Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/178

 1 68

��Literature, ^laint and Curious.

��old inhabitants for many years after- wards. So strong was the belief that money had been buried there, that people dug a large portion of the island over, with the expectation of finding it ; and many a ghost story is told in connection with this event.

Mr. Burroughs became a large laud- owner, and many of the real estate conveyances of the early settlers were given by him. It is supposed that he went back to Charlestown, and died

��there. It was also understood that he was a connection of the notorious Stephen Burroughs, who, it was said, at one time made counterfeit money at the very place where his uncle used to secrete stolen property.

These are some of the incidents connected with the early settlement of the north part of Hollis, which I have been fortunate enough to col- lect.

��LITERATURE, QUAINT AND CURIOUS. By L. E. D.

��In a pile of age-browned, long-for- gotten pamphlets is one entitled

"The Examination

of Doctor Benjamin Franklin

before an August Assembly relating to

the Repeal of the Stamp Act, &c."

It is a catechism of twenty-three pages, a few extracts from which may prove interesting.

Q. What is your Name and Place of abode ?

A. Franklin, of Philadelphia.

Q. Do the Americans pa}' any con- siderable taxes among themselves?

A. Certainly, many, and very heavy taxes.

Q. What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania laid by the laws of the Colony ?

A. There are taxes on all estates, real and i)ersonal, a poll-tax, a tax on all ofHces, professions, trades, and businesses, according to their profits ; an excise upon all wine, ram, and

��other spirits ; and a duty of ten pounds per head on all negroes imported, with some other duties.

Q. For what purposes are those taxes laid?

A. For the support of the civil and military establishments of the coun- try, and to discharge the heavy debt contracted in the last war.

Q. How long are those taxes to continue?

A. Those for discharging the debt are to continue till 1772, and longer, if the debt should not then be all dis- charged. The others must always continue.

Q. Was it not expected that the debt would have been sooner dis- charged ?

A. It was, when the peace was made with France «& Spain — But a fresh war breaking out with the Ind- ians, a fresh load of debt was incur- red ; and the taxes, of course, con- tinued longer by a new law.

�� �