The Alamance gleaner VOL. LVII. GRAHAM, N, C., THURSDAY FEBRUARY 26, 1931. NO. 4. U. S. S. Pennsylvania Is Modernized msmmm ( The battleship Pennsylvania has been completely modernized at the Phil adelphia navy yard. As the photograph shows, the old cage masts have been stipplanted by massive tripod masts. The turret guns have been elevated, heavier armor put on, new fire control Installed and many other changes made. Ruins Tell of Viking Empire V Explorations in Present Bal tic States Reveal Inter esting Historic Facts. Stockholm.?Archeological research in the Baltic states continues to add supporting evidence to the theory that I powerful "Viking empire" was In process of forming In these regions more than a thousand years ago. It grows Increasingly apparent that the whole Baltic littoral was more closely knit together hy trade and communi cation than Indicated by history as written In the past. Important facts are also being st|p plied regarding the period of the great migrations and the southward wan lerlngs of the Cloths In the Fifth and Sixth centuries In all the excavations specialists are stressing the need for ro-operntlon. This Idea was empha sized ut itigu. nt the Baltic archeo logical congress, near the close of the summer, the first congress of the kind to assemble since 1012. And the Idea will dominate in all accomplishment oefore the next congress, which is to be held In Kiel In 1004. Tells of Burled Treasure. In Sweden the two seemingly Inex haustible reserves of soil awaiting the spade and the measuring rod are the Islands of Gothland, nearly midway In the Baltic seu, and Gland, just off the Swedish mainland on the southeast const. Not that the horizontal area is so wide reaching. But on the Islund pf Gothland, for Instance, the excava tion of the foundation of some an cient house or fort or cathedral muy reveal traces of an earlier foundation oeneuth it and one still earlier beneath the second. Such Is the case, as dis closed by this summers work on the southern tip of the Island, where Dr. John Nihlen, with a corps of workers, excavated un old "homestead,'* which .egend attributed to Stavar the Great, i heroic figure dating approximately from the Second century of our era. Rumors of burled treasure are being substantiated on a small scale as the foundations of the huge hall, sixty meters In length, are investigated. There are remains of glassware from Ute Roman empire, ceramics with clns (fcal ornamentation, and numerous sil ver coins Identified by their Images of Trajanus, Hadrlanus, Marcus Aurellus. Crispins, or other Roman rulens or consorts. Arabian coins bear a later date and suggest that the enormous house may have been desolate and deserted during a part of the age of migrations, 400-700, tp be utilised again by the Vikings and their associates. These finds therefore seem to sub stantiate certain hypotheses about other Interesting sections of the Is land. The Swedish Island of Oland. with Its sixteen known sites of ancient for tifications, has recently been surveyed for archeoiogical purposes from the sir by Dr. Morten Stenberger on this his seventh year of Intensive study of the region, somewhat barren but also picturesque with Its steppesllke vege tation. Here again there are traces of devastation and some forceful evacua tion of populations In the nine peri od?the centuries before and after 800 A. D. Views Taken From Air. The largest fortification, Graborgen. was probably constructed at this time Another, ismanstorp, enclosed no leas than eighty-eight bouses. An Inter estlng fact disclosed by the recent aerial survey wus that the houses were built around a rectangle or square, a type of building heretofore identified with the Middle Ages. This work is supplemented with equally Important work on the conti nent to the south nnd southeast. Prof, liirger Herman, Swedish archeologlst, has concentrated on Grohin in I.at via. He has Identified Grohin as the See burg of legend, where King Olnf came In the middle of the Ninth century, plundering first Seehurg and later Apulln. now Identified with the sec tion called Apuole. Hedehy, nn old Viking center near Schleswig. Is nhout to be made the subject of special study and will there with become the first Viking town to be excavated on a comprehensive scale. The connections between Iledeby and liirka. a Viking town once flour ishing on the Island of BJorko?the' picturesque and Idyllic Swedish "Is land of birches"?are being stressed and various theories are offered as to the relation betwepn the two. Either Iledeby was a transit port, established for the trade of Rlrkn, or, according to one speculation, Rlrkn wns a far northern outpost of Danish trade. I I I I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I 1 I I 1 I I I I I I ;; Holds Pygmy Court; Inspired by Golf! II Pittsburgh.?Judge George V. - > Moore has set up a miniature ? ? !! criminal court here, railing It a ? ? "plea room," where he presides ? ? at a small desk with nn assist ; ? ant district ntlorney to receive pleas of guilty. . ?' He borrowed the principle " .. from pygmy golf. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ;; Lost Dog Answers ! | Blast of Horn j[ New Orleans.?A nibbit dog ! |, belonging to Fmnk Audlbert Jr j| and 1'uul Geory was lost' for three months hut returned be cause of the blast of a hunting horn. $ Mrs. Audibert thought she saw the dog near Hayo St. John. X Adihert took a hunting horn to y which the dog. Ren. has an- X swered. and went horning. Ho 4 ? commandeered a skiff, started X blowing the horn as he rowed t and finally found the dog In p??s- y session of two boys on an is- X !! land.