as more zestful
when he was plying shovel and pickaxe, or whispering with an astrologer
in a corner of the "George" than during the flat hours of toil with
shears and goose. If the world had charted its course by Poor
Richard's Almanac, there would be a vast deal more thrift and sober
industry than exists, but no room for the spirit of adventure which
reckons not its returns in dollars and cents.

There are many kinds of lost treasure, by sea and by land. Some of
them, however, lacking the color of romance and the proper backgrounds
of motive and incident, have no stories worth telling. For instance,
there were almost five thousand wrecks on the Great Lakes during a
period of twenty years, and these lost vessels carried down millions of
treasure or property worth trying to recover. One steamer had five
hundred thousand dollars' worth of copper in her hold. Divers and
submarine craft and wrecking companies have made many attempts to
recover these vanished riches, and with considerable success, now and
then fishing up large amounts of gold coin and bullion. It goes
without saying that the average sixteen-year-old boy could extract not
one solitary thrill from a tale of lost treasure in the Great Lakes,
even though the value might be fairly fabulous. But let him hear that
a number of Spanish coins have been washed up by the waves on a beach
of Yucatan and the discovery has set the natives to searching for the
buried treasure of Jean Lafitte, the "Pirate of the Gulf," and our
youngster pricks up his ears.

Many noble merchantmen in modern times have foundered or crashed ashore
in various seas with large fortunes in their treasure rooms, and these
are sought by expeditions, but because these ships were not galleons
nor carried a freightage of doubloons and pieces of eight, most of them
must be listed in the catalogue of undistinguished sea tragedies. The
distinction is really obvious. The treasure story must have the
picaresque flavor or at least concern itself with bold deeds done by
strong men in days gone by. Like wine its bouquet is improved by age.

It is the fashion to consider lost treasure as the peculiar property of
pirates and galleons, and yet what has become of the incredibly vast
riches of all the vanished kings, despots, and soldiers who plundered
the races of men from the beginnings of history? Where is the loot of
ancient Home that was buried with Alaric! Where is the dazzling
treasure of Samar