The Topeka state journal. [volume], November 15, 1901, LAST EDITION, Editorial Section, Page 11, Image 11

About The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980

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SUNKEN TREASURE
THE poet wrote more literally
and accurately than he
knew when he declared:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark, unfathom'd cavea of ocean
bear.
There are "millions in it" the ocean.
The only difficult thing about the prop
osition is to locate those millions ana
those gems. They are there, have been
there for generations, some of them lor
hundreds or years. To bring them to
the light of day is a problem that many
minds in the past and in modern times
have tried hard to solve. It was only
the other day, in fact, that there was
reported the locating in Long Islano.
sound of a wreck that had remained
undiscovered for more than sixty years.
Ou the night of the 13th of January,
1840, to be exact, the steamer Lexington
was burned and sank, with a loss of 100
lives, carrving down with her more
than $400,000 in United States currency,
bank notes and specie. For nearly two
generations she lay there, but when on
the sixty-first anniversary of her sink,
ing an account was published of the dis
aster the attention of a wrecking com
pany was drawn to the fact and a
n-irhi the result that
Btrctiiii uiauiun-u, i
there is now .a probability that the old j
Lexington may tie raisea nu -portion
of her sunken treasure recov
ered. The treasure that the Lexington car
ried down to enrich old Davy Jones'
locker is no isolated instance, it may
seem needless to remark, for when the
records of disasters by sea, of piracy
and buccaneering are ransacked it is
discovered that the list of sunken ships
containing valuable cargoes is a re
markably long one. Enough treasure
trove, in point of fact, "lies around
loose"' on land and buried in the sea to
enrich nearly all the inhabitants of the
I'nited States. It should not be over
looked in passing that in the vaults
of the British treasury there is hidden
away, some say. more than $2.000,000,000
at all events, by official records. $2S0,
000.000 awaiting owners: not claimants
only, for their name is legion. Again,
the pirates and buccaneers who at one
time infested our coasts have the name
inkino op
of having concealed millions in treas
ure of various sorts, and it may be re
marked In this connection that there
have been more seekers for it by far
than there were pirates originally. One
of the most prominent of those gentle
men of the sea who found it more con
venient to take by force what they want
ed than to earn it honestly was the re
nowned Captain Kidd. Indeed, he is to
many the typical pirate because the
most frequently held up to reprobation,
though there are some who declare that
he died a victim to malice and was in
nocent of the crimes imputed to him.
However that may be. Captain Kidd
made the mistake of operating too bold
ly and too near our coast and was cut
oft in the midst of a most promising ca
reer. After cruising in various seas he
returned to the vicinity of New York
and buried a portion of his hard earned
wealth on Gardiner's island, near the
east end of Long Island. This is known
because after his arrest, which soon
followed, the treasure was dug up and
found to consist of bags of gold dust,
gold coins, silver buttons and lamps
gold bars, broken silver, crystals, car
nelians and precious stones to the value
of more than $70,000. The chest contain
ing this treasure was found and its
contents were confiscated. But this was
not all of Kidd's wealth, for a portion of
it was probably concealed in Santo Do
mingo and still another in Delaware
bay. It Is this unrecovered portion,
Of04-0-KHK:-0--I-J-CH- 0 - : -
King Edward and the New
X Ray Cure For Cancer.
IS King Edward of England suffer
ing from that dread disease can
cer? This Is a question that has
been agitating all Europe and
Great Britain for several weeks
in fact, the whole world is interested
in it. There have been numerous de
nials from apparently authoritative
sources, but when It Is recalled that
similar denials were forthcoming
Just prior to the deaths of Gen
eral Grant. Queen Victoria, Emperor
Frederick of Germany and others they
are received with somewhat of suspi
cion. Indeed, many well informed peo
ple abroad seem to think that they
must have some foundation in fact and
that the king is either suffering from
cancer hi its incipient stages or has a
very alarming condition of the throat.
As a prominent figure in the world of
royalty King Edward VII. is subject to
the penalty of greatness (although not
in himself, the great alienist Lombroso
Bays, anything at all remarkable) and
cannot prevent his private affairs from
being discussed by the people at large.
Whenever anything, be it ever so triv
ial, happens to royalty all the world is
at once interested. Therefore such a
report as this, going forth from high
places, to the effect that King Edward
is suffering from an affection of the
throat that may be cancerous In char
THEY MAY
presumably vastly greater than that
which was found, that has been the ob
ject of search for the past 200 years.
Kidd's career terminated exactly 200
years ago, for he was hung in England
in May, 1701; but he soon had a rival in
the person of .the notorious Edward
Teach, better known to history as
"Blackbeard the Pirate," and whose op
erations were extended from the West
Indies to the Carolina coast. During
the last quarter of the seventeenth cen
tury and the first quarter of the eight
eenth the rovers of the sea were in
their glory, but of them all there was
none so famous as the dreaded Black
beard. His headquarters were in the
West Indies, notably in the Danish is
land of St. Thomas, where his castle is
poinied out today on one of the three
hills upon which the town of Charlotte
Amalia is built. After making many a '
good man "walk the plank" in Car-
ibbean waters and committing terrible
atrocities Blackbeard came north and i
made his rendezvous in Pamlico sound, i
rim Hussar:
He exacted tribute from the city of
Charleston, he ravaged the coast towns
in every direction, murdering and plun
dering, and became such a terror to
American commerce that the colonial
government took a hand in his extinc
tion. Brave Lieutenant Maynard
sought him out in the armed sloop
Pearl one day in November, 1718, found
him at his rendezvous in the sound and
engaged him forthwith. The contest
was one of the bloodiest on record. The
pirates first swept the sloop's deck with
a cannon fire that killed more than
twenty men, then boarded it and en
gaged the enemy hand to hand. The
principal contest was between Black
beard and Lieutenant Maynard and
was long and bloody, but terminated
in victory for the gallant officer, who
soon was sailing into port with the pi
rate's head at the end of his bowsprit.
Blackbeard's treasure is supposed to be
buried all along the coast of North Car
olina, the governor of which state, it
was shown at the trial of the surviving
pirates, was in collusion with him. The
coast country is full of traditions of
Blackbeard, and he has been the buga
boo of naughty children for these many
years. At the mouth of Symon's creek,
near the Pamlico, one story goes, a
great iron bound chest could be seen a
century ago buried in the sands, but all
endeavors to recover it were frustrated
by the elements, the sea rising, thunder
rolling and lightning flashing each time i
1 gf --
f tVTiJ,i -v 252 MU1S,, ! .skT III ) i n Sxo27fc tl SS m INKS
W - CHH4 - 0H - 0 - K - K - J - 0-KK200-0:K54J- CHHfOJ-OKKI-0-2- CH-0-KH:lW-KH'
acter renders it perfectly legitimate to
inquire as to the possible contributory
causes of such a -malady either in his
own life or the lives of his ancestors.
Though the facts collected by insur
ance companies go to show that the
danger from inheriting cancer is not so
great as commonly supposed, yet the
pathologists hold to the theory that it
may be and often is a transmitted dis
ease. Going back, then, as far in King
Edward's ancestral line as the reign of
the first of the Georges, widening the
scope of causation and taking cogni
zance of the legacy of hate bequeathed
by that monarch to his descendants,
one cannot avoid the conclusion that
the corroding vices of the first George
and the unrestrained passions of
George II. have exerted a baleful influ
ence upon those that followed after
them. Though George III. was highly
moral, as contrasted with his father
and grandfather, yet during the latter
portion of his long life of eighty-two
years he was hopelessly insane, while
his erratic temper, at times passing be
yond ail restraint, is a matter of his
tory. George IV. was both Immoral
and dissipated. William I., who suc
ceeded him, was equally vice ridden
and left to his country a burden of
shame In his numerous illeeitimate chil
dren. His niece Victoria, as all th I
treasure seekers neared the place where
the chest lay. Then there was La Fitte,
whose scene of operations was the gulf
of Mexico and his nominal headquarters
at New Orleans. He and his crews did
valiant Bervice for the American army
under General Jackson, but previously,
tradition relates, they had ravaged
many a bit of coast and hidden away
millions in treasure. Some of it has
been recovered, according to accounts,
as well as the ill gotten gains of such
river pirates as Murrel, McCabe and
Mason, whose last feat was the murder
of a paymaster of the United States
army and his men at the same- time
and the carrying off of $30,000.
In an enumeration of the locations
where piratical and other treasure is
concealed it will be less difficult to
mention than to find space for them all,
for traditions point to scores of islands
and headlands all the way from the
bay of Fundy to the gulf of Mexico.
There has been a pstent hunt for
years for Captain Kidd's and other
pe- ejramfc'. ,-"3-'!-Mg , -j" 'rgSMgx ggSg-wtTir- rsasd Morgan J3rv IfxJCJ ! T "
- e - J TZ. jwgg HIS f RISAjS U KKV' '
treasures at Oak island, on the coast of
Nova Scotia, a pit having been sunk i
more than 100 feet in depth by one indi
vidual, and it is well known that Sable i
island is a veritable treasure house of
wealth as well as a graveyard of noble
ships.
One of the false leads to conjectural
treasure was that of the sunken British
frigate the Hussar, which went down in !
Hell Gate in 1777. It was supposed to i
world recognizes, was a model of vir
tuous domesticity, as was her husband,
the prince consort. In fact, vice and
the tendency to it seem to have skip
ped every other generation in the Brit
ish royal line for the past 200 years and
to have appeared only intermittently.
As to the life led by the present king
when Prince of Wales rumor has fully
outlined Its character, and the deduc
tion may be fairly made as to whether
its general trend was contributory to
health or to disease.
While there may be no taint In his
ancestry traceable to the disease per se
and only a basis for hypothesis, it is
different when his immediate relatives
are taken as subjects of investigation.
It was only a little more than a year
ago, for instance, or in July, 1900, that
his brother, Prince Alfred, duke of Ed
inburgh and of Saxe-Coburg Gotha,
died of heart failure, superinduced by
cancer of the tongue. A year later, in
August, 1901, his sister, the empress
dowager of Germany., passed away, the
victim of dropsy accompanying the
same disease cancer. The malady
which caused her death had its begin
ning ten years previously and brought 1
her intense suffering, but did not
threaten to be fatal until November of ;
last year. She was unable to leave her !
couch when Queen Victoria waa at thai
SHIPS
BE FOUND.
have more than $1,000,000 on board at
the time, but an investigation by James
Russell Lowell, when minister to Eng
land, disclosed the fact that according
to the admiralty records she had
brought over to New York only 6,000,
and even that amount had been landed
before she sank. Yet there have been
numerous attempts to recover the
treasure she was supposed to contain,
costing in the aggregate, it is estimat
ed, more than $500,000.
But if we would find the richest de
pository of sunken treasure we must go
to the West Indies and search the coral
floor of the Caribbean sea. It was there !
that the Spaniards held almost exclu- j
sive sway during the time when the
mine3 of Mexico, the West Indies and
South America were in the heyday of
their fortunes. Grand old three decker
galleons capable of carrying enormous
cargoes were continually traversing the
Caribbean, sailing from Vera Cruz, the
isthmus of Panama and Santo Domingo
for Cadiz and Seville, in Spain, laden
almost to the gunwales with gold and
silver ores and sometimes with rich
stores of gems. The Philippine fleet
also, by landing its cargoes at Acapul
co, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, and
transshipping them at Vera Cruz, fol
lowed this route to Spain after the
way was opened by the Spaniards. For
years and years these richly freighted
galleons sailed to the "mother country"
with their millions in silver and gold.
point of death last January and could
not go to her, though the anxious moth
er was constantly asking in her con
scious moments, "Why does not Vicky
come?" There seems to be an opinion
that the dowager Empress Frederick
may have contracted the disease during
her long vigil by the side of her hus
band, who died of cancer of the throat
after having been only three months
emperor of Germany. Now it is report
ed that King Edward is going to spend
a portion of the winter at San Remo,
on the Riviera, in the same Villa Sirio
which was last occupied by the Crown
Prince Frederick and from which he de
parted to be crowned emperor in 1838.
The cause of cancerous affections, de
clares a great authority, has been the
subject of investigation for many,
many years, but seems to be veiled in
as much obscurity as ever. The older
pathologists believe that a certain
"dyscrasia," or constitutional vice, so
alters the humors of the body that can
cer and other tumors' make their ap
pearance. This authority also states
that heredity may play a part In pro
ducing cancerous affections. - No man
or woman, in fact, may be exempt from
its ravages, but perhaps the strongest
tendencies toward the disease spring
from hereditary taint. Applying the
deductions from these generalizations
to the royal personage mentioned in
his connection, the inference would
seem to be natural that he may be suf
fering from this most dreadful of ail
ments. While it has been held up to within a '
few years that there is no radical cure
for cancer except the knife and this in
many cases has been proved a failure
there is a growing belief in the efficacy
of the X rays as a germ destroyer and i
probably a palliative. If not cure, for 1
AND
bringing back the products of Spain
and recruits for the American colonies.
Spain, however, was not to have this
rich traffic all to herself, for the Dutch,
French and English soon began to in
quire what there was in it for them
and, to emphasize their inquiry, sent
out men-of-war and privateers to cruise
the Caribbean waters. They took many
valuable prizes, despite the protests of
Spain, and after them came their pri
vateers, who soon degenerated into
freebooters and buccaneers.
On the north coast of Haiti is a small
island known as Tortuga, which in the
seventeenth century was made the ren
dezvous of the buccaneers, comprising
men of various nationalities, but chief
ly French and Dutch, who had been
driven from their homes in the south
ern Caribbees and had taken to piracy
in revenge. They committed many
atrocities not only upon the crews of
the Spanish ships, but upon the inhab
itants of settlements in the West Indies
and on the Spanish main. Between the
depredations of the buccaneers and oth
ers Spain lost many millions, and with
out their aid she always reckoned the
average annual loss at $1,000,000 from
hurricanes alone.
The buccaneers sacked such cities as
Santo Domingo, Cartagena, Maracaibo,
Colon and Porto Bello and harried the
Spanish fleet so that very few of the
treasure ships ever made their voyages
unscathed.
The typical buccaneer is found in the
person of Henry Morgan, a Welshman,
who went to the West Indies when
young, fell in with the buccaneers of
Tortuga and finally became chief vil
lain of them all. He committed atro
cious murders on the Spanish main,
sacking cities and putting their inhab
itants to torture and the sword. To
ward the end of his career of crime he
landed on the isthmus and marched
overland upon the then wealthy city of
Panama. This city he robbed of all its
treasures, to the amount, it is estimat
ed, of $15,000,000, and, compelling several
hundred prisoners to accompany him
on his return journey, marched back
across the isthmus to the Caribbean
side. He capped the climax of his
atrocities by massacring his prisoners,
and, finally, after killing many of his
own men, he made for the island of
Santa Catalina, about a hundred miles
east of the Mosquito coast and not far
from Roncador reef, where the Kear
sarge was sunk a few years ago. There,
QrtK0&iiiiii-
cancer. It is a germicide, acting upon
1 1........ r. V,it 1 i 1. . I i .... nv - (.nil nnii
. forming ozone and increasing the red
corpuscles by stimulation, thus promot
ing the vitality of the blood. Suffering
humanity will be cheered by the belief
that at last a possible cure has been
found for cancer, for, so far as experi
mentation has progressed, it seems to
have proved effectual in several in
stances, and noted specialists have de
clared In its favor. Great advance,
they say, has been made in this direc
tion since the deaths of the Emperor
Frederick and of General Grant, who
were both victims of the same terrible
cancerous trouble, one in the throat
and the other at the root of the tongue.
Many now living will recall the long
and heroic siege that General Grant
underwent at Mount McGregor in 18S5.
At first the trouble appeared only as a
soreness of the roof of the mouth,
which developed into the cancer that
caused his death. It was the belief at
that time, as it is largely now, that in
cancerous cases where internal or deli
cate organs are attacked little besides
merely palliative treatment should be
thought of. Surgery has often been ap
pealed to, but only more as a means for
averting immediate dissolution than
with any real hope for a radical cure.
If. then, the X ray cure be all its advo
cates claim, the discovery, or, rather,
the application, will be hailed with joy
all over the world.
ALLAN GERMAINE.
THE WOBLD'S OLDEST STATUE,
There is a statue in a village in Egypt
which is said to be the oldest in the
world, having been in existence more
than 6.000 years. It is the representa
tion of one of the chiefs of the domain
wherein it waa erected.
WHERE
It is said, he buried the bulk of hl
treasure, after which he murdered all,
or nearly all, of the men who knew of its
location and sailed for Jamaica. He
was called to account by the British
government for his many crimes, but
with his vast wealth not only purchas
ed exemption, but a title, from that dis
reputable monarch, Charles II., and
now lives in history as "Sir" Henry Mor
gan, at one time governor of Jamaica.
It was not like Sir Henry Morgan to
leave any portion of his ill gotten mil
lions on the island where he buried it.
but during the past twenty years or so
tne stories of its continued existence
there have been revived, and several
expeditions have been made with a
view to recover it. So far as known, all
have been fruitless, but a cave, reached
only by submarine passage, has been
found in which were discovered traces
of occupancy and of concealed plunder
of some sort.
That .Santa Catallna and Tortuga
contain buried treasure In vast
amounts is undoubtedly true, and as
neither . island is very large it would
seem an easy thing to discover it. But
the former is subject to violent hurri
canes, and the currents surrounding it
are treacherous, while Tortuga is own
ed by the semibarbarous Haitians, who
jealously resent any Intrusion of for
eigners, especially of white people, and
will neither explore for treasure them
selves nor permit any one else to do so.
Pirates and buccaneers concealed
their plunder all along the coasts of the
Caribbean, not only on the Spanish
main, but in many islands, and indica
tions of buried gold are constantly com
ing to light, especially in the Danish is
lands of St. Thomas and St. John, in the
Pearl islands off Venezuela, in Porto
Rico, Cuba and Santo Domingo. '
So far as sunken galleons filled with
gold and silver are concerned, the is
land of Cuba is almost girdled with
them. In the year 1675 a great treasure
galleon was sunk northwesterly from
Key West; in 1717 five Spanish galleons,
with $4,000,000 in bullion aboard, were
sunk in the channel between Florida
and Cuba; in 16SQ more than fifteen
tons of silver were thrown overboard
off the west coast of Cuba; all around
the Isle of Pines are sunken wrecks of
galleons containing at the time they
were lost from $100,000 to $1,000,000 each.
Twelve tons of silver were being car
ried as ballast from the mines of Potosi
to Spain when one stormy night the
galleon was captured by buccaneers,
who threw overboard the crew and also
the silver bars, which they took for
some baser metal. This was in 1679,
or sixteen years before Sir William
.Phipps, the New England Yankee, re
covered thirty-two tons of silver and a
large fortune in gems from a sunken
galleon off the north coast of Santo Do
mingo. And he found but one of a fleet
of five or six, all of which were carried
down in a hurricane.
On the south coast of the same is
land, In a locality over which the writer
of this article has himself sailed, lies
the galleon in which Governor Bobadil
la took passage for Spain in the year
1502 and which sank in a hurricane
with all on board, while containing In
its treasure tank the largest nugget of
gold ever found in America.
If the inquiry were to be extended to
the Pacific coast, it would be found
only less rich than the Caribbean in
sunken treasure ships, for all the way
from Chile to Alaska, and especially off
Mexico and California, vessels have
gone down with wealth untold.
FREDERICK A. OBER.
0KW'O - 2 - 0:W2 - 0 - K5 00d-KKi 0-Mi-K?4M-CH-Q
How the Women of Japan
Storm Japanese Bargain Counters
Sift;'- 4 hMprn
Shopping i3 pretty much the same the world over, only in Japan It Is, if
anything, more elaborate than anywhere else that Is. the visits to the shops by
Women who have Infinite time to waste and vast curiosity to satisfy are ro n
erally more protracted than elsewhere. The Jap Is notable for his patience and
obsequiousness, but after one of his countrywomen has spent half a day in his
shop and then, after fumbling over goods enough to stoc k a harem, makes a l'w
bow and retires, with the promise to call again a week later, the long surTVi ing
little brown mar. has been known to slam his goods about ami say things. He
is, however, too polite to express his feelings before the ladies, and as his shop
is open on all sides to the streets and without glass windows or doors he ha l
be careful to retire to a private corner before indulging in "swear word."
HOW CHARLES T. YERKES
BEGAN HIS CAREER
Charles T. Yerkes, the Chicago strew
railway magnate who is now bulldini
electric lines in London, showed an ear
ly appreciation of the theory of buyim.
and selling to advantage. He tells hov
a a boy he f re
quented a sale
room near hii
home.
"One da y.'
said Mr. Yerkes
"I noticed sev
eral boxes a
soap or a cer
tain brand whicl
I had often beei
sent to buy a
the corner gro
cery. I though
to myself, "Tha
will go cheap,
so I straightwa:
ran to the cor
ner grocery, and
after drawini
from the grocei
a promise ti
"I called mrt from my cor- pri(.e for m
ner another bid."
many boxes o;
that soap as I could furnish he, o:
course, never dreaming I would supplj
them I leturned to the saleroom. A
box of this soap was about to be knock
ed down to the highest bidder, when ',
called out from my corner another bid
The box was declared sold to me an
my name demanded. 'Charles T
Yerkes, Jr.," I piped out in a shriL'
voice I was only eleven years old.
"The bystanders were amused, bui
their laughter gave place to amaze
ment when I bid in the entire lot ol
twenty-two boxes. I promptly deliver,
ed them to the corner grocery and re
ceived the price agreed upon. Mr
Hawes, the astonished grocer, upoi
learning how the purchase had been ac
complished, remarked, "Well, I guess
could have done that myself." And 1
replied that I guessed he could too."
THE HOSTESS' 1 K V KXiK.
A gentleman who was Invited out t
dine lately observed that the chande
lier over the dining room table was ol
peculiar construction, so that there wai
a light over the head of each guest
The globes were of various colors, soma
amber, some red and some blue.
"What is the object of having th
globes of different color?" the guest
asked of his hostess.
"Why, you see," said she, "when ont
gives a dinner or tea one must Invite
some people whom one perfectly hates.
Now, last Tuesday I gave a supper, and
I had to invite two women whom I de
spise. But I had to Invite them, or
some of the young men I wanted
wouldn't come. I had my revenge on
my fair enemies, however. I placed
each of these two women under one ol
those pale blue lights at the tat la.
They are usually considered beautiful
women, but under that light they had
the most ghastly look you ever saw.
They were perfect scarecrows. They
seemed to have aged twenty years tha
minute they sat down. The men no
ticed it, of course, but they did not di
vine what caused it. They were quJte
taken aback and awfully glum at first.
But finally one of them turned, with a
sigh, and began talking to a real home
ly little thing that was sitting under a
ruby colored light. Why she was per
fectly charming under It. So you sea
that when I want people to look per
fectly hideous I put them under the
blue lights. It kills everything."
The gentleman looked up. He wai
under a blue light.
PAT'S READY EXCISE.
During a severe engagement an Irish
private was espied by his captain in tha
act of beating a hasty retreat. The
man had been a favorite with his su
perior officer, and when the latter ap
proached him on the subject the fol
lowing day it was in' a spirit more of
sorrow tiian of anger.
"I must confess, Pat," he said, "that
your action in the engagement yester
day surprised me.
"An' what's the rayson of that, or?"
"Reason enough, Pat. Didn't you
promise me you'd be in the thickest of
the fight, and didn t I catch you actual,
ly running away, you rascal?"
"Running away, is It? 'Dade, cap
tain, but ye desave yourself. It was In
remembrance of my promise, sor, that
Oi was runnin' around troyln' to foind
out Jist where the foight was thickest,"
WOMEN OB" ESDIHMTE.
In the bakeries of La Rochefoucauld,
in France, it Is said that women entei
the ovens when they are at a tempera
ture of 301 degrees.