Boston Post from Boston, Massachusetts • Page 45

BOSTON' SUNDAY POST, JUNE 26, 1921 4S Will. .1111 TAUNTON FINDS "ABORIGINAL WAR RELIC" Lord Jeffrey Comes to Old Amherst Ancient Stone, Depicting Struggle Between Man and Monster Beasts, Found on Banks of Three Mile River Scientists DividedHarvard Expert Declares That Tablet Is a Fake Descendant of the College's Founder, at Centennial, Praises Machinery; 'That Turns Out Americans if 4 7 i jgsaaa nv tt person who found the stone will not sell it nor any of his collection. There is reasonable assurance that he could not make such a subtle hieroglyph, Bogu Inscribed stones have been detected in Utah, in Michigan and Massachusetts but there is no similarity of craftsman ship with the Taunton stone. It seems incredible that the crude work of these proven fakirs could account for th Indians knew nothing of perspective in drawing as used on the Taunton stone. He is especially suspicious of the straight lines constituting a sort of milling on the edge of the stone, which, he claims, bear evidence of having been made with a file.

Ernest Thompson Seton finds that the drawing has every mark of the artcraft of Indians, although he adds that Western Indians, through superstition, usually indicate the heartland kidneys as a sacred part of an animal. Mormons Are Suspected Professor Wlssler of the National Research Council brings out the point that the Mormons are of hav ing made and "planted" ancient looking stones for future excavation to con'form certain passages in the Book of Mormon where the American red man is referred to as descending from" the lost must ttrA.T.v skillful artistry of the latter stone. certain Yankees are said to have made wooden nutmegs, to have manufactured Where INt "wormholes" in "antique" furniture, to have perpetrated the Norwood meteor hoax. But' to fabricate so ingenious I product as this requires both erudite scholarship and skilled craftsmanship And what could.be the motive? Above at left Mysterious stone unearthed on Taunton farm which is puzzli ng scientists, and (at right) drawing of picture chiselled on the face showing Indians in conflict with mastodon. It Proves, say some scientists, that the redmen had to fight for possession of New England with these gigantic animals, supDosed to have become extinct in the fflacial neriod.

After a careful study of the Lenape Lord Jeffrey John Archer Amherst, the Viscount of Holmesdale, the descendant of the "Lord Jeff" patron of the Massachusetts town of Amherst, about whom the famous Amherst song was written. He is the first of his family to visit America since the first "Lord Jeff." The portrait on the wall behind him. is that of his valiant ancestor who was commander in chief of the British forces in the French and Indian wars. 1 1111 1 in. II Below at left Map showing where strange Indian stone was found, and (at right) remarkable herculean stone war club dug up near same spot stone, the vValum Olum, Schoolcraft's narratives land reproductions from the cave decorations of France, a person who wished to play a nractical Joke An extraordinary mystery has been unearthed right near upon earnest antiquarians might possi jto Boston.

tions. And I have been going it bly have evolved such an ideograph. Oh! Lord Jeff cry Amherst was' a soldier of the king. And he came from across the tribes of Israel, though he does not by any means condemn this stone as an Dr. Fewkes, ethnologist at the Smithsonian Institution, says that the cb7 sence of any Hebrew or cuneiform char Leading scientists of the land are puzzled bv a find at Such a i eopy would necessarily have been made within a few years.

Would Taunton. sea. Lord Jeff" is back againand anyone be likely to "plant" it and for get it? Could the semblance of age and patl nation on the stone be acquired by dip ping in a chemical solution? Let us again make a hypothetical as Dr. Henry F. Osborne, director of the New York Natural History Society, thinks the stone may be genuine.

Ke finds a resemblance to other American Indian pictographs and believes the markings could have been done with flint: implements. He also notes the indications of long weathering. Colonel Paxon of Philadelphia summarily dismisses the Taunton stone as a fake copy of his carefully concealed Lenape stone. Dr. H.

C. Mercer of Pennsylvania, who believes today as strongly, as 40 years ago that the Lenape stone is genuine, declares that a branch of the Lenape tribe penetrated as far as southern Wew England about the year H00. (European Norsemen, 1000 years ago, recorded the presence of Vskrael tngs," or small men, in North It proves that long tusked mastodons roamed the New England hills in prehistoric times That the aboriginal Indians had to struggle for their existence against these gigantic animals supposed to have disappeared before man stepped on the stage If it's the real thing. Dr. Henry F.

Osborne director of the New York Natural His sumption. Indians' use of animal pelts on which to make pictures is well au thenticated. Pelts perish after a while. he is the first of his family to visit America since the original "Lord Jeff" became patron of the college that bears his name. What does he think of America? His ancestor, who was commander in chief of the British forces during the Revolutionary war, thought a great.

deal of it and young "Lord Jeff" hasn't been disappointed. To make an enduring memorial, what more natural than to carve a stone into the shape of the customary polt Is it not plausible to assume that this sUna perpetuates a significant story! tory Society; Charles R. Knight, the distinguished painter of animal friezes, and W. A. Mason, superintendent of art in the Philadelphia public schools, are convinced the discovery is genuine.

But Mr. Willoughby, director of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, who has seen the find, declares it is a clever fraud, and his opin As to its discovery, it is well known the parent stock it took a copy of the tribal stone as a sort of holy archive to be treasured on the wanderings like an Ark of the Covenant or a family Bible. Picture the medicine man when the sachems gather around the council fire on the eve of a momentous occasion visualize him as he takes the stone from a buckskin pouch, fastens it with thongs about his neck and interprets the symbols in the midst of the circle under the glow of fantastio light, in evoking the Great Spirit's blessing, chanting the glory of great deeds and recounting the subjugation of the brute kingdom among triumphs of hla people. Opinions of Eminent Archeologists Every bit of evidende touching upon man's antiquity in America has run the gauntlet of closest scrutiny by cautious and sceptical paleontologists. The claims of the Calaveras skull of California, rune stones of Nova Scotia, relics of the Ohio mound builders, the puzzling alphabet stone of Minnesota, the artistic ornaments of the Mayas in Central America these have been subjected to most critical analysis.

Therefore comments bv eminent archeologists upon the Taunton stone are apropos. Charles R. Knight, the distinguished artist who made the animal friezes for the New York Natural Historical Society, calls attention to the fact that the profile mastodon on the stone is surprisingly like the mastodon on his painting. He sees no reason to question the gen that a pestilence possibly smallpox, carried off most of the natives of this region prior to the arrival of the Pilgrim The earliest colonists travelling this region found Innumerable bones via iw ouppui icu uy acvciai eminent arcnaeoiogists. I I.

acters leads him to discredit any theory of Mormon origin. He finds it compares favorably with petroglyphs found in the West and calls attention to the use of elephantine designs in prehistoric ornaments of Mayas, Mound builders and European races. Professor W. H. Holmes, director of the National Museum at Washington, is non committal but believes such a stone might preserve an inscription upon its face 10,000 years.

Mr. W. A. Mason, superintendent of art at Philadelphia public schools, has recently published a valuable work on the evolution of human writing. He believes the etone is genuine and points out that the flaw on its face, evidently made by a misstroke in flaking oft the piece at the quarry, would not likely have been allowed to remain by a modern fakir.

Professor E. B. Delabarre of Brown University has made a deep and thorough study of Dighton Writing Rock. After miuute examination of this stone he finds that there is a similarity to the Walum Olum, interpreting the symbols as a story of the wanderings of a tribe from the Alaskan regions to the Atlantio seaboard. Dr.

Heye of New York, who has made his life work the collection of Indian antiquities, has had dealings With fakirs and is very incredulous. pleaching aoove ground. Isaturally the Indians flocked to their camps in sick I BY RALPH DA VOL ness. So thorough was this pestilence wvry minute since I landed." The original Lord Jeff was a soldier, too, who came to America and found It to his liking. Pitt, the British statesman, recalled Colonel Jeffrey Amherst from the war in Germany to make him commander in chief of the English forces in America.

It is said of him that; "He was energetic and resolute, fomewhat cautious and slow, but with a bull dog tenacity and grip." Fought for Canada "It was he who formed the plan, bold to the verge of rashness, of bringing 'hree separate armies through the wilderness and uniting them in the fp.ee of the French army at Montreal. He was entirely successful. The French surrendered. Canada became British and New England was saved from the French and Indian guerilla warfare. Lord Jeff's father, the grand nephew or the original, is a soldier by profession.

It was he whom the British government sent down into Khartoom with a relief expedition to General Gordon who preceded Kitchener in Africa. But back to he present day. "What do you think of America?" 1 asked. "It has been my good luck," he an swered; "to travel through many beauti ful countries, but I have never seen anything that surpasses in beauty the country around me here. It is wonderful.

But the greatest thrill I have had was when I first heard the Amherst men singing their song, "Lord Jeffrey Amherst." It was the kind of thing that brings tears to your eyes, and you are not ashamed of them." But he was more deeply interested in the relationship of America and England. Keenly alive to the situation of todays he expressed his feeling simply, but with a strength of conviction. "Since I have been in your country 1 have found nothing but friendship on every side. And in spite of the many that none were left to bury the dead. We may picture the venerable mtdl Did the Indians have to battle for of stone with spine like nodules on the ends as if to increase fracture of the skull when used to repel predatory wolves or bears prowling around the midnight campflre; several fine pipes, gorget3, ceremonial stones; a bat carved stone, hanging Inverted with open mouth; an amulet with engraving on one side of a deer placidly feeding, on the other side the deer rearing on haunches when struck by an arrow.

cine man In his affliction seeking for water and finally succumbing on the river bank. The body lies unburled soon wolves and ravens strip off the possession of New England against Some Expert Opinion Professor Merguet, taxidermist at the Smithsonian Institution, says' that he unearthed from a swamp in upper New York State the skeleton of a mastodon, which he 'believes was not more than 1000 years old. Professor Nelson of the New York Society, who has made personal investigations of the drawings by primitive cavemen in the Dordogne of France, calls attention to the fact ttat the 'mastodon on the stone has very small ears, not huge elephantine ilappors such as an ordinary fakir v.ouid naturally make, and adds that the ear of the mastodon was very small to obviate freezing in northern climates. Mr. Willoughby, director of the Pea bod Museum of Arthrnln nnri igantic mastodons? Some scientists are convinced that flesh the bones crumble to soil the leather pouch disintegrates to dust the Lord Jeffery John Archer Amherst, Viscount Holmesdale, with a smile that rivals that of the Prince of Wales' and a.

strong grip when he shakes your hand. If you should mtti Lord "Jeff." as everybody called him in Amherst, he would smile, half shyly, look directiy at you out of sincere, blue eyes and say that he was glad, as though he meant it. Just a hundred years ago the college was founded that bears his family name in the town that took his warrior ancestor for its patron. The Lord "Jeff" of today, a boy of 2 years, as the eldest son in his family. at last they have an answer to this question on the face of a stone dug up by Frank C.

Hammond, a rail body is gone without trace, Spring freshets roll and wash the etone. Three hundred years later it Is ploughed from oad engineer, on his farm in Taunton. They believe that this stone bears its resting place. uineness of the stone and notes the point Readers of Dickens will racall that that the animal is a mastodon, not a 1 genuine record, an objective draw Mr. Pickwick on one occasion read ng made by a living witness to the onfhet for the supremacy of the con mammoth, which is ancestor of the elephant and bears a prominent protuberance ott the head.

Mr. Knight considers the technique that of a pimple, learned paper about an inscription on a newly discovered stone, after which certain rogues demonstrated that the inscription was nothing more than the Ethnology at Cambridge contends that i inent between the natural brute and The Possibility of Fraud he supernatural human. the stone is a clever fraud, made, he believes, by the same man that did was sent by his father to express their In considering the possibility of adroitly executed cryptogram Bill native artisan, not the self conscious effort of a sophisticated fakir. During the past SO years the ex the Lenape tablet. He claims that the family pride in the Massachusetts town fake, we must bear in mind that the I Stumps His Mark.

stence in America of mastodons has and college bearing their aeen fully established. And as he expresses it: I am hav Whether these animals flnurishpd ing the time of my life!" prior to the advent of man and were He has curly hair, has Lord "Teff Fled Now Lives in Brockt on light brown; blue eyes and is a little Annihilated by unfavorable meteorological phenomena, or whether over medium height. I met him on the miles of ocean that He between us. stand for special guests under the big i that friendship must exist between your tent where the Amherst centennial ban country and mine, i ueneve xnai me Not were exterminated by artificial weapons of the human family is a Question involving the antiquity of nan in America upon which the Opinions of archeologists are divided. Dancer Says Children mit wa Yntr h)A T4 peace of the world nepenas on a sym ussian rame understanding between th hands everyone and looking very Bpeaking peoples.

We may cheerful in spite of the blazing sun and have to fight for it, but if we have to Now comes this newlv unearthpd the close atmosphere." keenly Interested in dancing when it stone from New England bearing a dictograph representing the struggle we will win. It la essential to civilisation." He has a bovlsh way of smiling when Behind the stand, misty and shimmer ing the heat, were the beautiful, un is taught to interpret beautiful com positions. he talks, and bending down to give his even hills of the Holyoke range. They wiwcei aDonginai man and the long tusked mastodon. Which in mtntA o.

'Dancing helps everyone. The love were dark green, and gave the impres answer, and his popularity with the onnrmatory evidence by advocates of men of Amherst was quite evident from sion of distant coolness. The arentle valley, a yellow green dotted here and neir contemporary existence sinr it of the beautiful in art will carry you above petty cares and disappointments, will refine the mind and make life more serene." there with evergreen sloped up from the town of Pelham to where the tent was seems to disprove the theory that the gigantic mammals of the Pleistocene, pr glacial period of the Cenozoic fgtt had disanoeared before man an. pitched. And Lord "Jeff" repeated It again; "I Stuyvesant Fish Define? am having the time of my life!" upon the stage in the succeed You might have asked him how he Iked the Americans, or how they im Origin of Drinking Toast sycnozoic Age.

pressed him, or any number of ways Assuming that the record mi Robber of all her wealth by the Bolsheviks, Eugenia Repelski, celebrated Russian toe dancer, fled from Russia to make her home near Bos ton. This 21 year old Russian is busying herself every day acquiring our customs and our native tongue, and It is likely that by the fall she will be able to converse in English with the remarkable facility that Nazlmova showed aftex three' months similar preparation. For the time being Madame Repelski and her husband, Mr. Levin, are living with friends in Brockton, while the little dancer is taking a special course under Professor Veronine Westoff, the great exponent of the Russian ballet in New York. Like all Russians who have lately come from the land of the Bolsheviks, Madame Repelski has come through terrible times.

This was because she ne product of Paleolithic man, could but his answer would have always been the same. I could tell by the way he said it. i an oujecuve drawing, made by i living witness to the conflict for he supremacy of the continent I first met Americans In the front Gem of the Collection The gen of the collection is this mystic ceremonial stone. On what is evidently the obverse side is a soological garden of symbolic animalsbison, whale, turtle, snake, seal, turkeyand various cryptic lines and figures suggesting a religious calendar. The reverse side especially challenges attention by a scene representing the struggle between man and brute.

One mastodon is in profile, two or three outlined approaching "head on," and a dozen Indians with bows and spears. Two warriors are trampled under the feet of the monster in whose flanks several arrows are lodged. Trees, wigwams, sun, stars and lightning make up the background. Primitive man in all parts of the world mastered the art of representing animals better than humans, perhaps from a religious superstition that the Great Spirit resided in animals. In this instance the human figures are angular and mechanically constructed, while the animal profiles are nearer to actual outlines in nature.

Location of Discovery The spot where the Taunton stone was found is on the bank of the Three Mile River which flows into so called Taunton Great River in a city of southern Massachusetts. On the bank of the latter river is the much debated DIghton Writing Rock, about five miles down stream from the point where the stone under discussion was discovered. This latter stone was turned up by the plow on the west Bide of the river, about ten feet from the bank, in heavy dark clay soil. On the opposite side of the river (about 40 feet wide and bending almost at right rngles at this point) is the well authenticated site of an Indian encampment where charred embers of ancient campfires are plowed up annually and many arrow heads and domestic utensils give ample evidence that this was a muoh frequented resort of the Red man. A knoll, about 60 feet high, rises at this point close to a natural landing place for canoes, near a spring of fresh water, with fertile fields for corn, reeds for basket making, fishing and hunting grounds close at hand, thus providing an ideal location for the camp.

Resemblance to Lenape Stone Another stone, very similar though less elaborate in detail, waa found in 1872 by a farmer near Dowlestown, Penn. This so called Lenape stone was purchased by Colonel H. T. Paxon, who preserves ltH secure from public gaze, in a safe deposit vault in Philadelphia. It Is In two fragments.

On one side a contest between a single mastodon and Indians is depicted, suggesting a prehistoric prototype of the modern bullfight. On the other side is a large turtle and minor symbols. At the time of the discovery of the Ienape stone a book was published by H. C. Mercer, now president of Rucks County Historical Society, defending its genuineness.

D. T. Brin ton, a noted anthropologist, wrote a critical thesis condemning the stone as a fake. There is evidence, particularly the marginal decorations, that the two stones are of the same authorship. But keep in mind that the Taunton stone was unearthed 400 miles distant and 50 years later.

line trenches. I have not been disap the natural brute and supernatural pointed In my first impression. Only luman, or a subjective imairinarv now I know what the machinery is like the moment he appeared in the tent. When they sang the famous song: Ob! Trd AniUertt a so'dier of th Kins. And mm from hctom the To tl" Frenchman and the Indian Be dtaat do a thins In the wilds of thla wild conntree? A pleased smile spread over his fae that could not be repressed.

The Earl of Amherst, Lord Jeff's father, hae carefully kept the mufty records showing how the Massachusetts town of Amherst was accorded in 4763 the nam it now bears. And the descendants of the oft sung Lord Jeffery have kept In close touch with the college. The earl himself was to have come to the Amherst Centennial, but was prevented on account of ill health eo he sent his oldest son to represent him. After the original Lord Jeffery Amherst had captured Niagara, Louisburg and Montreal, he was made Governor of Virginia, and in 177? was called back to England and made commander in chief of the army, acting in the capacity of chief military adviser to tba government in London during the American War of Independence. In 1776 he was raised to the peerage as Lord Amherst of Montreal, and was that turns out such men." TdiSon.rePrdUCing legendar tribal Wounded in War Viscount Holmesdale, although he is This stone, consisting of a otr i Hi still Quite young, has seen some real Sark slate about a foot long, six inches wide and one half an inch thick, chis siled into the shape of an animal pelt, service himself.

When the war broke out he was a student at Eton, and he left there immediately to enter the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He went with his' outfit, the Coldstream Guards, as a second lieutenant, to the fo ui imcicei oom as a type of primeval firt and as historio evidence. The stone and markings are now worn smooth by Brosion. as if the hand of Time had rubbed It many centuries. Long weath front early In 1915.

He was severely wounded in almost the first attack, and Invalided to "blighty" until he was tit ring is evidenced by graininar like tlnv to serve again. i pock marks and patination apparently He went back in again the following iuw iu yroiTUKita contact with the year, and stayed in France until tne end of the war. He won the commis arth. Discovered Near By The stone was discovered in Taunton. sion of captain before it was over.

Lord The origin of drinking: toasts was defined by Stuyvesant Fish, banker, one of the eleven survivors of the class of 1871 of Columbia University, as toastmaster at the annual alumni luncheon the other day. "What is a toast?" he asked, adding: "One of the books published before we lost our liberty to restrain our own appetites says: 'The toasted biscuit, though long since disused as an ingredient of punch, formed, from a very early period, a favorite addition to many old English drinks. "Premising that, in the reign of Charles it was the fashion for ladies attired in dresses made for the purpose to bathe publicly in the city of Bath, the origin of toasts is thus told: "'It happened on a public day a celebrated beauty was in the Cross Bath, and one of her admirers took a glass of the water In which she stood and drank her health to the company. There was one in the place, a gay fellow, who offered to jump in, and swore though he liked not the "liquor" he would have the "toast." He was opposed in his resolution: yet this whim gave foundation to tht present honor which is done to the lady we mention in our liquor, who has ever since been called a toast. "Thus we see," Mr.

Fish concluded, "that the origin of toasts was, likethat of all things human feminine and also aqueous. May these facts excuse me for being accessory to the commission of that which our fathers considered the unforgivable sin drinking toasts in col4 Ml I Jeff" didn't quit the army until last Madame Eugenia Repelski in Russian costume. January, so the new chapter of his life happened to come from the wealthy class of Russian manufacturers. Her father was one of the largest textile manufacturers in the country, with large plants in various sections, but the principal one at Moscow. When the Bolshevists under Lenine gained the government control they broke her father, arrested him when, he refused to yield to their demands and threw him into prison, confiscating his property and driving his family into exile.

Later they released Mr. Repelski, but he had contracted typhus fever and soon died. Little Eugenia, with her mother and three brothers and sisters, moved into Poland and found shelter in the suburbs of Warsaw. It was necessary for the support of the family that Eugenia find something to do at onoe. She had always loved dancing, and although she had spent a number of years at the public schools and a year at the government college in Russia, she was always fascinated la not.

am vet verv lone. His own sum mary of It is "engaged In banking." When he was asked what impressed by Mr. Hammond, whose hobby recent years has been to collect aboriginal mementos. His sprcsial interest In Indian vestiges began when he built his bouse a few years ago on the Bite of an ancient encampment with the visible hummocks of a traditional Indian cornfield within 200 yards of his door step. him most on his first trip to America, he replied.

"i a a i 1 It To me the most significant thing about America is the speed and rapidity with which everything is done." succeeded In his honors by his nephew, William Amheret, who distinguished himself as ambassador to China and as Governor General of India. bln? advanced to earldom of Amherst. The present earl Is his grandson. Although the peerages of Lord Am herat are therefore comparatively recent, yet his family is a very ancient one. It claims descent from a certain Gilburtus of Hemmehurst In Kent, who flftures in the so called "Pipe Roll" of 1216, while the name of Bogerus de Hemmehurst is found in the Chartulary of Bay ham Abbey in the reign of Edward II.

The name waa transformed into Amherst in the 25th year of the relgh of Edward III. "My family is very proud of all said Lord Jeff, with a slight gesture indicating the college and the town. "and has a deep interest in the college and the town that has taken eur tame, as a patron name, you might say." The Earl of Amherst la married te the daughter ef Lord St. Levan, and He stayed in New York for a few Every spring, when he plows his back days after landing from the Aquitania before proceeding on to Amherst. His Why Children Should Dance In Poland Madame Repelski went on the stage, being her own press agent.

One day she begged for an interview with the ballet master at the opera and pleaded with him for a trial, whioh he granted her, That was the beginning of many engagements for her. She made her way into Germany, intent upon reaching America somehow. In Warsaw she had become acquainted with Mr. Levin, who later became her husband. Deliberately turning from her European popular ity, she and her husband came to this country recently and her great ambition, to dance before an American audience, is about to be fulfilled.

ward garden, he turns up arrows, tomahawks, pestles, beads, pipes, ceremonial Manes and similar relics. Collecting friend Lord Arlington has an apart of them translated from Russian: "At an early age children should be taught concentration. To the power of application most great men attribute their succens in life. "Children of today have too many distractions and not enough training in riveting their attention on worth while things. There is no subject that trains them in this line as gradually and systematically as classic Dancing enlivens the Imagination, develops powers of observation, trains the memory and quickens the thought.

"The finer qualities of character also are developed, such as obedience, self control, independence and loyalty to these nrineiples. "Children are the most important persons with whom we have to deal. They are the deciding factors of the ooacerts of tomorrow. Children are ment close to Washington Arch, and by the ballet, and at 12 years of age the lodgings look like a bit of London that has strayed across the Atlantic. naturally tecame a pleasant pastime; he extended his researches farther afield and for several years has employed Sundays and holidays scouring He found the.

big city amazing, and that the "Underground" of London had made her first public appearance. Thea she studied toe dancing at the Imperial Ru3lan School and afterwards took a course of Isadora Duncan's plastic dancing. She was but 17 when she went on the professional stage to do solo the adjacent country within tramping prepared him for nothing like the New York subway You know it is really beastly," he distance. He has never sold any of his curios, several of which are not surpassed la any American museum of Algonquin reliquiae. work.

She had danced a couple of sea It may not be extravagant fancy to said, "to find yourself in Brooklyn when you wanted to get off at Wash assume that this ts a tribal stone that uAh ta4 befort hw "ting id" beut the value of danc tngton Square. But as for Ajneriea I his home is in Kent, aa estate whlclt Shelter til erouiaa clubs made whea a gubdjvitle fcrok ft? rsm tly feacame refugees ing in the child's life, iierenar ft aorae eve it. It far exceeds my expeeta embrace about 20,000 acres..