been hastily buried in old Panama City when Morgan swooped down upon it. A golden altar from this treasure, valued at $2,000, is on exhibition in Panama City. The extended position of the legs of the figure of Christ on this altar Indicates the workmanship precedes 1300. as since that date the figure ot Christ has uniformly been depicted with crossed legs. Parents to Regain Son and Send Him to School Bellingham, Wash. —Russell Tremain. ten, is to be returned to his parents, from whom he was taken tn June of last year because they would not permit him to attend school, where he was required to salute the American flag and to take an oath of allegiance. The boy’s father has promised to send him to school. Judge E. E. Sardin of the Whatcom county Superior court rescinded recently an order of bis predecessor, Judge W. P. Brown, which gave the boy into the custody of the Washington Children’s Home society. The society placed Russell In the <xre of a family which was about to adopt him. The child’s parents, J. W. and Mrs. Ethel D. Tremain. having removed to Seattle, Judge Hardin said that he felt it would be to the boy’s best Interests that any further orders respecting his welfare should be made by the juvenile court of the county in which all parties concerned reside.

though greatly curbed by the activities of customs officials and narcotic agents, still involves hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of these shipments come from the Orient. Steamship companj officials who have been told ot the new plan of searching, as soon as the ship arrives off a California harbor have said they will co-operate in every manner, it was stated by the customs officials. Skeptical Cops Memphis, Tenn. — Asa Staples, negro, arrested for breaking into a grocery store here, explained that he entered the store because be could find no other refuge from the zero weather. But the police refused to believe him, because they found him in the icebox. Full of Junk New Orleans. — Sidney Barnes, fifty-one, “human ostrich,” died following an operation during which a cigar box full of bolts, washers, razor blades, nails and carpet tacks were removed ftpm his stomach.

THE SYRM’I’SE JOFRNAL

HoweAbout- : ®r ED HOWE : ©. Ben Syndicate. WNU Service.

Helen of Troy ran away from her husband, and lived with another man. After years of fighting, in which thousands were killed, the husband captured Helen, and brought her back home. The neighbors supposed his purpose was to boil her in oil. Instead, he forgave her, and again put her io charge of his home. Did Helen appreciate the mercy? She certainly did not; she boesed her husband more cruelly than ever before, and made a fool of him on every possible occasion. Some are like that: they regard forgiveness as license for still worse offending. * * * Our favorite meanness is to praise some things more than they deserve. Os every particularly successful man it Is said by his special enemies that his wife, or his bead clerk “niadv him.” * # * There is lots of nonsense in the world, but it is all plainly labeled When a man tries to sell you a book he makes a large profit on and which will be a dead loss to you, there is a label on him as large as a barn door. There is also plenty of sense in the world, and it is plainly labeled, too. People talk sense quietly; nonsense is nearly always heralded in loud voice or large type. The next time you are In a crowd, try the experiment and see how easy it is to pick out nonsense. * * * The question has been raised what two men would do, who lived a soli tary life in the wilds, and met each other for the first time. Pufendort believed they would approach each other as friends; Hobbe;?, on the eon trary, as enemies; Rosseau. that they would pass each other by in silence. . . . Pufendort, of course, is right. Did not Rohinson Crusoe welcome even Friday, a poor native who could not speak his language? ♦ « # The critics are right; the people are an abused tot; and the critics are not any better than the rest of us. * « « There is no woman who gives us the radiant dreams that lurk beneath the word Woman; there is no wine that realizes the intoxication im agined by the word Wine; there is no perfume that our deceived nostrils find equal to the word Perfume: all is too litfle for the word All. and no nothingness is an empty enough van ity as to be that arch terrorist word Nothing —Emile Tennequin. » * « It was the late A. C. Benson who told the story of a soul who arrived in the next world and. there finding all the more pleasant features of his earthly life reproduced without their accompanying responsibilities. observed from the cozy depths of a supersensual armchair, “I had m> idea that heaven was so comfortable!’’ —Whereto another shade tersely replied : “It isn't I” * * » 1 sometimes think there is nothing a crazy man dreams might be done that cannot be done. I am half con vinced that fiction is only a record of things we do not yet know about « « « If cowardice had not been n strong characteristic of mankind, history would have recorded the existence of tyrants only to give grateful particulars of their execution. There is no excuse for an individual or majority submitting to tyranny; a remedy may usually be found. The great disgrace in Nero's history is that the people submitted to him. That one man should go wrong is not surprising, but that millions should patiently submit to his tyranny and brutality for years, is surprising. When his subjects finally revolted, Nero ran away like a whipped cur; a single man easily disposed of him. * « * I have never attracted the favor of any man to the extent that he was willing to divide hits. money with me. But everyone I meet is willing to divide his valuable ideas with me. « # « “Don’t preach ala tire.” H. L. Mencken lately said. Still, when a bouse is burning because of some one’s carelessness, and women and children standing barefoot in the snow, quite a sermon is being preached. And if a neighbor appears who devises an efficient method of getting water on the tire, and the furniture out, he will preach a sermon that will not only do good at the time, but be long remembered for future usefulness. #* # ‘ Never deal witb a'rogue. On the appearance of trouble, be always turns state’s evidence and makes your part of the transaction worse than it is. » « * Be very careful what you ask for in youth, lest you receive too much of it in your old age.—Goethe. * * * Ben Franklin used to say it is the disposition of men to tire of a woman, a guest, and rainy weather, =in three days. * # * in a town I know, five families applied for public charity within three days, although owners of automobiles, i know a man and his wife who own an automobile, and received aid from the county for years, although both are employed, and hate their home paid for. * * * “You should be very careful," James McNeill Whistler said to a student who was smoking his pipe while at his work. “You know you might get Interested in your work, and let your pipe go out”

Sandino’s Men Coached by Former German Officer S Wlw’T. n la ■ rd m |jO J J* 1 * -Id Hete is a group of General Sandino’s rebel troops in Nicaragua receiving instructions from the former German officer, one Muller, who has been training them in modern methods of warfare; Concrete Piers for Yosemite Valley Bridge 5 ■, i I Bn I I bK> awl n 1. Claimed to be the loftiest concrete piers ever erected for bridge purposes are those for the Yosemite Valley railroad at Pleasant Valley, Calif. They tower more than 200 feet higher than a twenty-story building. The road crosses a reservoir and abnormally high piers were necessary.

WELL FEATHERED BEE Representative Jed Johnson of Oklahoma is an honorary chief of the Kiowa Indian tribe of Oklahoma. Each member of the tribe contributed a feather to be used in the headdress which he is shown wearing. W. S. WASHINGTON V 0 y ' Wilson Selden Washington, a collateral descendant of George Washington, who has just been elected worshipful master of AlexandriaWashington Lodge No. 22, A. F. and A- M„ the same lodge presided over by George Washington 138 years ago. Mr. Washington is a great-great-great-grandnephew of General Washington, and a son of the late Lawrence Washington, the last male member of the family born at Mount Vernon. Vacation's Benefit “Do not grudge a busy man his days of vacation,’ said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown. “Some of the world’s greatest thoughts have resulted from lonely reflection.” —Washington Star. One Explanation Travel is the most agreeable, the most Impractical, and the most costly way of gaining instruction; which explains why England makes it a m*eialty.—Paul Morand, in Vanity Fair.

Treating Trees With Chemical Bombs I* > 1 * i i 818 C. S. Jewett, orange grower and rancher of La Verne, Calif„ has been conducting experiments with bombs filled with chemicals in an effort to exterminate the insects which are the bane of the orange grower’s life. Two of his “farmerettes” are shown above wiring up bombs in an infested grove. Give Million for Medical Research I I \ I | B * * ■ '•' I I Mr. and Mrs. Albert D. Lasker, who have given $1,000,00t to the University of Chicago for medical research for the especial purpose of increasing the life expectancy of persons fifty or more years old. Mr. Lasker was formerly chairman of the United States shipping board.

LITTLE BITS OF INFORMATION

Johannesburg, South Africa, will erect a public library costing more than $10,000,000. - - More than 50 flights are made each week from the air port at Bremen, Germany. A German engineer claims to develop a steam pressure of 300 pounds within five minutes in his steam boiler, which is cubical in form, measuring 18 Inches on: each side.

More than 1,000,000,Q00 pounds of coconut oil was produced in the world in the past year. In a London bank an electric machine sorts and counts silver coins and puts them into bags. Weather bureau officials. the levee at New Orleans had not broken the Mississippi flood would have risen six feet higher there than its flood height of 21 feet.