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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I •^«^" i/' X 1 %y \ } / 4 ^ A \.. 7. V p. r ( - r J 1 1 i '•*'. 1 1 .r.l 1 ■ ,1 This One R5ZZ-Z6J-PFC2 ■ o'?^ ' ••*-•■ ^ ^■ , ■^■■^■*»w>"yww^if^wiwppi \."^. *;'.' -V > „? .r-^. . f. ■,■'.'■*',. . '; /-_, .i_,, x^i- '■''^^■- -<2*«- .-i . ?*^ 1.- 1 1 This O n R5ZZ-Z6J-PFC2 I. itt-.i m *< • -5^-''-»iir ;':'c;.-'-;^ UNDERGROUND OB LIFE BELOW THE SURFACE. INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS BEYOND THE LIGHT OF DAY ; STARTLING ADTENTURES IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD; MINES AND THE MODE OF WORKING THEM; UNDER-CURRENTS OF SOCIETY; GAMBLING AND ITS HORRORS; CAVERNS AND THEIR MYSTERIES; THE DARK WAYS OF WICKEDNESS; PRISONS AND THEIR SECRETS ; DOWN IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA; STRANGE STORIES OF THE DETECTION OF CRIME. BY THOMAS W. KNOX. AUTHOR OF "CAMP-FIRE AND COTTON-FIELD;" "OVERLAND THROUGH ASLA," " THE BOY-EXILES," ETC. HARTFORD: THE J. B. BURR PUBLISHING CO. 1874. F Entered, accdrdiog to Act of Congress, in the year 1873* By J. B. BURR & HYDE, In the Office of the Librarian of Conp^ress, at Washingtoa. PREFACE. In presenting this volume to the public the author would say J that it has been his endeavor to make a book in which he could describe the life, not only of the miner, but of all who work under ground — whether literally or metaphorically. By interspei-sing \ the story with numerous anecdotes and incidents he has hoped to render its perusal less fatiguing than it might be had he ! restricted his labors to collecting a mass of dry details, and making a liberal use of technical terms. A glance at the table of contents will show how far he has travelled out of the beaten track in his effort to throw light upon dark subjects, and draw attention to a topic that might be wearisome if treated in its most restricted form. 4 He has not confined himself to any one part of the globe, and the most of the incidents which he narrates are now for the first time given to the public. The author has not hastily pei*formed his work. Neither has he relied solely upon his own efforts and information, as he well knows that no one person, however industrious, can gather all that may be known upon any important subject. Remembering the adage that two heads are better than one, and supplementing it with the assertion that ten heads are better than two, he has employed all means in his power, and secured the assistance of others, in order to make this book as comprehensive as possible. He has consulted many books on mining matters and kindred subjects, and devoted much time to a careful investigation of the works of vaiious scientific and popular writers. He has been (5) 6 PREFACE. specially indebted to Professor Simonin, the author of La Vie JSouterrai7i€, and has relied upon him for many facts and figures, especially in reference to the coal mines of France and other countries. Numerous books of travel have been examined, files of newspapers have been searched, and many individuals, familiar with subjects which it w^as proposed to treat, have been consulted in the author's wanderings after light. He trusts that his labors will not prove to have been in vain. Several literary gentlemen have aided the author in his enter- prise. He is permitted to mention, as among these, Mr. Junius Henri Browne, of New York, and the late Colonel Albert S. Evans, of San Francisco. In preparing the matter for the press, it has been found con- venient to make use of words borrowed from the French and other languages, and also of terms more or less technical in their char- acter. They are not numerous, and are so well understood either by context or by popular use that a glossary is not considered necessary. The author takes this opportunity to thank the newspaper press and the public for the generous reception accorded to his previous publications, and, in the language of the business card of the period, he hopes to merit a continuance of the same. T. W. K AsTOR House, New York, May, 1873. CONTENTS I. BELOW THE SURFACE. DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. — WHAT THE WORLD BELIEVES. — MUNGO PARK IN AFRICA. — WHY THE NATIVES PITIED HIM. — EXTENT OF UNDERGROUND LIFE. — DISTRIBUTION OF THE EARTH'S WEALTH. — VALUE OF MINES. — THEIR EXTENT AND IMPORTANCE. — COAL AND IRON. — MYSTERIES OP MINES. — EXPERIENCE WITH A NOVICE. — CHANGES OF SEASONS TO A MINER. — DANGERS IN MINES. — LIFE IN CAVERNS. — UNDERGROUND IN METAPHOR. — SOCIAL MINING. — OBJECT OF THIS VOLUME. . . Page 27 II. DISCOVERY OF COAL. SAVAGE THEORIES ABOUT COAL. — EXPERIENCE OF A SIBERIAN EXPLORING PARTY. — BURNING BLACK STONES. — MINERAL FUEL AMONG THE AN- CIENTS. — THEIR MOTIVE POWER. — CHINESE TRADITIONS. — CHINESE GAS WELLS.— HISTORY OF COAL IN ENGLAND. — A ROYAL EDICT. — CURI- OUS STORY OF THE MINER OF PLENEVAUX. — EXTENT OF COAL FIELDS THROUGHOUT THE GLOBE. — THE QUAKER AND THE YANKEE PEDLER. — THE FIRST ANTHRACITE. — BELLINGHAM BAY AND THE CHINOOKS. — HOW COAL WAS FORMED. — INTERVIEWING A REPTILE. — THEORIES OF THE ANCIENTS. — RIVERS OF OIL OF VITRIOL. — ANCIENT AND MODERN FIRE WORSHIPPERS. 87 III. THE CAVERNS OF NAPLES. EXCAVATIONS NEAR NAPLES. — POZZUOLI. — VISIT TO THE CAVE OF THB CUMEAN SIBYL. — ACCIDENT TO AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER. — HUMAN PACK-HORSES. — DARKNESS AND TORCHES. — THE LAKE OF AVERNUS. — DROWNED IN BOILING WATER. — A DANGEROUS WALK. — JN NERO*S PRIS- ON. — INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE. — USE OF THE RACK. — THE IRON BED- STEAD. — BROILING A MAN ALIVE. — TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. — AN ANCIENT FUNERAL. — VIRGIL'S TOMB. — CONSTRUCTING WINE CELLARS. — NOVEL PLAN OF ROBBERY 49 (7; 8 CONTENTS. IV. OPERATIONS AT HELLGATE. HELLGATE AND SANDY HOOK. — ENTRANCES TO NEW YORK HARBOR THE HELLEGAT AND ITS MEANING. — STORIES OF THE OLD VOYAGERS. — EDI- TORIAL JOKES. — MAILLEFERT*8 OPERATIONS. — DEEPENING THE CHAN- NEL. — GENERAL NEWTON. — THE AUTHOR ON AN EXCURSION. — BLOW- ING UP COENTIES' REEF. — HOW IT IS DONE. — AN ACCIDENT WITH NITRO- GLYCERINE. — THE author's narrow ESCAPE. — DIVERTS EXPERIENCE. — ASTONISHING THE FISHES. — RECEPTION AT HALLETT'S POINT. — GOING UNDER THE REEF. — THE MEN AT WORK. — AN INUNDATION. — HOW THE REEF IS TO BE REMOVED. — SURVEYING IN THE WATER. — A GRAND EX- PLOSION. 63 V. BORINGS AND SHAFTS. HOW COAL MINES ARE DISCOVERED. — OUTCROPPINGS. — SCIENTIFIC RE- SEARCHES. — HOW A MARLBE QUARRY WAS FOUND. — BORING A WELL, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. — A LOCAL BEBATINO SOCIETY.— INTIMATE RE- LATIONS OF COAL MINES AND THE STEAM ENGINE. — STRIKING OIL. — " dad's STRUCK ILE." — THE UNHAPPY MAIDEN'S FATE. — COAL INSTEAD OF WATER. — THE TOOLS TO BE USED. — A DEEP HOLE. — TERRIBLE AC- CIDENT, AND A miner's COOLNESS. — SINKING SHAFTS. — AN INGENIOUS APPARATUS. — ACCIDENTS IN SHAFTS. — REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. . 79 VI. ACCIDENTS IN SHAFTS. ADVENTURE OP THE AUTHOR DESCENDING A SHAFT. — A MINUTE OF PERIL. — LIFTED THROUGH A SHAFT BY ONE LEG. — A COLLISION IN MID-AIR. — SENSATIONS OF THE DESCENT. ^A MINER'S VIEWS OF DANGER. — PICTU- RESQUE SCENE AT A DESCENT. — OFFERING PRAYERS. — SCENE AT A RUS- SIAN MINE. — SAFETY CAGES. — THEIR CONSTRUCTION. — A LUDICROUS INCIDENT. — HOW A MAN FAILED TO KEEP AN ENGAGEMENT. — DOWN IN THE SALT 3IINES OF POLAND. — A PERILOUS DESCENT. — *' PLENTY MORE MEN." — ACCIDENT NEAR RCRANTON. — ** PUTTERS." — HOW GIRLS WERE USED IN SCOTLAND. — MAN ENGINES. — THE LEVELS. — AN ACCIDENT CAUSED BY RATS 91 VII. SPECULATIONS IN NEVADA MINES. MINING SPECULATIONS. — SWINDLERS IN NEW YORK AND BOSTON. — THE AtT- THOR'S EXPERIENCE. — HOW HB WAS CAUGHT. — THE HOOK AND THE WAY CONTENTS. 9 TO BAIT IT. — LIMITED INVESTMENT. — THE ADVENTURER*S STORY. — FACTS AND FIGURES. — THE ROMANCE, AND THE SUBSEQUENT REALITY. — ONE HUNDRED PER CENT. A MONTH. — IRISH DIVIDENDS. —^ EXPLOSION OF THE BUBBLE. — THE VICTIMS AND THEIR FATE. — NANKEEN TROUSERS IN WINTER. — AN- ADVENTURBR's EXPERIENCE IN LONDON. — HOW HE CAUGHT A CAPITALIST. — HELD BY THE GLITTERING EYE. . . . 106 VIII, * BURGLARS AND BURGLARIES. REMARKABLE BURGLARIES. — UNDER GROUND FOR DISHONEST PURPOSES. — WONDERFUL ADROITNESS OF BURGLARS. — A REMARKABLE ROBBERY. — OCCUPATION OP A LAWYER'S OFFICE. — LABOR UNDER DIFFICULTIES. — A TROUBLESOME POLICEMAN. — STRANGE SCENE IN COURT. — THE CULPRIT*8 REPLY. — ROBBERY BY COUNTERFEIT POLICEMEN. — THE OCEAN BANK ROBBERY. — RAPID AND THOROUGH WORK. — AN ASTONISHED WATCH- MAN. — BAFFLING THE POLICE. 116 IX. ADVENTURES OF DIVERS. GOING UNDER WATER. — PEARL DIVING. — COSTUME OF THE DIVERS. — HOW THEY DESCEND. — OBTAINING THE PEARL OYSTERS. — DIVING- BELLS. — HOW THEY ARE MADE. — ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES. — ADVENTURES IN DIVING CONTENTS. 15 XXX. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. THE DAYS OF SLAVERY. — HOW NEGROES ESCAPED. — TRAVELLING UNDER GROUND. — MODES OF ESCAPE. — BOXED UP AND SHIPPED NORTH. — OTHER MODES OF TRAVEL. — ADVENTURE AT A HOTEL. — SURPRISE OF A PLANTER. — WONDERFUL STORY OF WILLIAM AND ELLEN CRAFT. — BOS- TON EXCITEMENTS. — RICH JOKE ON A UNITED STATES MARSHAL. . . ^25 XXXI. WAR AND PRISON ADVENTURES. EXPERIENCES OF AN ARMY CORRESPONDENT. — RUNNING THE BATTERIES OF VICKSBURG. — EXCITING SCENES. — PERILOUS SITUATION AND HAIR- BREADTH ESCAPE. — SHOT, SHELL, STEAM, FIRE, AND WATER. — TWO YEARS AS A CAPTIVE. — TUNNELLING. — ITS MODE, MANAGEMENT, AND MISHAPS. — TOILING FOR FREEDOM UNDER GROUND. — BOLD AND PROS- PEROUS EFFORTS FOR LIBERTY. — LIFE IN A DUNGEON. — PERISHING BY INCHES. — DEATH ON EVERY HAND. — SUBTERRANEAN SEEKING FOR THE LIGHT. — SELF-DELIVERANCE AT LAST. 438 XXXII. THE MAMMOTH CAVE. R05IANCE AND MYSTERY OF CAVES. — THE FAMOUS CAVES OF THE WORLD. — THE GREATEST CAVERN ON THE GLOBE. — ITS IMMENSE FAME. — AMERI- CANS* NEGLECT OF IT. — CAUSE OF THEIR INDIFFERENCE. — SITUATION OP THE MAMMOTH CAVE. — ITS MISERABLE MANAGEMENT. — ANNOYANCES AND IMPOSITIONS PRACTISED UPON TOURISTS. — JOURNEY THROUGH THE VAST TUNNEL. — WHAT ONE SEES, FEELS, AND DOES. — CONSUMPTIVE GHOSTS. — WONDERS OF THE STAR-CHAMBER. — DESCENT INTO THE BOT- TOMLESS PIT. — CROSSING THE STYX AND THE LETHE. — MARVELLOUS ECHOES. — STARTLING ACCIDENTS. — WOMEN IN AWKWARD SITUATIONS. . 45^ XXXIII. INSURANCE AND ITS MYSTERIES. HISTORY OF FIRE AND MARINE INSURANCE. — LIFE INSURANCE. — OBJEC- TIONS OF A CALIFORNIAN. — HOW HE ANSWERED AN AGENT. — FRAUDS UPON COMPANIES. — A DEEP-LAID SCHEME. — JOHNSON AND HIS THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. — OPENING A GRAVE. — A FICTITIOUS CORPSE. — PURSUIT BY DETECTIVES AND CAPTURE OF THE SWINDLER. — LITIGA- TIONS ABOUT INSURANCE. — CHINESE TRICKS ON AGENTS. — SUBSTITUTES FOR EXECUTION j^Jf^ 16 CONTENTS. XXXIV. RAILWAY TUNNELS. TUNNELS AMONG THE ANCIENTS. — HOW THEY WERE MADE. — MODERN TUN- NELS AND THEIR LENGTH. — LAUGHABLE INCIDENTS IN RAILWAY TUNNELS. — THE TWO LOVERS. — THE ANXIOUS FRENCHMAN. — ROBBERS. — HOOSAC TUNNEL. — ITS HISTORY. — THE AUTHOR'S VISIT. — NATURE AND PROGRESS OP THE WORK. — AN EXPLOSION. — ACCIDENT FROM NITRO-GLYCERINB. — THE CENTRAL SHAFT. — THE TERRIBLE CALAMITY OF 1867. . . 492 XXXV. THE MOJ^T CENIS TUNNEL. MOUNTAIN CHAINS BETWEEN NATIONS. — MONT CENIS. — CROSSING THE ALPS. — THE GREAT ALPINE TUNNEL. — LAYING OUT THE WORK. — THE ARC AND DORA, — DIFFICULTIES. — THE SURVEYS. — PENETRATING THE MOUNTAIN. — COMPLETION OF THE WORK. — THE CHANNEL TUNNEL. — ITS COST. — COST OF TUNNELS IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES 510 XXXVI. THE PARISIAN SEWERS. THE SEWERS OP PARIS. — THEIR EXTENT. — A JOURNEY THROUGH THEM. — THE START AND THE MODE OF TRAVEL. — DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT SEWER. — ACCIDENTS OF SEWER TRAVEL. — HISTORY OF THE SEWERS. — THEIR FIRST GREAT INSPECTION. — BRUNESEAU. — INUNDATION FROM THE SEWERS. — A MAN LOST. — HORRIBLE DEATH IN THE SEWERS. — THE OLD AND THE NEW. — THE EXCAVATIONS. — NATURE OF THE WORK. — BREAK- AGE OF THE CANAL. — JEAN VALJEAN IN THE SEWERS OF PARIS. — HIS FIRST SENSATION. — CAUGHT IN A LABYRINTH. — THE SEWERS OF ST. DEN- IS, AND THE MARKETS. — CAUGHT IN THE WATER. — THE POLICE IN PUR- SUIT. — FRIGHT OF THE FUGITIVE. — THE QUICKSAND ON THE COAST OP BRITTANY. — A HORRIBLE DEATH. — QUICKSAND IN THE SEWERS. — HOW IT XVAS FORMED. — JEAN VALJEAN IN THE QUICKSAND. — HIS SUFFERINGS AND ESCAPE 524 XXXVII. MERCURY. PROPERTIES AND PECULIARITIES OF MERCURY, OR QUICKSILVER. — AMALGA- MATION. — CINNABAR. —WHERE IT IS FOUND. — ALMADEN AND OTHER MINES. — CURIOUS CUSTOMS AT IDRIA. — MODES OF WORKING. — HUANCA VELICA. — QUICKSILVER MINES IN CALIFORNIA. — CALIFORNIA LAWSUITS. — WONDERFUL PROPERTIES OP SPANISH TITLES. — AN UNHAPPY ACCIDENT. — PRACTICAL VALUE OF AN EARTHQUAKE. — AN UNDERGROUND CHAPEL. . 551 CONTENTS. 17 XXXVIII. GUAKO AND THE COOLIE TRADE. GUANO AND ITS CHARACTER. — WHERE IT IS FOUND. — THE CHINCHA ISLANDS AND THEIR WEALTH. — NOVEL PLANS OF THE PERUVIANS. — HOW THEY DIG AND LOAD GUANO. — EFFECT OF GUANO ON A STRANGER. — JARVIS'S AND HOWLAND'S ISLANDS. — THE COOLIES AND THEIR LABOR. — STORIES OP HORRIBLE CRUELTIES. — HOW THE ASIATIC SLAVE TRADE IS CON- DUCTED. — MUTINV ON SHIPBOARD. — MURDER OF THE CREW. — HUMAN MINCE MEAT. — TREATMENT OF COOLIES AT WORK. — EXTENT OF THE COOLIE TRAFFIC. — PROBABLE FATE OF MISSING SHIPS. .... ^^^ XXXIX. AVONDALE. THE GREAT CALAMITY IN PENNSYLVANIA. — ITS CAUSE. — DISCOVERY OP THE FIRE. — SCENES AT THE MOUTH OF THE MINE. — BURNING OF THE BREAK- ER. — DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRE. — EFFORTS FOR RESCUE. — THE DOG AND LAMP. — DESCENT OF THE SHAFT. — WHAT THE EXPLORERS SAW. — DISCOVERY OF THE BODIES. — AFFLICTION OF FATHER AND SON. — BRING- ING OUT BODIES. — BURIAL OF THE DEAD. , , , • , ,578 XL. IRON AND IRON MINES. iron and its value. — its abundance, and where it is found, — a mountain op iron. — iron mountain and pilot knob. — the au- thor's visit. — chased by guerrillas. — a narrow escape. — the antiquity of iron. — its value in manipulation. — iron as money. —'Inconvenience of using it. — first ironworks in America. — difference between iron and other mines. — direct and reverse workings. — A PICTURESQUE SCENE 590 XLI. EXILES IN SIBERIA. TOILING IN A SIBERIAN MINE. — A DARING ESCAPE. — HOW IT WAS PLANNED. — TUNNELLING TO LIBERTY. — DISARMING GUARDS. — WORKING IN THE DARK AND WITHOUT FRESH AIR. — A MURDEROUS ATTEMPT. — CUSTOMS OF THE SIBERIAN PEASANTRY. — CARE FOR THE EXILE. — A SURPRISE. — A NARROW ESCAPE FROM DEATH. — LIVING IN A MOUNTAIN GLEN. — HUNT- ING IN THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS. — KILLED BY AN ARGAL. — SEPARATION AND DEPARTURE. — HOW TO OBTAIN PASSPORTS. — SAFE ARRIVAL AT HOMB. • 509 18 CONTENTS. XLII. LEAD MINES OF IOWA. BLUFFS AT DUBUQUE, IOWA. — THE LEAD MINES. — HOW LEAD IS FOUND THERE. — INDIAN DISCOVERIES. — HOW THE SECRET BECAME KNOWN. — STORY OF THE SIX INDIANS. — FOLLOWING THEIR TRACKS. — AN INDIAN TRAITOR. — AN explorer's ADVENTURE. — THE INDIAN GUIDE AND THE GREAT SPIRIT. — MURDER OF TWO EXPLORERS. — USES OF ABANDONED SHAFTS AND CAVES. — AN EDITOR'S DISCOVERY. — AN UNDERGROUND BANQUET. — UPS AND DOWNS OF A LEAD MINER. — DEATH OR A FORTUNE. — A DANGEROUS BLOW. — A MINUTE OF GREAT PERIL 613 XLIII. THE INQUISITION. ITS HISTORY. — CRUELTIES IN THE NABIE OP RELIGION. — SUFFERINGS OP THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. — THE EDICTS OF CONSTANTINE. — THE PURI- TANS AND THE QUAKERS. — HOW QUAKERS AND WITCHES WERE TREATED, — TORTURES OF THE INQUISITION. — HERETICS BURNED ALIVE. — OTHER MODES OP DEATH THE INGENUITY OP TORTURE. — THE RACK AND THUMB-SCREWS. — THE VIRGIN AND KNIVES. — DIMINISHING CHAMBER. — THE HOT ROOM. — FALL OF THE INQUISITION 622 XLIV. UNDERGROUND IN THE METROPOLIS. « SUBTERRANEAN BEER SALOONS. — A " DIVE." — " DEADFALL." THE HABI- TUES. — THEIR LIVES AND HABITS. — PRETTY WAITER GIRLS. — ROBBING STRANGERS. — THE &IODUS ROBBERANDI.* — " SKIN GAMES." — LURING A STRANGER TO A GAMBLING DEN. — WHAT THE AUTHOR WITNESSED. — A NIGHT AMONG GAMBLERS. — ROBBERY OF A STRANGER. — DESCENT O^ THE POLICE. — TUB FIGHT AND ITS RESULTS. — "ROUGH GAMBLING." — A DEN OF THIEVES. — AN UNDERGROUND CELL. — HOW TWO SAILORS WERE ROBBED. — A FLOUR BARREL AS A SHIRT 636 XLV. THE EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. THE STONE AGE. — PICTURE OF ADAM AND EVE. — HOW EVE CUT THE AP- PLE. — MINERS OF ANCIENT TIMES. — DISCOVERY OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. THE INVENTION OF FIRE. — HOW GOLD WAS FOUND. — COPPER AND BRONZE. — THE BRONZE AGE. — IRON AND ITS USES. — MINERAL PRODUC- TIONS OP DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. — QUICKSILVER IN SPAIN AND CALIFOR- NIA. — THE WEALTH OF NEVADA. — ROMANTIC STORY OF THE COMSTOCK LODB. — MINERAL FUTURE OF AMERICA. , . • • • . . 650 CONTENTS. 21 LIV. MYSTERIES OF THE GRAND JURY. SITTING ON A GRAND JURY. — HOW IT IS COMPOSED. — PECULIARITIES OP MODERN JUSTICE. — HOW TO SELECT BLOCKHEADS. — A DISHONEST BAG- GAGE-MAN. — CHARITY AND MERCY. — AN AFFECTING INCIDENT. — SAVING A YOUTHFUL OFFENDER. — A GENEROUS WOMAN. —CURIOUS PHASES OP HUMAN NATURE. — CELT AND AFRICAN. — STORIES OF THE DETECTIVES. — A GARRULOUS IRISH WOMAN. — FAMILY TROUBLES THE HORSE AND CART STORY. — HOW A PRETTY WOMAN CAPTURED THE JURY. • . '^^* LV. GOLD AND ITS USES. ITS ANTIQUITY. — WORSHIP OF GOLD. — ANCIENT GOLD MINES. — KING SOLO- MON. — GOLD IN AMERICA. — STORY OF A HUNTER. — THE SHEPHERD AND THE CHILD. — HOW PIZARRO EUCHRED THE PERUVIAN KING. — SUTTER'S FORT AND SAW-MILL. ~ MARSHALL'S DISCOVERY IN THE MILL RACE. — RO- MANCE AND REALITY. — SPREADING THE NEWS. — NAVIGATION UNDER DISADVANTAGES THE GOLD EXCITEMENT. — THE PAN AND ROCKER. — THE AUTHOR AS A GOLD MINER. — HOW HE WORKED THE ROCKER. — HARRY AND HIS TIN DIPPER. — DISAPPOINTMENT AND DINNER. — VICISSI- TUDES OF GOLD MINING. • • . 'oO LVI. GOLD MINING. VARIOUS WAYS OF MINING GOLD. — SLUICING AND HYDRAULIC MINING. — AC- CIDENT TO A MINER. — A NARROW ESCAPE. — - POWER OF WATER IN HY- DRAULIC MINING. — EFFECT ON RIVERS AND BAYS. — A SCENE OF DESO- LATION. — QUARTZ MINING. — QUICKSILVER AND ITS AMALGAM. — STOCK OPERATIONS. — THE MARIPOSA MINES. — THE AUTHOR'S VISIT. HAY- WARD'S mine. — MANIPULATION OF MARIPOSA. — FUNNY STORY OP A SEA CAPTAIN. — HOW HE SUPERINTENDED A MINE. — HIS MANAGEMENT OP A MILL. — ACCIDENTS ON PURPOSE, AND HASTY FLIGHT ^^2, LVII. COPPER AND COPPER MINES. A^fTIQUITY OF COPPER. — USE OF IT AMONG THE ANCIENTS.— OLDEST COINS. — THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES. — COPPER MINES OF ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES. — NATIVE COPPER. — HOW IT IS WORKED. — OVER- THROWING A MASS A LUMP WEIGHING EIGHT HUNDRED TONS. — MALA- WI 7 CHITE "* 22 CONTENTS. LVIII. THE CATACOMBS OF BOME. THEIR AGE Ain> EXTENT. — THE SEVEN HILLS HONEYCOMBED. ~ HOW THE CATACOMBS WEBB MADE. — THEIR V8E8. — THE CHBI8TIAN MARTYRS. — IMMENSE BURIAL VAULTS. — MILLIONS OF PERSONS BURIED. — RESORTS OF ROBBERS. — STRANGE ADVENTURES. — VISITING THE CHURCH OF THE CAPCcUINS. — FANCY OF AN IRREVERENT AMERICAN. — DOWN THE CATACOMBS. — 8TORT OF THE GUIDE. — STRANGE EXPERIENCE OF TWO AMERICANS 829 LIX. THE PABISIAN BAG-PICKEBS. THEIR NUMBER AND EQUIPMENT. — THEIR KEEN-8IGHTEDNESS AND SKILL. — THE PLEASURE OF THE BOTTLE. — SEEKING COMFORT UNDER DIFFICUL- TIES. — UNWHOLESOME MAGAZINES. — WHERE AND HOW THE CUIFFON- NIERS LIVE. — DISMAL AND NOISOME ABODES. — A SOUP LOTTERY. — QUAINT SCENES IN CHEAP BOOK-SHOPS. — TASTING ROAST CAT AND STEWED PUPPY. — ROMANCE IN DIRT-HEAPS. — A HIDEOUS HAG ONCE A FAMOUS BEAUTY. — PENITENCE AND REFORMATION THROUGH FIRE. • 844 LX. UNDERGROUND IN POLITICS. TRICKS OF POLITICAL LIFE. — MUD-THROWING AND PROMISCUOUS ABUSE. — TERSE REMARKS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. — GENERAL JACKSON AND THE RUSSIAN MINISTER. — EDITORIAL WARFARE. — EASTERN AND WESTERN CUSTOMS. — HOLDING A COW*S TAIL TO WIN AN ELECTION. — TOM COR- WIN AND THE LEFT HANDED FIDDLER. — DEFEATED BY A QUART OF BEANS. — STORIES OF NEW YORK POLITICS. — THE OLD FIRE DEPARTMENT. — THE TARGET COMPANIONS. — THE GROWLER*8 GUARDS AND THEIR MELAN- CHOLY FATE 8^3 LXI. BURIED TREASURES. CAPTAIN KIDD HIS HISTORY. — HOW HE MADE HIS FORTUNE. — HIS MEL- ANCHOLY FATE. — JOINT STOCK IN THE ADVENTURE GALLEY. — SEARCH- ING FOR TREASURES. — STORIES OF THE SEA-COAST. — TRADITIONS. — ADVENTURES OF A TREASURE- HUNTER. — BILL SANBORN, AND WHAT HE DID. — JIM FOLLETT'S DOG. — A PRACTICAL JOKER. — A MESSAGE FROM THE SANDS OF THE SEA. — BILL 8ANBORN*8 DREAM. — FINDING THE CHEST. — A SUPERNATURAL VISITOR. • • • • • • . 866 CONTENTS. 19 XL VI. RAPID TRANSIT. RAPID TRAKSIT IN NEW YORK. -- THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY SCHEMES. — ELEVATED RAILWAY LINES. — THE WEST SIDE RAILWAY. — TRAVELLING ON LAMP POSTS. — ADVANTAGES OF A SECOND STORY ROAD. — ADVEN- TURES WITH THIEVES. — PERILS OF THE MODERN STREET CAR. — ARTISTIC PACKING OF PASSENGERS. — THE PNEUMATIC RAILWAY. — VANDERBILT'S SCHEME. — AN UNCOMFORTABLE JOURNEY. — SHOt FROM A GUN. . . ^^7 XLVII. RELATIONS OF THE STEAM ENGINE TO HONESTY. PIRACY AND STEAMSHIPS. — HOW THE SLAVE TRADE WAS BROKEN UP. — STORIES OF BRIGANDS. — EXPLOITS OF SPANISH ROBBERS. — " ROAD agents" IN CALIFORNIA. — AN ADVENTURE WITH HIGHWAYMEN. — AN ARMED STAGE COACH. — THE HAUNTS OF THE ROBBERS. — STORY OF ▲ PLUNDERED PASSENGER. — ** PUT UP YOUR HANDS." — AN EXCITING IN- CIDENT. — BROAD-HORNS AND KEEL-BOATS. — MIKE FINK AND THE CLER- GYMAN. — PIRACY ON THE MISSISSIPPI. — A FIGHT WITH RIVER PIRATES. — A CAPTAIN AND CREW MURDERED. — VI8|T TO A ROBBER*S CAVB. • 675 XLVIII. SILVER MINES AND MINING. ANTIQUITY OF SILVER. — REAL E*STATB AND SLAVE PURCHASES IN BIBUCAL TIMES. — 80L03ION AND HIS SILVER SPECULATIONS. — ABUNDANCE OF SILVER ABIONG THE ANCIENTS. — THE EARLIEST MINES. — ORIENTAL EX- AGGERATION. — SPANISH MINES AND THEIR HISTORY. — MEXICAN MINES. — A NONDESCRIPT ANIMAL. — NOVEL WAY OF OBTAINING A PIGSKIN. — PERU AND ITS SILVER. — A HIGH-TONED CITY. — ARIZONA. — BEAUTIES OF ARIZONA CIVILIZATION. — MINES OF UTAH AND NEVADA. — SAD RE- SULTS OF A SPECULATION • . . . 690 XLIX. THE GAMBLING HELLS OF GERMANY. THE FOUR GREAT SPAS. — DESCRIPTION OF BADEN, HOMBURO, WIESBADEN, AND EMS. — ROULETTE AND ROUGE-ET-NOIR. — SPLENDOR OF THE SA- LOONS. — THE PERSONS WHO FREQUENT THEM. — PROFITS AND PECU- LIARITIES OP THE DIRECTION. — THE PHILOSOPHY OF GAMBLING. — WHY PLAYERS LOSE. — STRANGE SUPERSTITIONS OF BETTORS. — THE INVALIDS. — DROLL SCENES AT THE PUMP-ROOM. — THE MAN WITH A SNAKE IN HIS STOMACH. — THE ROBUST HYPOCHONDRIAC 705 2 -" 20 CONTEXTS. L. GAMING AND GAMESTERS ABROAD. FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC SUMMER RESORTS. — THE ADVANTAGE OF THE FOR- MER. — MYSTERIOUS CHARACTERS. — A TRIO OF CELEBRATED GAMESTERS. — THEIR EXTBAOKDINARY HISTORY. — TRAGIC FATE OF A YOUNG RUSSIAN OFFICER. — TEMPTATION, DESPAIR, AND SUICIDE OF A BEAUTIFUL ENG- LISH GIRL. — A LUCKY BANKER'S CLERK. — A HUNGARIAN HANGING HIM- SELF FOR A WARNING. — ECCENTRICITIES OF CROUPIERS. — A CALM- BLOODED HOLLANDER. — THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. — ROSE-STREWN ROADS TO RUIN • 72} LI. THE EARLIEST HABITATIONS. UNDERGROUND HOUSES. — A DWELLING ON THE AMERICAN PLAINS. — HOW AN EARTH HOUSE IS MADE. — RESULT OF A NIGHT IN IT. — ARCTIC DWELL- INGS. — A MANSION IN KAMCHATKA. — ITS ADVANTAGES AND DISAD- VANTAGES. — A CHIMNEY AND DOORWAY IN COMMON. — THE AUTHOR*8 EXPERIENCE. — A LIVE DOG IN A STEW-KETTLE. — THE STORY OF GA- MOOT. — HOW HE ENTERTAINED HIS FRIENDS. — FISH-OIL PUNCH AND A CANDLE BREAKFAST. — HOW HE LEARNED ENGLISH. — NEW MODE OF BOX- INO THE COMPASS. — GAMOOT*S MELANCHOLY FATE 736 LII. BRIGANDAGE AS A FINE ART. HIGHWAY ROBBERY IN MODERN TIMES. — THE* OLD WORLD AND THE NEW CONTRASTED. — HABITS OF RUSSIAN ROBBERS. — PIOUS THIEVES. — PRAYERS FOR SUCCESS- — ROAD AGENTS. — CRUELTIES OF ITALIAN BRIG- ANDS. — TORTURE AND RANSOM OF PRISONERS. — SPANISH BRIGANDS. — ADVENTURE ON A SPANISH ROAD. — AN AMERICAN PRINCE AND AN ENG- LISH DUCHESS. — AN EXCITING RACE. — A DUCHESS IN UNDRESS. . . 746 LIII. ANIMALS UNDER GROUND. HORSES IN MINES. — EFFECT OF AN EVEN TEMPERATURE ON HORSES AND MULES. — EFFECT OF DEPRIVATION OF LIGHT. — WALKING IN DARKNESS. — RATS IN MINES. — A MONKEY IN A SILVER MINE. — THE CONSTERNATION HE CREATED. — WHAT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. — HIS UNHAPPY FATE. — A MONKEY AT SEA. — HIS PRANKS. — DEMOCRATIC HABITS. — HOW HE LOST HIS LIFE. — HIS LAST PERFORMANCE. — DOGS IN MINES, AND THE EI^FECT OF UNDERGROUND CONFINEMENT. — JOY AT REACHING DAYLIGHT AGAIN. — TWO DOGS AT SEA, AND WHAT THEY DID. — A DOG SAILOR, AND WHAT HE DID. — HIS UNHAPPY END. 755 't-^E- : f^* CONTENTS. 23 LXII. OUT OF PRISON. WONDERFUL ESCAPE FROM A FRENCH PRISON. — PLANS OF ESCAPE. — A LONG LABOR. — TDNNELLIN6 THROUGH A WALL. — INGENUITY OP A SAIL- OR. — LUCKY ACCIDENTS. — DISCOURAGING EVENTS. — HOW SUCCESS WAS ATTAINED. — ELUDING THE GUARDS. — REACHING A PLACE OF SAFETY. 332 LXIII. PRIZE. FIGHTING. DECLINE OF THE SPORT. — HOW TO ARRANGE A FIGHT. — AN AMATEUR EN- COUNTER. — THE MANAGERS AND THE WARRIORS. — HOW THE FIGHT WAS ARRANGED. — THE LOCALITY AND THE SPECTATORS. — AN UNFORTUNATE MOUTH. — NEW USB FOR POSTAGE STAMPS. — DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGHT. — DODGING THE POLICE. 893 LXIV. DIAMOND AND OTHER SWINDLES. THE GREAT DIAMOND SWINDLE OF 1872. — HOW IT WAS ORGANIZED. — MAG- NIFICENT PLANS OF THE SWINDLERS. — PLANTING A DIAMOND FIELD. — HOW THE FRAUD WAS EXPOSED. — A NEAT SWINDLE ATTEMPTED IN SAP- PHIRES. — HOW IT WAS DISCOVERED. — A MYTHICAL COPPER MINE. — FATE OF THE SWINDLER. 906 LXV. PERQUISITES. CURIOSITIES OF COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS. — PAYING COMMISSIONS IV EUROPE. — FUNNY EXPERIENCES. — SPREAD OF THE CUSTOM IN AMERICA. — HOW CONTRACTS ARE OBTAINED AND PAID FOR. — COMMISSIONS TO TRADESMEN AND OTHERS. — CURIOUS FEATURES OF THE PIANO TRADE. . 918 LXVI. BORROWING AND BORROWERS. ■OW THE BUSINESS IS PROSECUTED IN NEW YORK. — THE NUMBER OF BOR- 4 SOWERS. — THEIR DIVISIONS AND SUBDIVISIONS. — HOW THEY OPERATE. — THE STORIES THEY TELL. — THEIR ENERGY. — ABILITY TO READ CHAR- ACTER. — SUFFERINGS OF THEIR VICTIMS. — FRAUDS UPON HORACE GREE- LEY. — DEVICES TO AVOID THESE SWINDLERS. — ANNUAL AMOUNT OF THEIR SWINDLES. — HOW A MAN CUTS HIS EYE TEETH ^*^ ILLTJSTEATIOl^S. 1. PHASES OF UNDERGROUND LIFE, - - - Frontispiece. 2. AUSTIN, NEVADA; A WESTERN MINING TOWN, - - 84 8. IMPRESSIONS OF PLANTS FOUND IN COAL, - - - - 40 4. DISCOVERY OF ANTHRACITE COAL IN PENNSYLVANIA, - 40 5. BAY OF NAPLES, 60 6. NAPLES WAGON, 60 r NERO'S GYMNASIUM, 58 8. VIEW OF HELLGATE FROM NEGRO POINT, ... 64 9. GENERAL VIEW OF WORKS AT HALLETT'S POINT, - - 64 10. VIEW OF SHAFT FROM THE DAM, 74 11. THE SHAFT, SHOWING HEADINGS, 74 12. ENTRANCE TO A COAL MINE, 80 13. INTERIOR OF A COAL MINE, 80 14. DESCENDING A SHAFT, 94 15. SECTIONS OF AN ENGLISH COAL MINE, - - . - - 100 16. NEW YORK SPECULATORS AT THE MINES, - . - loe 17. DEMONSTRATING THE VALUE OF A SILVER MINE, - - 106 18. THE PHILADKLPHIA BANK ROBBERY, - - - - 120 19 PEARL DIVING IN THE EAST INDIES, 130 «0 EXPLOSION OF FIRE DAMP, ------ 144 21. DISCOVERY OF LOAVES OF BREAD BAKED 1800 YEARS AGO, - 160 22 BODIES OF POMPEIANS CAST IN THE ASHES, - - - 166 23 DESCENT OF VESUVIUS, 176 24. THE CRATER OF VESUVIUS, 182 25. FALLING IN OF A MINE, 188 26. INUNDATION OF A MINE, 200 27. DESCENDING THE SHAFT— WIELICZKA SALT MINES, - - 214 28. CHAPEL IN THE WIELICZKA SALT MINES, - - - 214 29. GETTING OUT SALT, - - 220 30. ILLUMINATION OF THE INFERNAL LAKE, - - - 220 81. BATTLE OF THE WARRIORS, 236 82. DRINKING PISCO IN A SAN FRANCISCO SALOON, - - 250 83. AUSTRALIAN NATIVES BURNING THEIR DEAD, - - - 278 84. AN INDIAN BURIAL PLACE, 278 ^- 86. THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS AT THEBES, - - - - 286 k 86. HALL IN THE TOMBS OF ASSASSEEF, - ... 286 (24) INDEX OP ILLUSTRATIONS. 25 37. PUMPING WELL ON OIL CREEK, 834 38. THE GRAND liOrtL, 366 39. PLACE DE LA BASTILE, 862 40. THE BASTILE, 362 4L DESTRUCTION OF THE BASTILE, 368 42. THE DIAMOND FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA, - - - 372 43. WORKING A DIAMOND CLAIM, - - - - - - 878 44. RIVER WASHING— CRADLING FOR DIAMONDS, - - - 878 45. CELEBRATED DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD, - - - - 884 46. THE ORLOFF DIAMOND, 884 47. STAR OF THE SOUTH, 884 48. THE NASSAC, ..-884 49. THE CUMBERLAND, 884 50. THE SANCY, 884 5L STAR OF THE SOUTH— ROUGH, 384 52. THE DRESDEN, 384 53. THE REGENT DIAMOND, 884 54. THE KOniXOOR— RECUT, 884 * 55. AUSTRALIAN BRILLIANT, 884 56. THE EUGENIE, -884 57. REGENT—SIDE VIEW, 384 68. THE HOPE, 384 59. THE FLORENTINE, - - 884 60. THE SHAH, 884 6L GRAND AVENUE OF THE CHAMPS ELYSEES, - - - - 392 62. BALL AT MABILLE, 400 i 63. SCENE AT CLO>ERIE DES LILAS, 404 1 64. EAST RIVER BRIDGE, 416 65. OUR QUARTERS IN LIBBY PRISON, 446 66. VIEW OF MAMMOTH CAVE, 474 67. STALAGMITES IN THE CAVE, 474 68. EXECUTION OF A CHINESE CRIMINAL, - - - - 488 69. EASTERN ENTRANCE TO HOOSAC TUNNEL, - - - - 600 70. WESTERN ENTRANCE TO HOOSAC TUNNEL, - . - 600 71. WORK AT THE HEADING, 606 i 72. BORING MACHINE USED IN MOUNT CENIS TUNNEL, - - 618 ^ 73. SIDE VIEW OF BORING MACHINE, ---.-- 618 74. PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, 624 j 75. THE MADELEANE CHURCH, 630 76. SUBTERRANEAN PARIS, 636 >■ 77. THK GKEAT SEWER, 536 ' i 78. QUICKSILVER MINES OF NEW ALMADEN, - ., . 554 79. BLASTING IN THE QUICKSILVER MINES, - - - .554 80. BURNING OF A COOLIE SHIP, 568 8L COOLIES PLANNING A MUTINY, 574 82. MUTINY ON THE LOWER DECK, - - - ' - . 574 6t. THE AVONDALE DISASTER— REMOVING BODIES FROM THE MINE, 686 84. INTERIOR OF AN IRON MINE, 594 26 INDEX OP ILLUSTRATIONS. 86. AN AUTO-DA-FE IN SPAIN, 622 86. BLAZING OVENS FILLED WITH HERETICS, - - - 630 87. IMPALEMENT OF HERETICS, 630 88. A NEW YORK " DIVE," 640 89. A DESCENT ON THE GAMBLERS, 646 90. SECTION OF THE BROADWAY UNDERGROUND RAILWAY, - 668 91. TUNNELLING BROADWAY FOR THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY, - 662 92. INTERIOR OF PNEUMATIC PASSENGER CAR, . - - 666 98. PORTAL OF THE BROADWAY TUNNEL, - - - - 666 94. THE BOMB FERRY— TRAVEL IN THE 80th CENTURY, - - 672 96. THE PUBLIC HIGHWAY— TRAVEL IN THE 80th CENTURY, - - 672 96. THE KEEL BOAT, 680 97. A MISSISSIPPI RAFT, - - - - - ^- - 680 98. PIRATES OF THE MISSISSIPPI, - - - . ' - 686 99. DISCOVERY OF SILVER IN PERU, 690 100. INTERIOR OF A SILVER MINE, 690 lOL ENTRANCE TO A SILVER MINE OF CENTRAL AMERICA, - - 696 102. INDIAN SILVER MINERS AT WORK, - - - - 696 103. ONE METHOD OF WASHING FOR SILVER, - - - - 702 104. ANOTHER METHOD OF WASHING FOR SILVER, - . - 702 105. CONVERSATIONHAUS AT BADEN, 708 106. CONCERT IN THE GARDENS AT BADEN, - - - - 708 107. GAMBUNG SALOON AT BADEN, 722 108. ESQUIMAUX DWELLINGS, 736 109. BOBBEiiY OF THE DILIGENCE, - 750 110. THE KNOWING WITNESS, 778 in. THE INTERESTING WITNESS, - 778 112. THE DEAF WITNESS, 778 113. THE IRKELEVANT WITNESS, 778 114. JAS. W. MARSHALL. THE DISCOVERER OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, 790 115. SUTTER'S MILLS WHERE GOLD WAS DISCOVERED, - - 790 116. EMIGRANT TRAIN OF GOLD HUNTERS IN 1849, - - - 794 117. CHINESE GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA, . - - 794 118. GOLD WASHING IN THE CALIFORNIA MINES, - - - 798 119. MINERS PROSPECTING, 804 120. MINERS AROUND THEIR CAMP-FIRE, - - - - - 810 12L GROUND SLUICING, 814 122. HYDRAUUC MINING, 814 123. A COPPER MINE OF THE LAKE SUPERIOR REGION, - - 818 124. INTERIOR OF A COPPER MINE, 818 125. DRILLING IN A COPPER MINE, 824 186. CATACOXIBS OF ROME— THE THREE BROTHERS, - - - 832 127. VAULTED CHAPEL IN THE CATACOMBS, - - • 840 128. LOST IN THE CATACOMBS, 840 129. DREAM OF A DIAMOND SWINDLER, . ... 910 180. 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The trees of the forest spread their branches and unfold their leaves to sun and storm, but there are other branches spread below which sometimes extend more widely than those above. Through these lower limbs,hidden from the light of the sun and sheltered from the peltings of the pitiless storm, life comes to the trunk and to the upper branches. Lay bare these lower branches, and tear them from the earth, and the tree soon withers and perishes. The grass carpets the meadow, the flowers adorn the hill-sides, wheat and corn grow in the fields, the trees spread their shading limbs and drop their fruits in their season, and without these the world would be desolate. But all have their existence underground, and they cling as tenaciously to the bosom of Mother Earth as the men who walk among or upon them cling to that mysterious element which we call life. A great portion of the wealth of the globe lies beneath its surface. Gold and silver form the circulating medium of all civilized and many savage people. Their possession is wealth, as the lack of them is poverty ; their coming brings happiness, and their departure leaves misery. From the earth they are taken, and in their pursuit men undergo many privations and suffer many hardships. The diamond that sparkles on delicate fingers has been washed from the accumulations which many centuries had piled above it. Iron, copper, tin, and other metals are sought by the light of the miner's lamp, far away from the rays of the sun, and sometimes in long tunnels pushed beneath the ever-restless ocean. Ages and ages ago the hand of Nature deposited beds of coal in every quarter of the globe, and to-day they afford light and heat to millions of the human race. Down, down, hundreds and thousands of feet below the surface of the earth these coal-beds are spread, sometimes over areas many miles in extent, and promising a supply of fuel for many centuries to come. Thousands of men find profitable employment in these mines ; and but for their labors, those of us who live above the surface would often suffer the pangs of cold. 1 80 VALUE OP COAL AND IRON. As the coal burns brightly in our grates and fills our rooms with heat, do we think of the many centuries it has been await- ing our use, and of the toil that has placed it in our control ? As we look at the great network of railways, spreading over our continent, bringing north and south, east and west, nearer together, annihilating time and space (and sometimes annihi- lating people), do we think that but for the mines of coal and iron our country to-day would be little better than it was half a century ago, and much of its area, now rich in commercial and agricultural prosperity, would be little else than a wilder- ness? To coal and iron the world owes much of its present advancement, and both these substances come from beneath the surface of the earth. The most valuable minerals, and those which employ the greatest amount of capital, are of comparatively recent ex- ploitation. Iron has done more good to the world than gold, and is many times more valuable ; but gold was known and used long before iron was discovered. Coal is more valuable than copper, and gold, and diamonds ; the world could go on without these last, as other minerals could take their places, but noth- ing now known could take the place of coal. From many parts of the globe the forest primeval has been removed, and countries that a few hundred years ago were thickly wooded are now almost denuded of timber. Should the working of coal mines cease to-day, there would speedily ensue a scarcity of fuel, and, if prolonged, this scarcity would result in much Buffering and iJeath. The exploitation of coal is one of the great interests of the British Isles, and is of no incon- siderable importance in the United States. More than two thirds of the mining enterprise of the world is devoted to it ; yet this substance, possessing no beauty, and to a casual ob- server devoid of all merit, is included among the most recently discovered minerals. " Time's noblest offspring is its last^" To most people the underground life of the miner is a mys- tery. Comparatively few of those who walk the earth to-day have ever been farther within it than to the bottom of a cellar ; and in many localities even this experience has been denied to FUNNY EXPERIENCE OF A NOVICE. 81 the inhabitants, for the reason that no cellars are found there. If an enumeration were made to-day of all persons in the United States who have ever been underground more than fifty feet from the surface, and more than one hour at a time, the number would be found surprisingly small. I once ac- companied a gentleman from Boston in a descent into a mine a hundred feet in depth, and having a single gallery about eighty feet long, leading from the foot of the shaft. It was an old story to me, but a new one to my Boston friend, who clung to the rope of our bucket as convulsively as a drowning man would clutch a life buoy. When we reached the bottom, and crept along the low gallery, his heart beat violently, and he several times wished himself safe above ground. When we finished our exploration, and returned to the upper air, I asked him what he thought of the mine. *' Most wonderful thing I ever saw," he replied. " I never knew much about mines, and didn^t suppose they were so deep. Wonderful, certainly." " What would you think/' I asked, " if I should take you into a mine twenty times as deep as this, and having miles of galleries underground, where you could walk a whole day without going through all of them?" His face assumed the most puzzled expression I ever saw on a human being, and he was speechless for a full minute. When he regained his voice, he said, — " You might tell me of such a mine, and I should be obliged to believe you, though I can hardly conceive one could be made so large. But as for taking me into such a place, you could never do it without tying me and carrying me there. Catch me in such a place as that, never." I told him the story of the boy who went from home for the first time in his life to accompany his father to a grist-mill, about three miles away. When the boy returned, he was thoughtful for a long time, and finally remarked that he never supposed the world was so large. The miner's life is one of vicissitudes and dangers. He is shut out from the light of day, and depends upon his lamp or 32 DANGERS UNDERGROUND. candle, instead of the sun and moon. Shut up in the earth, all is night to him ; and whether the sun shines or is obscured by clouds, whether the moon is in the heavens, surrounded by twinkling stars, or the whole dome above is wrapped in dark- ness, makes little difference to him. All is night, and without his artificial light, all is blackest darkness. The changes that ibllow the earth's daily revolutions are unknown to the miner as he performs his work, and if he remained continually below, the seasons might come and go without his knowledge. Sum- mer's heat and winter's frost do not reach him ; there is for him but one season — the season that has endured for millions of years, and may endure for millions of years to come. The temperature of the surrounding earth, unless varied by that of the air driven to him by the machinery of his mine, or by the heat of his lamp, is the temperature in which he performs his labors. Day and night, spring and autumn, new moon and full moon, may come and go, but they extend not their influ- ence to the depths of the mine. There are dangers from falls of rock and earth, which may cause immediate death, or enclose their victims in a living tomb. There are dangers from water, which may enter sud- denly, flood the mine, and drown all who cannot reach the opening in time to escape. There are dangers from the atmos- phere, which may become foul, and leave him who breathes it lying dead, far away from those who would gladly assist him, but would lose their lives should they go to his rescue. His light grows dim, and warns him of his peril ; as he starts for a place of safety the light goes out, and in blackest darkness he falls and dies, unless speedily rescued. There are dangers from fire, where the atmosphere becomes charged with in- flammable gas ; it is lighted by an accident, and an explosion follows, in which dozens and sometimes hundreds of men are killed. There are dangers from fire outside the mine, as in the horrible affair of Avondale. There are dangers from the breaking of ropes, and the derangement of machinery, from the carelessness of those whose duty it is to exercise the utmost caution, and from other causes to be hereafter enumerated. EARLY LIFE UNDERGROUND. 33 And yet with all these perils there is no lack of men ready to meet them, as there is no lack of men ready to meet the perils and dangers of all branches of industry. Laborers can always be found for any honest employment, and too often for em- ployment quite outside the bounds of honesty. The earliest life underground was in caves of natural for- mation. All over the globe there are caverns where men have lived, sometimes under concealment, sometimes for san- itary reasons, and sometimes because they saved the labor of constructing houses. Some of these caverns are of great di- mensions, and could furnish shelter for thousands of men, while others are adapted to the wants of only a few persons. Many caverns and caves are not available as dwelling-places, but are visited only from motives of curiosity on the part of travellers, or from a desire for gain on the part of those who seek whatever may be valuable. Many caves have histories romantic or tragic, and some of them combine romance and tragedy in about equal proportions. Tales of love and war, of fidelity and treachery, and of all the contending passions and experiences of human nature, can be found in the histories of these excavations which have been made by no mortal hands. Metaphorically, there is a great deal of underground life above the surface of the earth, ilen devote time, and patience, and study to the acquisition of wealth by measures that are as far removed from the light of honesty as the tunnel the miner drives beneath the mountain is removed from the light of the sun. One builds a reuutation which another burrows beneath and destroys, as the engineers at Hell Gate undertook to destroy the rocky reef which sunk the ships of many a nav- igator, from the days of Hendrick Hudson to the present. Hope springs eternal in the human breast, but it is not always hope for better things. Dishonest men hope for wealth, they care not how obtained, and in its pursuit they frequently imitate the labors of the miner. Shafts are sunk and tunnels are driven ; the pick, the drill, and the powder-blast perform their work ; operations are 84 MINING IN METAPHOR. silently and secretly conducted, and all unknown to the outer world ; dangers of falls of earth, of floods of water, of choke- damp, and fire-damp, are unheeded, and by and by the prize may be obtained. A great city, in its moral or immoral life, is cut and seamed with subterranean excavations more extensive than those of the richest coal-fields of England or Belgium. Wall Street is a mining centre greater than the whole of Pennsylvania, and to one who knows it intimately it reveals daily more shafts and tunnels than can be found in Nevada or Colorado. The career of a politician is not unlike that of the miner, though it is frequently much more difficult to follow. The miner may be tracked and found, but there is many a politician whose devious windings would baflSe the keenest detective that ever lived. To describe underground life in its many phases is the object of this volume. The experience of the miner is full of adventures of an exciting character ; so exciting, indeed, that there is no occasion to use fiction in place of fact. The hardships, the difficulties, and the dangers that surround him who labors beneath the earth's surface might form the basis of a story more interesting than the most skilfully constructed romance ever pjinted. It is an old adage, that Truth is stranger than Fiction: the experience of the miner affords better illustrations of the correctness of this adage than does that of any other laborer. Especially is this the case if we consider Underground Life in its metaphoric as well as in its literal sense, and note the devious and hidden ways in which many of our fellow-men pass the greater part of their existence. IL DISCOYERY OF COAL. SAVAGE THEORIES ABOUT COAL. — EXPERIENCE OF A SIBERIAN EXPLORING PARTY. — BURNING BLACK STONES. — MINERAL FUEL AMONG THE ANCIENTS. — THEIR MOTIVE POWER. — CHINESE TRADITIONS. — CHINESE GAS WELLS. — HISTORY OP COAL IN ENGLAND. — A ROYAL EDICT. — CURIOUS STORY OP THE MINER OF PLENEVAUX. — EXTENT OF COAL FIELDS THROUGHOUT THB GLOBE. — THE QUAKER AND THE YANKEE PEDLER. — THE FIRST ANTHRA- CITE. — BELLINGHAM BAY AND THE CHINOOKS. — HOW COAL WAS FORMED. — INTERVIEWING A REPTILE. — THEORIES OF THE ANCIENTS. — RITEBS OP OIL OF VITRIOL. — ANCIENT AND MODERN FIRE WORSHIPPERS. In the autumn of 1865, a small party connected with the survey of a telegraph route through North-eastern Asia, was landed at the mouth of the Anadyr River, near Behring's Straits. Another party was landed in Kamchatka, and pro- ceeded over land towards the north. They made constant inquiries about the Anadyr party, and at last learned from a band of wandering aboriginals that some white men had been left by a fire ship (steamer) near the mouth of the river, and were living in a small house which they had constructed partly of boards, partly of bushes, and partly of earth. The savages described them as the most wonderful white men they had ever seen. " They have,'' said one of the savages, " an iron box, and they bum black stones in it to make a fire." These savages had never seen a stove, and they had never seen coal. To their untutored minds the work of the white men was something wonderful. It is probable that the comparatively recent discovery of mineral coal is due in a great measure to its close resem- blance to stone. A savage or civilized man knows that an ordinary stone, whether white, red, blue, green, or gray, will not burn ; then why should be suppose that a black stone 3 (37) 38 COAL AMONG THE ANCIENTS. will burn ? Until a comparatively recent date there has been no great demand for coal as fuel. Many parts of the world at the present day are covered with immense forests, and for a hundred and perhaps thousands of years there will be no occasion in these localities to make use of the mineral fuel. It is supposed that the Greeks and Romans had some knowl- edge of fossil fuel, bet they made very little use of it, partly for the reason that they did not know the proper way to burn it, and partly because the forests in those days furnished all the fuel needed for industrial purposes. There were no manufactories and smelting establishments, and the working of metals was carried on in a very primitive way. Wood and charcoal were the only fuel, and most of the countries inhabited at that early day were favored with a warm climate, that for the most part of the year was comfortable enough by day, while blankets and other bed-clothing gave sufficient warmth by night. The laws of heat were not known; the pressure of vapor was not even thought of, or suspected ; and mechanical force was derived from wind, from water, and from animated beings. When the winds did not blow the galleys were rowed by convicts, and in the absence of a stream of water, animals, and sometimes men, turned the mill. Occasionally in building aqueducts, large beds of coal were laid bare, but no attention was paid to them. In making one aqueduct, a branch of a canal was cut through a bed of rock, and at the bottom of that bed a valuable seam of coal was found, but nobody appears to have troubled his head about it. It is supposed by most writers that the discovery of coal occurred in the East. The Chinese have been credited with the discovery and invention of nearly everything in the world except the discovery of America and the invention of the electric telegraph. It is pretty certain that they were acquainted with mineral fuel from a very remote antiquity. They knew how to work it, and apply it to industrial uses, such as baking porcelain, drying tea, and the like. The Chi- nese, for hundreds of years^ used to bake porcelain with CHINESE FIRE WELLS. 3b mineral coal. It is only recently that mineral coal has been substituted for charcoal for this very same purpose in France, and it has been found to be quite economical. The Chinese knew how to collect the gases which came from coal, and they used them for illuminating. The accounts of the early missionaries state that from time immemorial the Chinese used to bore into the earth in search of gas, and when they found it they conveyed it in pipes to the places where it was wanted. Gas was not used for illuminating in Europe until quite recently. Historians also say that for many centuries mines of coal have been worked in the Celestial Empire, but that the work- ing was in a very barbarous fashion. Many of their coal mines consist of open cuttings ; when they went underground they took but little care to construct drains or support the subterranean ways, and they took no precaution whatever against explosions of fire-damp, which often proved fatal. Their working of mines to-day is in the same barbarous fashion of centuries ago, and one might be pardoned for thinking, like the boy who was trying to learn the alphabet, that it was hardly worth while to go through so much to accomplish so little. In England there are evidences to show that coal was known to the Romans, and possibly to the Britons before the Roman invasion ; but it was only worked at the outcrops of the coal seams. No mention is made of coal until the time of Henry II. In 1259 a charter was granted to the Freemen of Newcastle, giving them the liberty " to dig for cole," and a few years later coal was carried to London. In 130G Parliament petitioned the king to prevent the importation of coal, and Edward I. issued a proclamation forbidding the use of mineral fuel. Coal was worked to some extent in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and six- teenth centuries, and by the beginning of the seventeenth century the English coal mines were in full operation. In 1615 four thousand English ships were employed in the coal trade. The coal mines of Belgium were opened about the f V 40 THE MINER OP PLENEVAUX. « same time as those of England. The Belgian coal miners tell a curious story of the discovery of coal, in the twelfth century, at the village of Plenevaux, near Liege. One of the old chroniclers gives the account as follows : — " Houiilos, a farrier, at Plenevaux, was so poor as not to be able to earn enough for his wants, not having sometimes bread enough to give to his wife and children. One day, being without work, he almost made up his'mind to put an end to his life, when an old man, with a white beard, entered his shop. They entered into conversation. Houiilos told him his troubles ; that, being a disciple of St. Eloi, he worked in iron, blowing the bellows himself to save the expense of an assistant. He could easily realize some advantages if char- coal was not so dear, as it was that which ruined him. " The good old man was moved even to tears. * My friend,' said he to the farrier, ' go to the neighboring mountain, dig up the ground, and you will find a black earth suitable for the forge.' ** No sooner said than done. Houillo.* went to the spot pointed out, found the earth as predicted, and having thrown it into the fire, proceeded to forge a horseshoe at one heating/ Transported with joy, he would not keep the precious dis- covery to himself, but communicated it to his neighbors, and even to his brother farriers. A grateful posterity has bestowed his name to coal, which is called, in French, Houille. " His memory is still cherished by all the miners of Liege, who frequently tell the story of the honest collier, or of the old coal miner, as they delight in calling him. The miners say it was an angel who showed him the spot where the coal was." It is not positively known when the first discovery of coal was made in the United States. Some historians say that it was before the Revolutionary war, while others say it was since that time. It is certain that coal mining has not been exten- sively prosecuted on the American continent until within the past fifty yeai's. There is an old story told somewhere of a discovery of coal in M s THE QUAKER AND THE YANKEE. 43 Pennsylvania by one of the Quaker settlers in the mountains, not far from where Scranton now stands. According to the story-teller, — but I cannot vouch for his correctness, — the Quaker settler, who was familiar with coal in England, dis- covered a peculiar stone, which seemed to him almost iden- tical with the substance which he had used in England for fuel. He carried some of it home, and threw it in the fire. He found that it became red, and was consumed, but that it would only ignite when there was a very hot fire of wood around it. The coal with which he had been familiar would burn quite readify, and gave ofi'a thick black smoke ; but the substance which he had discovered gave neither smoke nor flame. He wondered at this, and concluded that the sub- stance which he found was worthless. One day a traveller, whom the story-teller converts into a Yankee pedler, came along. As they sat by the evening fire, the Quaker told him of the peculiar region they were in, and of the remarkable stones which he had discovered. He threw a few fragments upon the fire, and in a little while they became red and were consumed. The traveller insisted that the substance was valuable; that it was probably good coal, but the great difficulty was to make it burn. After gossiping a while about the matter, the traveller went to bed. During the night he pondered over the matter, and in the morning asked his Quaker friend to take him to the spot where he had found the black stone. The spot was shown him ; he examined the substance carefully. The Quaker car- ried to the house a considerable quantity of the substance, and then the Yankee said, — " I think we can make this stuff burn if we can only draw a fire through it. Now, what we want to do is to fix up something so as to make the fire go where we want it to.'' The Quaker assented to the proposition, and asked if it were possible. The Yankee said, " Yes. I know how it can be done ; but before I tell you I want to buy half of the land where you found that stone." 44 DISCOVERY AT BELLINGHAM BAY. A bargain was struck very speedily, and the Yankee hunted around the establishment, and found a piece of sheet iron, which he fashioned into a blower. He then built up a small, narrow fireplace, and fitted his blower to the front. " The next thing," said he, " is to make something like a grate ; " and they took some rods of iron and fashioned them into a rude grate. ** Now," said the Yankee to the Quaker, " build a good fire of wood, so that it will fill the bottom of that grate." The Quaker followed the directions, and when the fire was well started, the Yankee threw a peck or so of the coal on the top and put up the blower. The fire was drawn directly among the fragments of coal ; in a little while the blower was removed, and the coal was found to be a red, burning mass, which threw off" an intense heat. Both were delighted with the discovery ; and thus was opened the first anthracite coal mine in America. A story was once told to me, on the Pacific coast, concern-. ing the discovery of coal at Bellingham Bay, in British Columbia. The narrator said that a party of men connected with the Hudson Bay Company's service, was at one time in the camp of a family of Chinook Indians. The Indians told them that a few days before, in a locality which they had visited, they had attempted to build a fire. The wind was blowing, and in order to shield their fire they piled some stones around it. Among these were two or three large black stones, which they had picked up on the surface. Great was their astonishment, when the fire was under way, to see these black stones ignite and burn. They thought it something mysterious, and immediately ascribed it to the work of the devil, just as a great many savage and civilized people are inclined to attribute anything they do not under- stand to His Satanic Majesty. Next day they guided the white men to the spot. It was found that a vein of coal out- cropped upon the surface, and gave sure indications of a rich deposit below. The annual production of coal throughout the entire world ,'A ANNUAL COAL PKODUCT. 45 18 roughly estimated at about two hundred milh'ons of tons. More than half of this coal is produced in Great Britain. About twenty millions of tons are mined in North America, and the rest mainly in Belgium, France, and Prussia. The production of other countries is comparatively insignificant. . Coal is the most valuable mineral substance known. The ^f § amount of coal taken from the earth every year is double the value of all the gold, silver, and diamonds annually produced. In the great World's Fair of London in 1851, when the famous Kohinoor diamond attracted thousands of curious spectators, there was one day a lump of coal placed near the case con- taining the Kohinoor. The lump bore this brief label: "This is the real Kohinoor diamond." America to-day is of far less importance as a coal producer than Great Britain, but she is destined to become eventually the great coal producer of the world. At the present time there is much anxiety in England about the exhaustion in a few hundred years of the coal fields in the British Isles. The \^ ' United Kingdom contains nine thousand square miles of coal - '; fields; France, Belgium, Spain, Prussia, and other German fj states, together, about two thousand seven hundred square ^ miles of coalfields; other countries, not including America, i contain about twenty-nine thousand, while North America, including the British colonies, contains about one hundred and eighty thousand square miles of coal fields. It will thus ^ be seen that the area of the North American coal fields is four times as great as all those of the other countries of the globe. Of this immense extent of coal deposits, a very small / portion has yet been touched, and consequently for thousands of years to come our country can supply the world. Coal was formed at a very remote geological period. Scientific men difi"er as to the exact age of this substance, Their diiferences are trivial, however, being only a few ■ millions of years ; but they all agree that at the time coal was ^ formed there were wide jungles and swamps that covered a \ large portion of the earth^s surface. The atmosphere was very moist, and probably contained a much larger proportion of 46 HOW COAL WAS FORMED. carbonic acid than at the present time. This gas is one which especially promotes the growth of plants. It is, and was, probably unfavorable to the existence of animal life ; and it has been suggested that the gradual withdrawal of the car- bonic acid by the growth of vegetation of that period slowly purified the atmosphere, and brought it to the condition in which we now find it. The earth at that time was not fitted for the habitation of man. If man had existed at that period, he would have needed fins in the place of hands and feet, and would have required lungs like those of fishes, instead of those which he now possesses. There was an abundant population of reptiles and of insects, and there was a liberal supply of fishes. Many of these fishes, reptiles, and insects are unknown at the present day. They performed their work, if work they had to do, and disappeared. Their remains are found in the coal seams and in the rocks which lie above or beneath the coal, and form an interesting subject of study. Some of the reptiles wore enormously large. Remains have been found of a lizard more than one hundred feet long, with an open countenance, that could have taken in an ordinary man about as easily as a chicken swallows a fly. The skele- tons of these reptiles are found, and I think that most people who examine these skeletons are inclined to give a sigh of relief when they remember that such creatures are now extinct. They would be very disagreeable travelling com- panions, and one might be very much disinclined to meet them in a narrow lane on a dark night. Some years ago I examined the skeleton of a reptile dis- covered in the Mississippi Valley, and though the bones were cold and motionless, I had the wish to keep at a respectful distance from them. He had a mouth that reminded one of the extension top of a patent carriage ; . and when his jaw was pushed back, it seemed to me that he could have walked down his own throat without the slightest diflSculty. The most plausible and reasonable theory of the formation of coal seems to be that it is for the most part the remains of vegetable matter which bad become decomposed and changed ■sr^j-v*' CONVERSION OP PEAT TO COAL. 47 to mineral on the spot where it remained and is now found. The fibrous tissues of the aquatic vegetation flourished like a thick carpet on the moist surface. It became mingled and matted together, as we now find turf and peat in peat bogs, and in swamps and marshes. On the borders of great lakes, which in time were built up and became swamps, these plains extended, and underwent slow depression. Layers of sand and other substances were carried down below the level of the sea, which we now find among and alternating with the coal seams in the shape of beds of shales and sandstones. Then another system of lagoons formed above them, and allowed new jungles to spring up and new marshes to be formed. These were in turn depressed and covered by the waters. In this way, step by step, the coal beds were built up. According to geologists, each coal seam represents a depressed swamp, while the intervening strata of sandstone, and shale, and clay, mark the various sediments which were brought together by the action of the waters. The coal beds contain many impressions of plants and por- tions of plants, so that geologists have been able to determine the nature of the vegetation of that period. There are a great many mosses and ferns, some of the latter having thick, broad stems, and long and heavy leaves. One geologist says there are one hundred and seventy-seven specimens of plants found in single coal beds. He says there are no palms, nor grasses, nor flowering plants : and for this reason he considers that the coal beds were formed from plants of a marshy growth. The layers of peat, after being covered by shales, sand- stone, and limestone, were compressed beneath the enormous weight of the over-lying strata, and while undergoing this compression, there was a sort of distillation and purifying process going on. In this way the plants and peat, originally loosely matted together, became more and more compressed, and by means of the heat and pressure were entirely decom- posed. Ultimately the substance was turned into what we now find it, and the coal was stored up for future ages. The ancients had curious theories in regard to the forma- 48 SACRED FIRE WELLS. tion of coiil. They regarded it as streams of bitumen, which had become petrified, or had impregnated certain very porous kinds of rock. Another theory which they entertained was, that forests had been carbonized on the spot where they grew, or had been transformed by streams of sulphurous acid, which possesses the property of hardening and carbonizing wood. It is easy to attribute the origin of coal to the agency of riv- ers of bitumen, and oil of vitriol ; but it is not easy to say where those rivers came from. The Chinese have a theory that coal is a species of plant of which the seed was deposited in the earth ages and ages ago, and that it grew and spread in different parts of the em- pire where it is now found, in order that the Chinese of to- day might have a sufficient supply of fuel. They attribute the streams of inflammable gas, which they collect and utilize, to the breathings of an immense monster below the surface of the earth, and in some localities they call him tlie first cousin of the God of Fire. The God of Fire is one of the Chinese dei- ties. He occupies a prominent place in the temples, and is worshipped with great solemnity. In other parts of the world these streams of gas are worshipped, and in localities along the coast of the Caspian Sea, streams of burning gas are con- stantly rising, and their sources are known as sacred wells.. They are visited by thousands of devotees every year, and are regarded with the greatest reverence. Wells of similar character exist in the United States, but they are mostly of artificial origin. They are found in the vicinity of Oil Creek, and that region of Western Pennsylva- nia which has been baptized as Petrolia. Thousands of American devotees can be found in the vicinity of these wells, and many of them owe their fortunes to the modern God of Fire ; but it is doubtful if many of them worship the wells with that religious devotion and reverence which are found among the fire worshippers of the far east. IIL THE CAVERNS OF NAPLES. EXCAVATIONS NEAR NAPLES. — POZZUOLI. — VISIT TO THE CAVE OP THE CU* MEAN SIBYL. — ACCIDENT TO AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER. — HUMAN PACK- HORSES. — DARKNESS AND TORCHES. — THE LAKE OP AVERNUS. — DROWNED IN BOILING WATER. — A DANGEROUS WALK. — IN NERO*S PRISON. — INSTRU- MENTS OF TORTURE. — USE OP THE RACK. — THE IRON BEDSTEAD. — BROILING A MAN ALIVE. — TREATMENT OP PRISONERS. — AN ANCIENT FUNERAL. — VIR- GIL'S tomb. — CONSTRUCTING WINE CELLARS. — NOVEL PLAN OP ROBBERY. The traveller who visits Naples has abundant opportunities for making underground explorations in the neighborhood of that city. A few of the places ho can examine are of natural origin — the Blue Grotto, for example; but by far the greater part of them are artificial. A most interesting journey can be made to Pozzuoli and its immediate neigh- borhood. With a longing desire to see some of the under- ground curiosities that have made that part of Italy famous, I arranged a tour in that direction before I had fairly settled myself at the hotel. We made a party of three, all Amei*- icans, and all as impatient and uneasy as our race is said to be when travelling on the continent. A skirmish with a horde of rapacious coachmen secured us a carriage, and we drove out of Naples by the road which skirts the bay in the direction of Rome. Arriving in the vicinity of the famous places, we were beset by guides, who almost climbed into the carriage in their eagerness to secure an engagement. We picked out the cleanest of the lot, or rather the least dirty, and mounted him upon the box by the side of the driver, where he sat in all the dignity of an emperor. He spoke a confused jumble of English, French, and Italian, which was no language in par- ticular, but might be anything in general. His first move- (49) 50 GOING TO POZZUOLI. ment was to stop at a wayside lionse, from which a woman emerged bringing us half a dozen candles or torches of twisted rags and tallow, each of them as large as one's wrist, and about three feet long. We objected to so many, but the guide assured us they would all be needed. I was inclined to doubt his statement, from my knowledge of the rascality of guides in general; but he met me with the promise, "Me them will pay for if not they be wanted, Si, signer. You verrez will." Of course we could not refuse after this guarantee. I paid for the torches with a silent resolution to make the fellow eat what were left over ; and, as the tallow was bad, and the rags were worse, there was good reason to believe they would not make an agreeable dinner. Soon after making this purchase, the work of sight-seeing began. Each place we visited had a man at the entrance, and not one of us could go inside without paying for the privi- lege. There were always a half dozen idle fellows hanging about ready to sell cameos and other curiosities which had been dug up in the vicinity, as they solemnly avowed ; in re- ality the cameos were of modern manufacture, and made in Rome or Naples. The speculators would begin by asking fifty francs for a cameo which was worth about five, and which they would sell for five if they could not get any more. If we safely ran the gantlet through these avaricious trades- men, we were beset by local guides who wanted to lead us, and we generally found it desirable to employ some of them Jn order to see what the place contained. In one instance these guides acted as pack-horses, and I can testify that one of them, at least, had all that he wanted to carry ; and this is the way it happened. At the cave of the Cumean Sibyl, where the Emperor Nero and other famous men of the olden time were accustomed to go to hear the prophecies on which their fate depended, we found a larger crowd than usual. A party of Americans were just emerging as we entered, and one of them intimated that the place laid over anything he had yet seen. Our torches HUMAN PACK MULES, 53 were lighted, and we went forward quite a distance, through a tunnel eight or ten feet wide, out of which a smaller tunnel descended. Down this tunnel we walked until we came to the edge of a black, repulsive pool, over which the light shone very dimly. There was considerable smoke hanging over the water, and altogether the place was about as gloomy as anything I had ever seen. For all that could be discovered, the pool might be a thousand feet deep, and any number of miles across; to venture upon it might be like venturing upon the Atlantic Ocean, or any other great body of water. I noticed that the guides had their trousers rolled to the knee, and were barefooted. They fearlessly entered the water; two of them carried the torches, and three others backed themselves to the edge where there was a sort of stepping-stone. " What is to be done now?" we asked of our private guide. " Montez ze backs ze men of," he replied. " You they carry porteez will to Grotto del Sibyl." We hesitated to trust ourselves with these fellows, who might drown us, or throw us into a hole a few thousand feet deep, and leave us to come up again through the crater of "^Mount Vesuvius. But finally we concluded to try it, and so we mounted our two-legged steeds and rode oflF. It happened that I was the heaviest of our party, and it also happened that the man who took me did not weigh as much as I did by at least fifty pounds. He trembled beneath me like a plateful of jelly in the hands of an intoxicated waiter, and I expected every moment he would drop me into the water. We went out from the shore into the smoky darkness, and in less than a minute we were completely at sea. Water was beneath and around us, and there was a black sky above that we could almost touch. Ko horizon was visible, and altogether we seemed to be in a world about ten feet in diameter, and without sun, moon, or stars. Our" porters splashed along in water about two feet deep, and I thought much more of the liability ol my pack animal to stumble than I did of the Cumean Sibyl and her oracles. 54 CUMEAN SIBYL. Nero was less in my mind than the garlic-eating Italian be- neath me, and I was much less interested in the Roman kings than in a certain subject of Victor Emanuel. Our trio ex- changed comments on this novel mode of travelling, and for the time we had very little appreciation of the wonderful his- tory of Rome and her dependencies. As near as my recollection serves, we had about five minutes of this sort of travel, when the head of our procession came to a halt before a recess in the wall, which our leader de- . scribed as the SibyPs Bath. It seems that before delivering her oracles, she used to take a bath, on the principle, doubtless, that cleanliness is next to godliness, and the purer her skin the more likely would the gods be to aid her with their inspi- ration. The artists represent her as a pretty woman, and of course she was well aware that frequent bathing had a tendency to preserve her good looks. The couch or bench where she reclined when delivering her oracles was pointed out, and as it then appeared, it was anything but comfortable. The presence of the water in the cave was explained to be something modern, and not at all in fashion when the Sibyl used to be at home to visitors of wealth and distinction. She used to keep her floor dry an€l well swept, and probably she had a little sideboard with a cold ham or two and a bottle of wine. Nero was a frequent caller, both in fashionable and unfashionable hours, and used to send her valuable presents. Mrs. Nero was jealous, but the old gentleman was in a position to do pretty much as he liked, and didn't mind her scolding. One of my companions showed me a scrap of paper, which he said he found just inside the en- trance to the cave, while I was paying oflf the guides. It ran as follows : — May 10, 4 p. m. Dearest Sib : Expect me at eight. The old lady is going out this evening, and won't miss me. Have the tea ready, and send out for a bottle of Cliquot. I will bring a mince pie and some Limburger cheese; also a new pair of ear-rings and a chignon. Your loving Nero. AN UNFORTUNATE ENGLISHMAN. 55 I suspected that the note was a forgery, as it was written in English, and the paper had the water-mark of 1866. I called my friend^s attention to these slight discrepancies, and he at once put the paper in his pocket, and said nothing more about it. After looking at the couch of the Sibyl we started back to our landing-place. Just as we neared it we met another party going in. One of the porters of the new party was evidently weak in the knees, for he stumbled just as he passed me, and went down like a handful of mud. The gentleman he carried was dropped into the water, and fell flat, as though intending to take a swim. He slowly rose to his feet, and after blowing the water from his mouth with a noise like the spouting of a whale, he ventured several remarks that were nowise com- plimentary to his porter or to the place. He appeared some- what excited. His language showed him to be English, but there was nothing in it to indicate that he was a member in good and regular standing of the Church of England. He did not finish his journey to the bath and couch of the Sibyl, but followed us to the shore, where he wrung himself out, and then retired to his carriage to be hung up to dry. With a heart- lessness peculiar to many travellers, he refused to pay the porter for his services. It is fortunate that the latter did not understand English, as he would have been oflfended at the remarks which were made about him. Prom the Sibyl's Cave we went to the famous Lake of Aver- nus, which was described by Virgil long before anybody who reads this book was familiar with a single word of Latin, Near the lake is the famous passage into the mountain about which Virgil wrote : — "Facilis descensus Averni. Sed revocare gradum, hie opus, hie labor est." We paid our admission fee, and then prepared according to the directions of the guide. We laid aside our coats and vests, removed our collars, neck-ties, and hats, and altogether put ourselves in a condition quite improper in polite society. A boy stood ready to precede us in a costume consisting of a pair • i 56 FACILIS DESCENSUS AVERNI, of pantaloons and a tin pail. A fresh egg was now shown ns, and we examined it to see that it was quite cold and raw. The boy then took the egg and a torch, and went into a tunnel like the one at the SibyPs Cave. A blast of hot air met US at the entrance, as though it came from a furnace, and I thought of Nebuchadnezzar and the treat that he used to have for his visitors. On and on we went, and also down and down. Old Virgil was right when he said that the descent was easy, for we went down with the grace of so many oysters entering the mouth of a champagne bottle. Hotter and hotter grew the air, and before we were half way down I remembered some business that I had neglected when I left America. I wanted to go back to look after it, but my friends argued that it would keep a little longer, and I had better go on. So we con- tinued down into the bowels of the mountain, over a slippery pathway and in a temperature as agreeable as that of the stoker's room on a steamship. We reached the end at last, and the boy stooped to the edge of a pool of water and placed the egg within it. We could see a thin -vapor rising from the surface, and readily im- agined that it was steam. The boy was careful of his hands, more careful than was necessary, since he might have added to the interest of the occasion by scalding them, and then hiring another boy to take his place. There were plenty of boys outside who could be hired cheap, and if a dozen were killed daily by scalding, or rendered helpless, it would have made no serious diminution of the Italian population. We stood there a couple of minutes, and then the boy took the tin pail and scooped up the egg and a quart or two of water. He then started back, and scrambled quite nimbly up the steep and slippery path. It was a difficult ascent to make, and we ac- knowledged that Virgil's head was level when he told about the labor required to retrace one's steps from Avernus. We perspired like a man who has just learned that he is the father of triplets, and by the time we completed the journey, our clothing was pretty thoroughly saturated. The boy was ac- customed to it, as the old lady's eels were to being skinned, NERO'S PRISON. 57 and the hide on his shirtless back looked like tlie outside of a long-used pocket-book. The egg was thoroughly cooked, and the water in the pail was of a scalding temperature, al- together tot) hot to put one's hand into. The egg cost us half a franc, and so did the boy : one of us ate the egg with a little salt, but we declined to eat the boy with or without salt, and he did not urge us. The guide told us that one day an Englishman went down the " descensus Averni," and on arriving at the hot water, he stepped around so carelessly that he slipped and fell in. His cries and shrieks rang through the tunnel ; he was pulled out as quickly as possible, but he was so badly scalded that he died in a few hours. Several accidents have happened there by persons scalding their hands and feet, but the character of the place is such, that people are likely to be careful ; otherwise there would be frequent casualties to record. We visited the ruins of temples that were erected to I don't know how many deities, and the next subterranean expla ration that we made was at Nero's Prison, as the guide and the guide-books call it. We left our carriage 'aid went on foot up a narrow lane, and along a path where beggars followed and beset us . at every turn ; notwithstanding their impor- tunity, they did not extract any money from us, though they appeared in all the conditions in which beggars could possibly present themselves. Nero must have been a charming per- sonage if one could judge of him by looking at the place where he used to shut up those who oflfended him. It was a subterranean affair, and we were obliged to light our torches to explore it. We were led through winding passages into cells that were anything but comfortable, the guide stopping every moment to explain to us the nature of each one of the cells, and the uses to which they were put. They were small enough to render it utterly improbable that a man would exert his legs very actively in running, after he was once shut in, and as for light and ventilation, they were quite in keep- ing with the size of the apartments. I inquired about the character of the food which Nero used 4 58 CHOICE FURNITURE. to furnish to the occupants of his boarding-house, and was told that it was not of a hixurious character. Nero had no table d'hote, but used to send the meals to the rooms of his guests. None of them are alive now, and their early death is to be attributed in many cases to the treatment they received. At the time they resided there, oysters had not been invented, and there is nothing on record to show that the delicious conglomerate which we call hash had made its appearance. Some of the patrons used to express a desire to live on the European plan, and take their meals outside ; btrt the proprietor would never permit it. And it must be said, to his credit, that his establishment was to a certain extent a free lunch concern, as he never charged anything for board and lodging. Every- thing was gratis, and of course the patrons who complained must have been mean fellows, who couldn't be satisfi.ed, no matter wbat you might do for them. The furniture of the place was very simple. It had been mostly removed when we were there, but it consisted origi- nally of a bundle of straw on the ground and a double lock on the door. There used to be a gymnasium, where they kept a choice lot of racks, thumb-screws, and other luxurious ar- rangements. Life in the private rooms used to be monotonous, and in order to render it interesting, Nero would take his patrons into the gymnasium to amuse them. Some of them he would play a joke upon by tying them down on a rack and then winding up the machine so that a man of five feet eight would often be converted into six feet two. When he had been played with in this way, they would turn him loose, though releasing him did no good, as he was generally dead before they let him off. The gymnasium had another arrangement, patented by Mr. Procrustes, which was intended to equalize all men, iand make them of a uniform height. This invention, based on the prin- ciples of mechanical communism, was a bedstead of iron, and there were various individuals who enjoyed the treat of being placed upon it. A poet has alluded to it as follows : — FROCRUSTES' BED. 61 ** This iron bedstead they do fetch To try our hopes upon. If we're too short we must be stretched, Cut off if we're too long." When they laid out a man on this couch, if its length corre- sponded with his, he was immediately removed before he had time- to go to sleep. If he was short, both in money and in stature, they elongated him until he could touch headboard and footboard at the same time ; and if he was a tall fellow, they shortened him at the feet with a large pair of shears that were kept for the purpose. When a hundred men had been measured on this bt;d and placed in a row, they were found to be of the same elevation. A good many of them died soon afterwards, but people were numerous in those days, and the dead ones were not missed by those who didn't know anything about them. Down in the kitchen, Nero had a gridiron resembling a garden gate, or a section of an iron fence. He had so many cooks that all of them could not be constantly employed, and so he busied himself to devise ways to employ them. He found that the gridiron was just the thing, and when his cooks were idle he used to take one of his lodgers down stairs and promise him a good roast. The lodger would be thinking of a nice turkey or a leg of mutton when Nero said " roast " to him, and as the private table was not very good, he was al- ways ready to go below. When they got down stairs Nero would tip the wink to the cooks, who would seize the lodger and tie him on the gridiron. They then built a fire under him, and Nero carried on the joke by standing alongside with a big ladle and pourftig hot oil over his guest. When he was done brown, and turned over and done on the other side,. they would let him off to enjoy the fun of seeing the sell played on the next man. No doubt ho would have enjoyed it had he not been dead long before they got through with him. When we returned to Naples, we went by another route than the one we had taken in the morning. At one place our way led through a tunnel cut into the solid earth, and said to 62 THE TOMB OF VIRGIL. be more than two thousand years old. It has worn down greatly since it was first opened ; the marks of the axles of carts and wagons are visible along its sides ten or twelve feet above the present floor. It is lighted by torches placed at regular in- tervals along the walls, and is an important thoroughfare for people going between Naples and certain villages and towns to the north of it. At the end nearest to Naples we were taken to what is supposed to be the Tomb of Virgil, though its authenticity is considerably in doubt. It certainly is not much of a tomb, and many a man not half so talented or fa- mous as Virgil has been lodged after death in far more beau- ful quarters than these. The peculiar nature of the earth composing the hills around Naples has greatly facilitated^ the construction of tunnels and caves. It is almost identical with that of the bluffs of Vicks- burg — easy to cut, and at the same time sufliciently firm to prevent falling in. No roofing or arching of any kind is needed, and the tools ordinarily used in excavations are all that are required. Consequently every man who fias a hill on his farm can construct a spacious wine cellar at little ex- pense ; and if he has a friendly neighbor over the hill, they can easily cut their way through, and save the trouble of climbing when they want to visit each other. I heard of Neapolitan thieves who sometimes find out a well- stored wine cellar in the side of a small hill, and carefully ob- aerve its positign. Then they erect a small house on the other side, and begin a small tunnel. They cart the dirt away at night, and after a month or so enter the cellar and steal enough wine to pay them handsomely for their trouble. -"■ '-■ jK'*/''"^ -y y'^'^PT^^ IV. OPERATIONS AT HELLGATE. HELLGATE AND SANDT HOOK. — ENTRANCES TO NEW YORK HARBOR. — THE HELLKGAT AND ITS MEANING. — STORIES OP THE OLD VOYAGERS. — EDI- TORIAL JOKES. — If A1LLEFERT*S OPERATIONS. — DEEPENING THE CHANNEL. — GENERAL NEWTON. — THE AUTHOR ON AN EXCURSION. — BLOWING UP COENTIES* REEF. — HOW IT IS DONE. — AN ACCIDENT WITH NITRO-GLYCER- INE. — THE author's NARROW ESCAPE. — DIYER'S EXPERIENCE. — ASTON- ISHING THE FISHES. — RECEPTION AT HALLETT*S POINT. — GOING UNDER THE REEF. — THE MEN AT WORK. — AN INUNDATION. — HOW THE REEF IS TO BE REMOVED. — SURVEYING IN THE WATER. — A GRAND EXPLOSION. From the Atlantic Ocean there are two entrances into the harbor of New York ; one by way of Sandy Hook, and the other through Long Island Sound and the East River. For a steamer coming from Liverpool, the nearest entrance is through Long Island Sound. The Sandy Hook entrance is obstructed by sand bars ; the channel is tortuous, and acci- dents are not uncommon. The entrance to Long Island Sound is broad and easy, but between the Sound and the East River there is a very dangerous passage, which extends, however, less than a mile. This dangerous passage is popu- larly known as Hellgate ; the early Dutch navigators gave the place its name. Tradition says that a Dutch skipper, named Adrian Blok, called it the Hellegat Riviere^ after a small stream in Flanders, the place of his nativity. There is nothing sul- phurous in the name, Hellegat, which is said, by one writer, to mean " Beautiful Pass ; " somehow, the transposition of the word into Hellgate, has given it an infernal aspect. The early historians of Manhattan and its vicinity de- scribed the Hellegat as a very dangerous place ; one of the earliest writers speaks of it as follows : " which being a nar- row passage, there runneth a violent stream both upon flood <63) 64 JOKES ABOUT HELLGATE. and ebb, and in the middle lyeth some islands of rocks, which the current sets so violently upon, that it threatens present shipwreck ; and upon the flood is a large whirlpool, which continually sends forth a hideous roaring, enough to affright any stranger from passing that way, and to wait for some Cha- ron to conduct him through, yet to those who are well ac- quainted, little or no danger ; yet a place of great defence against any enemy coming in that way, which a small fortifi- cation would absolutely prevent." Washington Irving humorously says of it, " At low water it is as pacific a stream as you would wish to see. But as the tide rises it begins to fret ; at half tide it roars with might and main, like a bull -bellowing for more drink ; but when the tide is full it relapses into quiet, and for a time sleeps as soundly as an alderman after dinner. In fact, it may be compared to a quarrelsome toper, who is a peace- able fellow enough when he has no liquor at all, or when he has a skinful, but who, when half-seas over, plays the very devil." Occasionally, certain witty editors of New York and Boston engage in little wordy contests in regard to the im- provement of Hellgate : a Boston editor will say the widen- ing and deepening of Hellgate will improve the entrance to New York ! An editor of Manhattan Island will respond that the widening and deepening of Hellgate improves the road to Boston. Neither seems inclined to admit the existence of as much immorality in his own city as in the abiding-place of the other. The removal of the rocks that lie in this passage between East River and Long Island Sound has been a subject of great anxiety with merchants of New York, and it seems a little strange that from the time of the settlement of New York until less than thirty years ago, very little had been done towards this work. As late as 1845, the channel had not even been surveyed ; and it was not until the OflSce of the Coast Survey was re- organized, in 1847, that a careful examination of this perilous maillefert's operations. 6/ channel was undertaken. The first survey was made tinder the supervision of Lieutenant (now Rear Admiral) Charles H. Davis, towards the close of 1847. He made his report in February of the following year, giving a careful description of the rocks and currents of Hellgate, and suggesting a plan for the removal of the most serious obstructions. Nothing was done until the following year, when a new survey was made. A map was published, and in March, 1851, steps were taken to remove certain small but dangerous rocks by the process of blasting. The engineer in charge of this work was a Frenchman named Maillefert ; he proposed to remove the rocks by exploding charges of powder against them. The plan dispensed altogether with the slow and difficult process of drilling; he exploded his powder directly upon the rock, on the theory that the pressure of the water above the gas formed by the burning powder, would offer sufficient resistance to throw considerable force against the rock. His first blast was made on Pot Rock, and removed about four feet from its highest point. The plan was successful as long as the rocks were in a state of projection ; but after these projections had been removed, and the explosions were made against a solid flat surface, they failed almost completely. After this French engineer ended his operations, new sur- veys were made, and it was found that the channel, though greatly improved, was far from complete or satisfactory. Other surveys followed, and various plans were proposed ; but the breaking out of the war for a time put a stop to the labors. In 1866 Brevet Major General Newton was sent by the War Department to examine the obstructions of Hell- 1 gate, and to arrange for their removal. In the following year \ he made his report, giving estimates of the time and money j required to make a safe and easy paseage-way for ships of • ^ all sizes : he proposed to remove, by blasting, the obstruc- tions known as Pot Rock, Frying Pan, Way's Reef, Shell Drake, i Heeltap Rock, Negro Point, Scaly Rock, Hallett's Point, and ; certain other rocks of smaller size. He estimated that the channel could be made an average } *i 68 DANGEBS OP HALLETT'S POINT. depth of twenty-five feet below low-water mark ; that the work could be completed in six years, at a cost of about six million dollars. Another plan included the removal of these rocks and four others in ten years' time, at a cost of nine millions of dollars ; and he presented another plan, by which some of the middle rocks should remain as they were ; and the most serious ob- struction, known as Hallett's Point, could be removed in three years, at a cost of three millions. Hallett's Point is the most dangerous obstruction in Hell- gate. From shore to shore the distance is about six hundred feet ; the reef extends more than three hundred feet from one shore, so that the actual width of the channel is reduced to three hundred feet. The water boils furiously over this reef, and turns a large part of the tide upon the Gridiron Rock, frequently throwing ships upon it. The .process of drilling and blasting was con- sidered too slow and ineffectual, and it was proposed to remove the rock by sinking a shaft upon the shore, undeririin- ing the entire reef, leaving pillars to support the rock until the work of undermining was all ^completed, when, by a single explosion, these pillars could be blown away, the whole reef would fall, and the dangerous obstructions to the commerce of New York would be removed. One pleasant day, in 1871, 1 was one of a party to visit the scene of General Newton's operations. Our party embarked on a small steamer at the Barge OflSce, and proceeded up the East River, stopping on the way to examine the operations in progress for the removal of what is known as Coenties' Reef. This reef is about six hundred feet from Pier No. 8, on the East River, and lies directly in the busiest part of the harbor of New York, almost. in the track of the ferry boats between New York and Brooklyn, and has always been considered very troublesome and dangerous. Attempts have been made at various times to remove this reef, but none of them were successful until the plan of General Newton was tried. The reef is about 250 feet long, and is 130 feet wide in its broad- ■y ■' "2 ■ ,> ; J 1 - < DRILLING UNDER WATER. 69 est part. We found a large scow anchored above the reef, and were politely taken on board. The scow is very broad and heavy, and is firmly anchored, so that ships or steamers that run against it can be very little damaged. In two or three instances, vessels that have come in collision with the scow have retired considerably damaged, while the large and unwieldy craft remains unharmed. As we went on board we were taken to the centre of the scow, where there was a circular well about thirty feet across ; and in this well there was a dome, which could be raised and lowered by means of machinery. At the top of the dome there was a " telescope," twelve feet in diameter, that could be ex- tended or shortened in order to accommodate itself to the con- dition of the tide. The plan of working was to anchor the scow over the place where the rock was to be drilled, and then to lower the dome until it touched the rock. As soon as one part of it struck the rock, rods were pushed out from the side of the dome to rest upon the reef, and perform the work of feet : they readily adapted themselves to the inequal- ities of the rock, and as soon as they were fastened in their place the dome was almost immovable. Inside the dome there were places for lowering drills, and working them, by means of machinery. The drilling enginer were run by steam, and the drills, nine in number, were oper- ated simultaneously ; the nine holes that they made were in a circle of about twenty feet in diameter. The drill penetrated the rock from six inches to two feet an hour, according to its hardness. When a round of holes was made, the scow was hauled off, the holes were filled with charges of nitro-glycer- ine in tin cans, and everything was made ready for a blast. The work of blasting has to be done very rapidly, for the reason that a diver can only go down to arrange the charges at the period of slack water. Everything is made ready at the turn of the tide, and the very instant that the tide falls the holes are charged. We were not in time to witness a blast; and on two other occasions, when I went to see an explosion, the performance 70 NITRO-GLTCERINE EXPLOSIONS. did not come off; some slight accident had happened, so that the slack water period had passed before everything was ready. When the round of holes has been charged, the diver goes down. The pump to supply him with air is kept at work ; the charges are lowered into the water one after the other, and placed in the holes where they belong. When he has ar- ranged everything, he gives a signal and is drawn above. The boats then back away from the reef sufficiently far to be out of the way of the explosion. The nine charges are fired simultaneously by means of electricity. The double wire, insulated with gutta-percha, extends into a small cartridge of powder, which is placed in the top of each charge of nitro-glycerine. The ends of the wire are brought quite near each other, and between them a small slip of platinum is soldered. The current of electricity, passing through the wires, heats this platinum to redness, and sets fire to the powder around it. The powder explodes, and its explosion sets fire to the uitro-gly"^i,>.^ • Levels are described by their names, though they are not always in a strictly horizontal pd99p ^99| xisaAUi siq ji ^Bq; pa;uoasoadun oS aajpuiAvs aqi ;a[ o; Xjaiiii . \ aaoiu SI aq Xauom jo urns \[v.ms b pa:^saAai SBq UBca b uaq^ j •spjBAuayB ;i AVBs aAv 4nq *4sag ^b ^luiod o\\^ aas ;oa pip a^ -qoBa saB[jop puBsnoq; b ui ^nd o:^ sn paAiO||B .C|uo qoiqAv Xg ifpnuS Axqa ^Bq; q^iAv pa:>iBq aaaAv a^ •p9.CB[d X[|nj9aB0 puB ifjsnoi^nBO sbav auiB3 oqj, 'siq^ 9i[i[ qonoi ij9A ^ao;s b i[9; p[noo uain Xubui ^BaaS b ^Bqi ifouBj j ^^•auiiii jaA]is B ui Sui:^B{Q09ds o; p9JBduioo Suiq^joa si '9jqB:^ 9q; aABai ^^^^ i ■1 1 ojojoq ^no noiC suT^ep Moqouiog ^nq /eraisS oq^ ^^noq^ Sniqj -Auv Mon2[ !joa soop , oqAi 'SAV-Oijaj TddjS8i88ii^[ 98oq; jo ouo q^iAi J9>|0d ALBjp JO Saijiis Y U9;uiM \\b sooqs J9;i«S puB s^juBd u99^aBU aB9AV (^snui j mou pnB 'J9uruiu8 n« eaiui a9Aii8 siqij ui p9|B[no9ds 9A'Bq I „ i ui9q; jo 9uo pii38 ^/si '\i (^BqM noi H9^ I „ •BJBqBg JO (^J9S9(J 9q!| JO 9|ppini 9q!j 8B if jp iCiiBiooBog 8B 9aiB09q *pip j UBq:^ j9Sao| uoi:j -B|no9d8 9q^ o:^ 2|on^8 oqAV ra9q'^ jo 9uo Ajqa^ •s;95|ood ai9q^ SuiddB^ joj 0oiA9p A1L9U 9U108 q^JOj ijqSnojq OA-eq pjnoAv q^uoui iCa9A9 (^Bq; 9A9i[9q j '!jno poddoap (^ou pBq if9q^ ji poB '9sud -J9;u9 9q!j JO !jno p9ddojp spuouj iCai J9q:jonB J9yB quq •UO :^U9AJl %l OS puy '^(90001 9J0pi[ •9J0 p9qsnjo 9q!^ oiojj J9aii8 9q; SuipBj;x9 joj :^qSnoq oq ^stiai 8|B0i -ra9qo *;x9^ 'ifauooi ojopf •[[ira oq^ o:^ oaioi 9q^ aiojj ^imq Gq (^snra pBoa b *;x9^ 'Aquoux oaopj •p9U9do oq ^snra gjBqs b ';x9^ 'ifououi 9.ioj^ 'jonj (jnoq^iM nira b unj ^ou p|noo noiC f^qSnoq 9q ^sniu oqooBJ pooAV b '(^xo^^ '^ououi ojoj^ 'da !J98 oq ^enui |]im oq:^ '^X9^ '^90001 qjloj^ 'AjiQUiipxim puB lljai 9q!^ dn Sui^;98 joj p9JBd9jd oq (jsnin 9^i8 jjiui 9q^ "©qx •if9uoui 9J0j^[ 'posBqojnd 9q o^ pBq 9|i8 j[iui b n9q j, •if9Uoui OJOpi 'UMO^jSoj J O:^ OOPTOUBJ J UBg UIOJJ p9!jjodsaBJ!j 9q 0'\ pBq oniSuo p9panojuoo oq:^ a^qx •9aiSu9 aiB9:^8 b 9SBqojnd 0:^ Xououi ojom JOJ ijBO B SBAV 9J9q'j '9uop 8BM siq^ U9Tjji^ q|iai oq^ JO uoi^B^JodsuBJ!^ 9q^ joj p9Jiub9J sbav 8b qoura sb jo 'ojBqs jioi|^ UO /9Uoai 9q:j piBd A'oqj^ "\\ 0; ^fops 0% p9uiaiJ9^9p *9sijd -J9:^n9 oq:^ Oi^ui GUoS pBq oqAV 'jOAOAvoq 'spaouj ^Cai jo ouiofj •s^a9aiS89SSB ojooi XuB iCBd o\ p9snj9j puB 'A9uoai pBq JoqjB iC9uoajpooS ojora ou puoso:^ p9uiuiJ9pp j •qn:>]B9ai injj^nB9q ijBq:^ ui ^BO p9zis-9SjBi B 8BA1 9J9q:^ p9pniouoo puB 'j9ppB[ 9q^ qSnojq:^ ojoq b 99s o; oBSoq j 9uii:| :jBq:^ ^noqy 'uavoi -2ojj o:^ oostouBjj[ uBg uiojj :^i Sai^JodsuBj:^ joj p9J!nb9j sbai Aquoui 4BI|; P[o; 9J9A1 9M n9q^ puB ^)q3noq 8bai ji;ai 9qj^ •aoi:)Tpuoo Sui^Bd B ni ouioi jno !|nd pjnoM njoi b jo osBqojnd 9q^ ^Bq:^ p9soddns 9A\ s^uBjuT Saiqjqrai-i||iiii puB 889iq:>oo^ jo oouooonai oq:^ m^lM. qjioi 9q| 9SBqojnd o^ iCouora oq:^ p98iBj 9m 'SuiiquinjS qonai !^noq^iAv (^oa 'puB '3aiao8B9J siq^ jo oojoj 9i\% p9^:>iuipB 9^ gXX 'JLaNOK aaore 1 A NECK-TIE SOCIABLE. 115 :^ 1 ] "John Smith, equine, abductor, was treated to a neck-tie sociable yesterday morning at sunrise, under the largest tree that could be found in the vicinity. The boys got up a nice J surprise party for him." The day of mining speculation of this sort has not passed i away, but the capitalists of New York and other eastern cities i have had their eyes opened, and are not so easily taken in ^ as they were of old. . Some of the enterprising speculators have transferred the j scene of their operations to Europe, and are making very profitable shafts and tunnels in the money bags of the capital- ists of the old world. I know some of them who have gone there with mining claims, which they have represented to be worth millions of dollars, though not really worth ten cents, and they have returned to America with a goodly amount of capital. I once heard one of these gentlemen tell his experience with a heavy capitalist in London. " The old fellow," said he, " was very cautious. I had a talk with him two or three times, and finally brought him some magnificent specimens. He looked at them very quietly, and then asked, — " ' How much of this stuff is there ? ' " ' O,' said I, carelessly, " any quantity of it. There are five or six thousand tons of it in sight — right on the surface of the ground. The vein is ten feet wide. We have a claim five hundred yards long, and we think it is at least two thou- sand feet deep, and the farther down you go, the richer it gets.' " The old fellow took the specimens once more, and I saw his eyes glisten. I knew then that I had him. The next day I sold him the mine, and got the money. Once I had got it, you bet I took a train for Paris; and I have not been in London since." •1 '■'> VIII. BURGLARS AND BURGLARIES. REMARKABLE BURGLARIES. — UNDER GROUND FOR DISHONEST PURPOSES. — WONDERFUL "adroitness OF BURGLARS. — A REMARKABLE ROBBERY. — OCCUPATION OP A LAWYER*S OFFICE. — LABOR UNDER DIFFICULTIES. — A TROUBLESOME POLICEMAN. — STRANGE SCENE IN COURT. — THE CULPRIT*8 REPLY. — ROBBERY BY COUNTERFEIT POLICEMEN. — THE OCEAN BANK ROB- BERY. — RAPID AND THOROUGH WORK. — AN ASTONISHED WATCHMAN. — BAFFLING THE POLICE. Labor under ground may be performed for a bad, as well as for a good purpose. It may be for dishonest gain, or it may be to secure a place of concealment for stolen treasures, or for those who steal them. In the performance of this kind of labor, men will frequently display ability and enterprise sufficient to insure them a good living and ulti- mate independence in an honest calling. They overcome obstacles of great magnitude ; constantly risk their lives and liberty, and frequently fail to obtain any reward ; their enter- prises are hazardous ; and where they promise great returns, they very often fail to redeem the promise. Men who plan great robberies frequently show the qualities that would make them prominent in an honest pursuit ; they may spend half their lives in prison, when they might be honored and respected if they chose to.be so; but they deliberately decide that honesty is not the best policy, and accept the career, which is certain to cover them with dishonor. Some years ago there was a skilful and successful robbery of a jewelry store in Manchester, England. The store was entered between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning; the safe was opened and goods to a great value were taken ; the occupants of the store had bought their safe only a few (IIC) A BUBGLAB ON THE WITNESS STAND. 117 1 1 r, months before ; it had been warranted fire and burglar proof, and they at once brought suit against the makers of the safe ^ to recover the value of the goods that were stolen. When the trial came on, one of the counsel stated that a man, then in prison for another oifence, had acknowledged to a share in the robbery of the jewellers. With the consent of both parties the man was brought into court to testify to the robbery, and say how it was performed. As he entered the room everybody became silent, and all eyes were turned i towards him. ] They had expected a low, mean-looking fellow, with the face of a bull-dog, and the general appearance of a brute. Instead of such a man, they saw one whose bearing was erect, and whose face denoted intelligence. He took his place in the witness box, and when everything was ready he began his story. He gave the history of the robbery at length, and detailed each step of the proceedings. His manner was capti- vating, and at times he displayed enthusiasm and eloquence that would have fitted him for the position and honors of an advocate. " We watched the store for more than a month," said he " so as to learn the habits of everybody around it. We found they shut up Saturday, and no one went near the place till Monday morning, and so we fixed on Saturday night and Sun* day as the best time to work. There was a lawyer's office over the store, and the lawyer went away about three o'clock in the afternoon, and didn*t come back till ten the next morn- ing. Sunday he didn't come at all, and so we were sure of him. " We went into his office every day for a week before we went to work ; but of course we didn't touch anything. We laid out all our plans in his office, and smoked his cigars, and I will do him the credit to say they were excellent. As soon as he was gone that Saturday, we went into his office, took up the carpet, and then lifted the boards in the floor. We made a hole three feet square down to the laths and plaster of the ceiling of the jewelry store. Then we waited till the store 118 NEW USE FOR AN UMBRELLA. was sliut ; and it hadn^t been shut five minutes before we had a little hole in the ceiling large enough to push down a tightly closed umbrella. " We got the umbrella down, and then opened it, so that it would catch all the rubbish, and thus prevent our making any noise. When we were ready to go into the store, we had to arrange things so as to work systematically. We had laid all our plans for this beforehand. " A gas-light was kept burning in the store, and there was a hole in the shutter, so that anybody could look in. A police- man passed the store once in every fifteen minutes ; it was his duty to look in every time, and I can say for him that he did his duty. The man who was to work at the safe had to lie on his side in full view of the peep-hole ; but by rolling over twice he could get under a counter and be out of sight. "There were five of us in all. One was to work at the safe, with a string tied to his toe. This string was held by a man who sat on the edge of the hole in the lawyer's office. Then a man was at the lawyer's window, and another was walking up and down the opposite side of the street. The fifth man took turns at the safe, so that we should lose no time in resting. " When the policeman was coming, the man in the street made a signal to the man at the lawyer's window. This one signalled the fellow at the hole, and pulled the string gently. The man at the safe th^n rolled under the counter; he staid there till the policeman had looked in and gone along, when the signals were repeated, and he rolled out and went to work again. " We lost five minutes out of every fifteen in this way, and at one time we thought we should have to give up. Wo got into the safe, though a little after midnight; and tlien it didn't take long to empty it of all we could carry. We were out ol the store by one o'clock Monday morning, and took an early train to London." The burglar then went on to give a description of the pro* cess of opening a safe. He said that it w^as a rule with skilful -' .^^. •• \ «t t "BURGLAR PROOF SAFES." 119 burglars that any safe could be opened, provided there was a place anywhere for the insertion of a wedge. " If we can get a wedge in anywhere," said he, " the safe is bound to open, | even though the first wedge is no thicker than the blade of a knife. " All we want besides proper tools is plenty of time, and there never was a safe manufactured that cannot be opened if you give us time." He then described the advantages and disadvantages of the safes made by difierent manufacturers. " A^s safe can be opened by a skilful man in twenty hours ; B's in fifteen hours; C's in eleven hours; D*s in nine hours; i and as for E's," mentioning one that had recently come into 'i notice, " we consider it no more than an ordinary trunk, as we i can open it in half an hour. i •' There is no safe made that cannot be opened inside of ^^ thirty hours, and if we can be sure of not being disturbed for ^ that time, we are certain of our game. Any safe will answer 1 its purpose, provided the intervals of visiting the place where '< it is kept are never so great as the time required. to open it." As the man finished his story, and was taken from the court to go to prison, the judge asked him why he did not abandon A burglary and live honestly. "Your story," said the judge, ** shows that you possess suflScient intelligence and ability to make you a master mechanic in a very short time, and if you would lead a respectable life you could be sure of a good i living." The burglar turned to the judge, and replied with< great earnestness, "I am as proud of my profession as you are of yours, and have no desire to leave it. I stand high in it, and the praise and admiration of my associates are just as dear to me as the praise and admiration of a shopful of mechanics would be to their master. Besides, we run' risks that mechanics do not ; we must have the skill to bafBe the police, and save ourselves from arrest, while the mechanic needs nothing of the kind. The greater our danger, the greater is the respect shown to us ; and one reason why we 7 i 120 A WELL-PLANNED ROBBERY. love our profession is, because there is so much danger in it. And any skilful and experienced burglar will tell you so." The man went back to prison to serve out his sentence for the crime of which he was convicted. Doubtless the notoriety he had obtained by his appearance in court was of great assistance in consoling him for his imprisonment. He was proud of his accomplishments as a burglar, and seemed to take his incarceration more as an honor than a disgrace. In this country there have been several robberies of the higher sort, such as entitle the perpetrators to great praise for their skill, although it was shown in a bad cause. Among these may be included the famous Philadelphia Bank robbery, a few years ago, where the burglars actually informed the bank officers that an attempt was to be made against them. They proceeded in this wise : — One afternoon, a little before the close of business hours, a jman in the uniform of a policeman entered the bank and asked for the cashier. On meeting that official, he stated i;hat he had been sent by the police captain of the precinct, ^hom he named, to warn them that there was reason to sus- pect that an attempt would be made that evening to rob the bank. He said an extra policeman would be detailed to •watch the bank, and another extra man would be placed on the beat. The cashier thanked the man for the information, and told him to give his compliments to the captain. The man then departed, and the bank officers, after notifying their private watchman, closed the establishment and went home. Of course the private watchman was on the alert, and kept G sharp lookout. About ten o'clock a policeman appeared, and asked if there had been any suspicious movements around there. The watchman said there had been none ; and while they were talking another policeman appeared, and joined them in conversation. The first was the extra to watch ihe bank, and the second was the extra on the beat. The watchiman opened the door of the bank, and allowed them to enter, so that they could see the approaching thieves without being seen. AN UNHAPPY WATCHMAN. 123 When the three were fairly inside, there was a sudden change in the state of affairs. The door was closed, the ■ watchman was knocked down, bound, gagged, and carried to the president's room, where he was seated in a comfortable arm-chair. One of the men drew a pistol and sat in front of him ; the other opened the outer door, blew a small whistle, and in a minute half a dozen men, as nearly as the watchman 1 could judge, entered the building. The door was closed behind them, and the party went at work to open the safe. Swiftly, and as silently as possible, their work was per- formed. The watchman, from the place where he was bound, could not see, but he could hear, and he knew they were at work with drills, blow-pipes, wedges, and the other imple- '] ments of the burglar's trade. Hour after hour passed, the l watchman, bound and gagged, being guarded by his vigilant keeper. In telling the story subsequently, he said he was 1 civilly treated by the man who guarded him. . At his request " -^ the cords that held his arms were loosened, and the gag in i his mouth was placed where it would least inconvenience :^ him. Whenever he complained of thirst, his keeper gave him I a glass of water from a pitcher in the room. ] An hour or so before daylight the robbers opened the safe, 1 and secured their plunder. Hastily packing it into the bags ] that had contained their tools, they departed, leaving their : tools behind, and leaving the watchman securely fastened in ;l his chair. He was ordered not to stir for an hour: bound as -i Le was, he could not stir until some one came to his assistance, ^ so that the parting injunction of the thieves was entirely ; superfluous. The amount of their plunder was never posi- tively made known to the public, but was understood to be not less than two hundred thousand dollars — a verv fair compensation for the work of a single night. Of the many successful bank robberies that have taken place on this continent, the Ocean Bank burglary ranks among the foremost for its ingenuity and skill, and for being a com- plete puzzle to the most experienced detectives of the city of New York. Although an investigation by the police ^ J t> 124 THE OCEAN BANK ROBBERY. authorities was begun within a few hours after the discovery of the robbery, no clew was ever obtained, or, at any rate, given to the public, of the perpetrators ; and to this day the whole matter has been involved in mystery, and probably will ever remain so. The maxim of war, that the reduction of every place, how- ever strong, is possible, must be equally true in the art of thievery. It is evident that no vault can be made impreg- nable ; no lock can be contrived by human ingenuity, with all its mechanical appliances, that will prove superior to other human ingenuity ; no system of watching can make property entirely safe against the patience and acuteness of men who give good faculties to the science of stealing. The premises occupied by the Ocean Bank were at the corner of Greenwich and Fulton Streets, New York, a locality much frequented by day and night. One would imagine that an attempt at robbery in this locality must be detected very quickly, provided the policemen and th% watchers employed around the neighboring stores performed their duty. The robbery occurred between one and three o'clock on the morn- ing of the 28th of June, 1869. It appears that there was no regular inside watchman employed by the bank, but they had an out-door man employed to watch the premises. It is supposed that the robbery was planned many weeks before it took place, and one or more persons familiar with the thorough workings of the bank were suspected of being, to some extent at least, participators in the enterprise. The basement of the premises in question was occupied by a Mr. William Okell, a gentleman well known in the city, and doing business as a broker. Having more room than he re- quired for carrying on his business, he rented out several small offices for business purposes. In the early part of June, a man giving the name of Charles K. Cole, and repre- senting himself as an agent for an insurance company in Chi- cago, engaged one of these rooms ; and to him is given the credit of planning the robbery, in connection with others. Immediately above the office rented to Cole was the i^ I A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 125 president's private office, and through the ceiling of this office an entrance was made sufficient to admit a man's body. '] From the subsequent examination by the detectives, it ap- pears that holes were drilled through this ceiling from above and below, as the Brussels carpet in the president's room con- tained no holes, which would not have been the case had the drilling been done entirely from the basement. It was urged by some that this drilling through the ceiling and large beams must have occupied weeks, while other ex- \ perienced officers asserted that it could have been accom- plished in a few hours. One of the severed beams was four inches thick by fourteen in width. Some believed that an entrance was effected through the side door, and that the per- son or persons had a good knowledge of the employees, where the safes were, the contents of the vault and safes, and the key to the combination lock. The discovery of the robbery was made by the colored man up stairs, on Monday morning, when he opened the bank, in his usual way, to clean the offices. He detected a strong smell of powder, and went into the rear office to find out the : cause of it. There he was astonished at the view which met his Ethiopian eyes. On the floor of this office were the vaults and safes. Here J he observed several caps of different descriptions, six or eight in number ; overcoats, blouses, and overalls, such as are used by machinists ; oil-cloths, rubber shoes, saws, bits, awls, jack-screws, drills, lanterns, and every other kind of imple- ment used by expert thieves. The instruments were gath- ered together and taken into the possession of the police, and a cabinet of four hundred pieces was made of them. 1 The vault and safes were found to have been broken open ; u United States bonds were lying scattered about, as well as \ large quantities of coin and currency, mixed with which were ' | small wedges, railway bonds, copper coin, augers, chisels, flasks ,- 1 of powder, any quantity of cigar stumps, which showed that ^ , '* the burglars took the situation very coolly, pieces of chilled iron, fuses, gold certificates, and other valuable securities. ■1 126 FRIGHT OF A PORTER. Just outside the vault was placed a very heavy bag of gold, which had been lifted out ; but owing, probably, to its great weight, it was abandoned. Tin boxes had been burst open and thrown in all directions, as well as the securities which they had contained, and eveiything betokened the utmost recklessness in ransacking the safes. When all this disorder and chaos met the porter's gaze, he became half bewildered, and did not know how to act ; he thought he might be ar- rested for what had been done by others, and for a few minutes he contemplated flight. He had been through the rooms at one o'clock A. M., on the same morning, and found everything secure, so that it was plain the robbery had been done in a very short time. He, at last, raised an alarm that the bank had been entered, and in a short time Captain Steers, of the twenty-seventh precinct, took possession of the bank until the officers arrived. When the robbery became known, the city was thrown into intense excitement, as it was rumored that over one million of money and securities had been stolen. The bank was quickly besieged by depositors and other interested parties, together with the usual assembly of curiosity-seekfers. The depositors were perfectly uncontrollable ; and at one time it seemed that they were going to lay hands on money, or secu- rities, found outside the vault, and make themselves secure against loss. The police, however, kept them at bay, and kept them out of the building. At length the bank oflScials appeared on the scene, in company with the bank's legal ad- viser ; and after a sliort sime they issued a statement that only about twenty thousand dollars had been stolen. This report kept down the excitement, but the depositors really did not know whether they were safe, or utterly ruined. The detectives took charge of the case, but, as stated at the outset, they were unable to cope with the matured plans of the thieves, and did not succeed in bringing any of them to the bar of justice. The vault was in the president's room, at the rear of the premises. It was defended by an iron door, having a combi- BLOWING OPEN A SAFE. 127 i 9 nation lock. This door was blown open with the gunpowder which had attracted the porter^s attention. The door being opened, everything in the safe was accessible. The keys to the second door hung on the inside of the one that had been thrust open by the action of the powder, and it is hardly necessary to say that the thieves made good use of them. The third door was forced open with a powerful screw, the force used being sufficient to depress the floor under the door. Here were two safes ; one contained the securities of the de- positors, and the other the property of the bank. The boxes of the depositors appeared to be the principal ■ attraction for the thieves, and paper securities were preferred , to the gold which stared them in the face. These boxes -^ were completely overhauled, and securities to the amount of about five hundred thousand dollars were abstracted ; one ; depositor having lost as much as fifty thousand dollars, for - which the bank was in no way responsible. ] About thirty thousand dollars belonging to the bank, in ) checks and currency, were stolen. The thieves overhauled some thirty thousand dollars in Clearing House currency, which could have been negotiated, as well as thirty thousand dollars in gold coin ; but which they did not touch. The detectives went to work, and it was said that one or more of the bank's officials were suspected, and closely watched for some time subsequent to the robbery. Two men, who were said to be the most daring and accomplished bank thieves in the city, were suspected ; but no trace could be obtained of their having been seen near the Ocean Bank. These men were supposed to have committed a robbery, just previously, at the National Bank of New Windsor, of some- thing like one hundred thousand dollars. A number of ex- < pert English burglars had also arrived a short time before the -i robbery, but nothing could be brought against them. ^ On the third day after the burglary, a patrolman, hi Eliza- beth Street,about three o'clock A. M., met two young lads whom he knew. Suspecting they were up for no good at that hour j of the morning, he spoke to them. They informed him that .-■J ^ ^ ■'1 1 '1 128 SECURITIES RETURNED. there was a large trunk standing on the sidewalk, opposite No. 8 Elizabeth Street. He went to the number indicated, and there found the trunk, as they had described. On it was a card directed to Captain Jourdan (late superintendent of poHce), of the sixth ward. The trunk and the two boys were taken to the station-house. When Captain Jourdan was summoned, and the trunk was opened, it was found to contain unnegotiable securities, to the amount of three hundred thousand dollars, which had been stolen from the Ocean Bank. The property consisted of bonds, checks, securities, and currency, together with legal documents, such as conveyances and mortgages ; but no clew could possibly be obtained as to the sender of the trunk. The total loss sustained by the bank proved to be about twenty-five thousand dollars, out of the bulk of the valuables and money stolen ; but as the property returned to Captain Jourdan principally belonged to the depositors, their loss was estimated to be something near half a million of dollars. The various implements found at the bank were valued at two thousand dollars, and were of the very finest finish ; some of the pieces were worth as much as two hundred dollars, and three hundred dollars each. Altogether, it was one of the most skilful, ingenious, and well-planned robberies ever committed in this country. The most singular part of the robbery is that, although an outside watchman was employed to guard the premises, no one was seen to enter the bank, or the basement of the building; neither was any one seen to leave the premises at any time of the night or morning when the robbery took place. :.r+*-W9V»*»IV^. ' V '^■"'"^ - -^^ illlrl'UiPPPWtJlJ^""*'"^*^ ■ IX. ADVENTURES OF DIVERS. GOING UNDER WATER. — PEARL DIVING. — COSTUME OF THE DIVERS. — HOW THEY DESCEND. — OBTAINING THE PEARL OYSTERS. — DIVING-BELLS. — HOW THEY ARE MADE. — ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES. — ADVEN- TURES IN DIVING-BELLS. — SUBMARINE ARMOR. — ITS CONSTRUCTION AND USE. — A diver's adventure. — A HORRIBLE SIGHT. — THE DIVER'S STORY. — A PEARL DIVER AND A SHARK. — A NARROW ESCAPE. — STRATEGY IN THE WATER. To go under the water is pretty nearly as diflBcult as to go under the earth. Man is not made to live in the water, al- though he has been known to pass many hours there with- out touching land. A great many persons seem to have a dread of water in any shape. They rarely bathe, and never drink the liquid when they can obtain anything stronger. It frequently becomes necessary for men to go beneath the sur- face of the water, exploring the wrecks of ships, and search- ing for valuable things that are to be found with a varying quantity of fathoms above them. In the East Indies, and in South America, and other parts of the world, the primitive form of diving without any apparatus whatever has been popular for many hundreds of years. The pearl divers of the East are dressed in a costume somewhat resembling that of the famous Greek Slave, minus her fetters. The diver, when pre- paring to go below, arms himself with a pick, with which to break away the pearl oysters. He is provided with a stone weighing forty or fifty pounds, and attached to a rope several feet in length. Filling his lungs with air, he grasps the rop© in his hand, and then jumps from the side of the boat into the water. The weight of the stone carries him down. When he reaches the bottom, he detaches the oysters from the rocks, places them in a bag at his side, and then rises with (129) -4^ 130 DIVING-BELLS. his prize to the surface. Ordinarily he does not remain more than a minute, or a minute and a half, below the surface, though instances have been known of pearl divers who would remain as long as four or five minutes under the water. Of course he can only remain as long as the air which has been taken into his lungs will last him, and every one who tries to hold his breath knows that this cannot be for a long time. The diver generally closes his nostrils with a split stick, or something of the sort, to prevent the entrance of the water, and he is very careful to keep his mouth tightly shut. Water and air do not mix well in one's lungs, and no man has ever h yet invented a system of breathing water instead of air. At the depth to which the pearl diver descends, the pressure of the water causes a very unpleasant sensation in the ears, and before he has made many subaqueous journeys the drum of the ear is generally broken. The breakage of the ear-drum . causes no serious injury beyond rendering the person who has undergone it hard of hearing, and instances have been known of divers becoming entirely deaf in consequence of the injury to their ears. As an improvement upon the primitive form of diving, the Diving-Bell was invented. It is called a bell on account of its shape, and not in consequence of any sonorous quality. It is constructed in the general shape of a bell, or an inverted tumbler; it is lowered, mouth downwards, into the water by means of ropes attached to a ship, a boat, or the arm of a der- rick projecting over the water. Generally, however, it is let down from a ship's side. The earliest diving-bells had no arrangement for supplying them with air. After the quantity within the bell was exhausted, the diver gave a signal by means of a rope, and the bell was drawn to the surface. At present the diving-bell has a flexible rubber tube attached to it, by which it is constantly supplied with fresh air, so that a diver may remain several hours under water without suflTering for want of a pure atmosphere. The foul air is let out through a valve in the top of the bell, and is constantly rising in the shape of little bubbles. The pure air is forced down by 4 IT if * '% - |V ^r- iii ir i ' ■-^r'Hr**^ " .---.■..-^^*--. • . _ ■ ^.-^.» ti3-E^,^^M^^;^^-■ IMPROVEMENTS IN DIVING. 133 .1 1 means of a pump, which must be kept in steady operation. As long as this pump is at work, and the bubbles are rising from tlie bell, those above can be assured tliat everything is satisfactory ; but let the bubbles cease to rise, and it is in- stantly known that something is going wrong. As the bell descends below the surface, the pressure of the M air becomes very great, being equal to the pressure of the 1 water. A dense atmosphere of this sort has many peculiar- 1 ities. It is easy enough to breathe, but the pressure on the j drum of the ear is frequently inconvenient. An ordinary ] whisper will sound as loud as the customary tones of the ,i voice, and if there are two persons in the bell, and one of I them speaks as he would naturally speak in the open air, he i will seem to the other to be shouting with the full power of i his lungs. A slight blow upon any metallic substance within -;! the bell will sound like a very heavy one, and any noise that i would cause no inconvenience in the open air may become absolutely painful in the dense atmosphere in the inside of a diving-bell. A diving-bell must be made very heavy to carry it down- J ward, and large weights are generally placed around its mouth. A shelf inside serves as a seat for the occupant, and when it is lowered to the bottom, the ground can be leisurely surveyed or examined for whatever object the diver has in view. Sometimes, when two persons descend in a bell, one of them may leave the bell by divii^g into the water, and then return- ing, but he cannot go very far. Submarine armor, however, | enables him to go quite a distance away from the bell, and i return at his leisure. Submarine armor possesses many ad- vantages over the ordinary diving-bell. A man encased in a ] submarine suit can remain under water for a long time, and i move about pretty much as he likes. ^ Submarine armor consists of a water-proof suit, completely I encasing the body of the wearer. It is put on in two sections ; \ the trousers have shoes attached to them, with heavy leaden - , soles, and at the waist they are firmly fastened to a metallic , ring. The upper part of the suit covers the arms, the head, I 134 SUBMARINE ARMOR. and the chest, and the lower part of it is fastened to a ring which exactly meels the other. The upper part of the suit is put on, and after it the second, or lower part. The two rings are then fastened together by means of screws, and a tliin band of rubbei upon them excludes both air and water. The head of the diver is enclosed in a helmet made of brass or other metal, and having a thick plate of glass in front. Air is conveyed inside this helmet by means of a rubber tube, and an air pump must be kept in constant operation, to supply the man in armor with the necessary amount of air. The foul air escapes through a valve in the top, just as it escapes from the top of the diving-bell. A suit of clothing of this sort does not add to the beauty of its wearer ; it is very cumbersome, and I greatly doubt if it ever becomes fashionable for an afternoon promenade on Broadway. The helmet might answer very well as a disguise, for the reason that the face of the wearer is almost, and generally quite, invisible. When a diver is properly encased in his armor, he is swung off from the side of the boat or ship, and sinks into the water. The leaden soles upon his shoes carry him straight down, and serve to keep his feet in the proper place and position. The tube supplies him with air, and he can walk about and use his hands freely. He can handle the pick and shovel, and can enter the cabin of a sunken ship ; in fact, he can go in any place where the flexible tube can be made to follow ; but all the time he is below, the pump must maintain a steady mo- tion, and the valve in the top of his helmet must work freely. A slight accident may cause his death: should any of the machinery of the pump give way, or some careless person on the ship step upon the tube as it lies along the deck, the diver might lose his life. It sometimes happens that on be- ing drawn to the surface the diver is found dead. Some slight accident has cut off his supply of air, and cutting off the air has deprived him of life. Sunken ships have been explored by means of this diving armor, and sometimes large amounts of treasure are recovered through its use. In some cases miners have prosecuted their A HORRIBLE SIGHT. i35 operations under water by means of this apparatus. A few years since an expedition was fitted out to examine a wreck of a sliip which was sunk more than half a century ago on the coast of South America. She was known to have a great deal of treasure on board. Operations had been imdertaken frequently by means of common divers and diving-bells to recover this treasure, but none of the enterprises had been rewarded with success. With their submarine armor to aid them, the new explorers were successful, and were hand- somely rewarded for their eflForts. Thrilling stories are told by men who have thus gone below the surface of the water. Some time ago a diver was sent down to examine a steamer that had been sunk in about sixty feet of water, and had carried down many of its passengers. The man went down, and made two or three efforts without success to enter the cabin of the vessel. On the fourth visit he accomplished his object, and reached the cabin. Soon he made a signal to be drawn up. When he was on the deck of the ship, and the armor was removed, he fainted. When he recovered, he was asked the cause of his faintness, and re- plied, — " It's enough to make any man faint to see what I have seen. I went into the cabin of that ship ; it was full of water, of course ; but that wasn't all. It was full of the bodies of those passengers that went down when the ship was lost. There was a slight motion of the water, caused by the ground swell ; and, as I entered the cabin, the water slowly swayed backward and forward, ancl swung these bodies with it. At the very door one of them brushed against me, or rather rolled against me, and its dead, glassy eyes stared directly in the face of ray helmet, not six inches away. I knew it was dead, but there seemed to be a life-like expression in that cold and stony face. I passed by it, and had gone but a few feet before I encountered another body ; and as I looked along the cabin, the vessel, being slightly careened, received a dim light through its windows. Those bodies swinging with the motion of the water seemed more like living than like dead 136 SEEKING FOB PEARLS. forms. There was a combination of life and death in their paleness which was absolutely horrible ; and not for all the treasure this ship contains will I go down again.^' The diver positively refused to repeat his descent, at least in that pa;^t of the ship ; but others, less sensitive than himself, were found to go down and complete the exploration. None of them, however, appeared anxious to continue on that sort of work, and all were heartily glad when the exploration in the cabin was completed. The life of a pearl diver is full of adventures. The pearl oyster is found only in warm countries, or, at all events, very rarely in cold countries. The parts of the sea where these oysters are found are generally frequented by sharks. The sharks have a great fondness for divers, but it can be readily understood that the divers do not reciprocate the fondness of this finny tribe. Nothing is more pleasing to the shark — that is to say, an old and well-educated shark — than to miike a breakfast off a pearl diver. The diver objects to this little arrangement, and remonstrates with the shark ; but the latter doesn't heed his remonstrances, unless they are of the most positive character. Before going below, the diver generally scans the water very carefully, to see whether any of his man-eating friends are around and ready to welcome him. When he has reached the bottom, finished his labor, filled his bag with oysters, and is ready to ascend, he always takes a good look aloft, to see that no shark is waiting for him. The shark does not pick up the diver at the bottom ; he makes no attack as long as the man is beneath him, but watches his chance, and as the man goes upward he makes a sudden dash, and considering the diver a stranger, takes him in. It is not unusual in the pearl diving regions to hear of men who have suddenly disappeared while below ; and the inference always is, that these men have been quietly and calmly eaten. A pearl seeker whom I met some years ago while on a sea voyage told me an exciting story of an adventure with a shark in the pearl regions not far from Panama. ■ ^ A NARROW ESCAPE. 139 was a sandy mud, atid I immediately conceived the idea of stirring up this mud, thickening the water, and so making a cloud, behind which I could escape. With my pick I stirred the mud, and in less than ten seconds I had the water all around me very thick and cloudy. " Then I slipped back to the other side of the rock, and went above. I reached the side of the boat with just strength enough to lay hold of it. The men saw that sometiiing was wrong, and they instantly seized me, and pulled me on board. They had become alarmed at my long absence, as I was under water nearly twice the time I had been at any previous descent. " Well, this is not the whole of the story. If I should take oflF my boot — the right one — you would see some very ugly scars on my foot. That shark watched the water where I was, and just as I reached the surface, and was being pulled into the boat, he discovered me. He darted for me, whirled on his back, — sharks always have to turn on their backs to seize their prey, — and tried to take in my foot. " The men saw him coming, and they pulled me in about as fast as any man was ever pulled into a boat. That shark did not get me, as, of course, you believe, but he did get hold of the end of ray foot. Two toes are gone, and the others are pretty well scarred. If he had made his dive at me one second earlier, I do not believe I should have had any foot on this leg to boast of. Confound these sharks, any how. They do not respect a white man at all, or half as much as they do a brown-skinned native. " Take a lot of sharks when they are not particularly hungry, and a lot of niggers may swim around them, and they will be as sociable as if they belonged to the same family; but just ] let them see a white man in the water, and they will take him in as readily as a bull-dog ;vould take in a beefsteak. " I have been some time telling this story to you, but the whole occurrence did not consume more than two or three minutes." 8 i X. EXPLOSIONS IN MINES. THICKNESS OP COAL SEAMS. — STUPIDITY OF A TURKISH MINING SUPERINTEN- DENT. — THE RESULT. — BLASTING IN MINES. — HOW IT IS DONE. — TERRIBLB ACCIDENTS. — MINES ON FIRE. — SCENES OF DEVASTATION. — EFFECT OF SUBTERRANEAN FIRE. — EXPLOSIONS OF FIRE-DAMP. — IIORRIIILE ACCIDENTS. — STORIES OF SURVIVORS. — LOSS OF LIFE. — SCENE IN A WELSH MINE. — EXPLOSIONS IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MINES. — MODES OF RELIEF. — STORY OF TWO BROTHERS. — HOW THEY WERE SAVED. — THE SAFETY- LAMP. — ITS CONSTRUCTION. — THE FIRE-WALLS OF CHINA. — THE PENITENT AND CANNONEER. After the shafts have been completed and the levels opened in the naines, the work may be said to be fairly under way. The seams of coal are of varied thickness. Sometimes, though rarely, there will be found a coal seam of thirty feet in depth, sometimes one of twenty, and so on down to two and three feet. A seam of three feet in thickness is con- sidered a valuable discovery, and oftentimes the seams do not exceed twenty inches. In the deep coal seams the work is comparatively easy, as the space in the level can be hollowed out the full depth of the seam, and all that is necessary for supporting the roof is to leave a sufficient number of pillars standing. There is a coal mine in Turkey where the seam is about ten feet thick. A superintendent, entirely ignorant of the busi- ness, was sent to take charge of the mine. On his first visit to the mine the men were below. He observed the pillars which were left to support the roof above. He gave one glance at them, and then turned to the workmen and said, — "Remove those blocks of coal instantly: this mine has not been worked properly." With that blind obedience peculiar to the Orientals, the (140) — i.'. ,J»T? '^' ADVENTURE WITH A SHARK, 137 " I had in my employ," said he, " about a dozen divers, very active, athletic fellows, who did their duty faithfully, stole all the pearls they could when my back was turned, and some- times, unless I was very watchful, they reduced my returns very materially. I had a curiosity to learn the peculiarities of pearl diving for myself, and so engaged one of the pro- fessional divers to teach me. Well, he taught me. " My first duty was to strip off all my clothes, swing a bag over my shoulder, take an iron vpd about two feet long and sharpened at one end with which to detach the oysters, seize a stone, and after fastening my nose so as not to take in any water that way, I jumped overboard and followed the diver below. " The water was about thirty feet deep, and the first time I went down I could do nothing but come back again. I didn't bring any oysters that time. The next time I went down, 1 managed to get half a dozen oysters, and then I came up. Well, after a while I got so that I could get my bag half filled on each descent, and began to think that I was a very fair diver. I did not do much of it, though. Half a dozen times a day were all that 1 was willing to try. My ears stood it very well the first day, but the second day I went down deeper and staid rather longer than at any previous time, and when I came up my ears were bleeding, and I felt as if there was at least a barrel of water in my head. That was enough for that day ; but the next morning I felt all right, and tried it again. " Always before I went down they cautioned me to look out for sharks. ' Never stir from the bottom,' said one of the men, * until you have looked up to the top, and find everything is clear above you.' I remembered his advice, and it was well that I did so. About ten days after I had begun to learn the busi- ness, I went down as usual, picked up some oysters, put them in my bag, and was starting to go up. I gave my usual look above, and there I saw a big shovel-nosed shark watching me. He was evidently calculating that he had me sure, and considered me as good a breakfast as he wanted. I did not 138 A FIGHT UNDER WATER, like his looks, and what to do I did not exactly know, I would have much rather been in the cabin of my schooner than in the stomach of that fellow. My first impulse was to dart up beneath him, and follow the custom of the natives. Generally when one sees a shark, and can't get oflf in any other way, he rises as rapidly as possible beneath the fish, and sticks the iron rod into his belly. This is a treatment for which the shark is not prepared, and unless he is over-hungry he will generally go away. Sometimes, though, he shows fight; and when it comes to a struggle it is very fierce. The shark is in his natural element, but the man is not in the element to which he is most accustomed, and if the shark is large and persistent he generally wins. "I did not consider myself up to the emergency of stabbing that fellow with ray rod, and thought I would take the chance of going by him. But that was of no use ; he would have taken me in as I reached the surface, just as a trout takes in a fly. In an emergency like mine, men think, and they must think very rapidly. I do not believe that I ever thought with more rapidity in all my life. The place where I had been gathering oysters was at the side of a large rock, and I had not left it when I saw the shark. I moved quietly to the other side, thinking to dodge him. " He saw my movement, and immediately swam over the rock, and placed himself above me. Well, what was to be done next, and what do you suppose I did ? You know there is a little fish called the cuttle-fish. It is not much of a fish ; it is not handsome ; it cannot swim fast, and is not heavy on the fight. When pursued it throws out a sort of inky sub- stance, which blackens the water and makes it sufficiently cloudy to enable the cuttle-fish to escape. It carries this ink in a bag, and keeps it laid up ready for use. Perhaps you might call him a marine editor ; that is, the sort of editor that does not fight, but defends himself by slinging ink in the face of his adversaries. " I was not in a condition to fight, and so I quickly thought I would play cuttle-fish. 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A mine in Pennsylvania took fire, and was filled with water, remaining so filled for nearly half a year before the fire went out. At Brul6, St. Etienne, there is a coal mine which has been ; on fire nearly two hundred years. Hot vapors are constantly arising; sulphur, alum, and other natural productions are i deposited, and one might suppose that it was the burning ^ of the accursed cities formerly consumed by the fires of i heaven and earth. An irreverent American, who visited this i region, said that it looked like hell with the fires going out. 1 In the western part of England there was formerly a coal j mine on fire. Snow melted as soon as it touched the ground. j The gardens were very beautiful and fertile, and produced ^ three crops in a year. Many hot-house plants were cultivated, i and an eternal spring prevailed. It was the same principle, on ^ a grand scale, by which plants are grown in hot-houses by i running pipes of hot water through the ground. The people of this region imported tropical plants at a heavy cost, and cultivated them in the open air ; but one day the fire went out; the place gradually resumed its usual temperature, and jj the tropical plants died. In many coal mines there is great danger from what the miners call "fire-damp" — an inflammable gas produced from the coal. It is identical with the streams of natural gas, which burn readily, and not unlike the coal gas artificially produced in cities. Certain kinds of coal throw off this fire- damp in considerable quantities. The gas is a combination of hydrogen and carbon. Sometimes its presence is not noticed until an explosion, but in such cases the explosions are not very dangerous. Those who have been accustomed to this explosive material have received a vivid experience of underground life. No meteor, however terrible it may be supposed to be, can be compared to an explosion of fire- damp. A thunderbolt, a hurricane, a typhoon, a cyclone, or a . -I ■ 1 i 144 EXPLOSIONS OF FIRE-DAMP. whirlwind, is not more terrible in its effects than a fire-damp explosion. Imagine a discharge of a hundred cannon loaded with canister shot, the simultaneous explosion of a number of powder magazines, or the bursting of the boilers of a steam engine, and the effect will not be more terrible than an ex- plosion of fire-damp in a coal mine. The moment the gas comes in contact with the flame of a lamp, its tremendous explosive force is revealed, and it pene- trates into every quarter of the mine. In an explosion of this kind everything is shattered far and near. Horses, men, doors, machinery, and everything else lying in its course is overthrown, and sometimes heavy machinery at the top of the mine is blown away. Dense clouds of smoke, and frequently masses of coal, stone, and timber, are sent flying from the shaft high into the air. The very ground shakes as if moved by an earthquake, and the general appearance of the shaft is not unlike that of a volcano in a state of eruption. Streams of water are sent into the air, and not a pane of glass for a long distance around remains unbroken; and to these horrors must be added the great confusion and alarm of the people, the wailing of the women and children whose nearest friends have perished, and even then the terrible picture is incomplete. The stories of these explosions would fill volumes. In one mine three hundred and sixty men at one time were killed, in another two hundred, in another one hundred, in another fifty, in another twenty, in another sixty, eighty, and so on, through mine after mine, till the deaths from fire-damp could be numbered by thousands. Not those alone who are in the wreck of the explosion are the victims. At a Pennsylvania mine a few years ago, a dozen men were at work in one of the galleries, and heard an explosion in a portion of the mine some distance away. They rushed to the shaft, and attempted to escape. Before the bucket was low- ered to remove them, the choke-damp, developed by the ex- plosion, overtook them, and the whole party were suffocated. Hundreds of stories might be related of explosions in coal mines. One of them will be sufficient for the present. STORY OF AN EXPLOSION. 147 -i \ i At one time, in one of the English mines, forty men were at work. At the mouth of the shaft there were a dozen or twenty men, when suddenly there was a loud report, like an explo- sion. It was at first supposed to be the bursting of the boiler ; but a moment's observation showed that the fire-damp had become ignited. The masonry at the mouth of the mine, and all the machinery above it, were blown away. At the moment of the explosion, a tub filled with coal was being hoisted up. It WHS a hundred feet or more from the surface, and it was ,j blown into the air as if it were a bullet fired from a gun. The fragments fell around the mouth of the shaft, injuring several of the men who were there. When an explosion occurs, the miners, and all attached to the establishment who may be above ground at the time, are ready to go to the relief of their comrades. In the present instance a relief party was organized at once. A pulley was rigged over the mouth of the shaft, and two men entered a bucket to be lowered down. They had not descended fifty feet before their lights were extinguished, and very soon they made a signal to be drawn to the surface, both of them being in a condition bordering on suflbcation. They were ill through ^ the night, and one of them did not recover his strength for \ several days. A second attempt was made, and resulted in nearly the same way. The lights were extinguished, and the ^ men drawn up in a sufibcating condition. The galleries ; seemed to be full of choke-damp, and it was almost certain i that no one could be alive in the mine. A hose was lowered, ^ and pure air was pumped into the mine. This work lasted ' three or four hours, and then two others descended and sue- ■ ceeded in reaching the bodies of some of their companions; but in the attempt one of the rescuers fell dead, and the oth- er was nearly suffocated. More air was poured into the mine, and it was then twentyr four hours from the time of the explosion before the explorers thought it safe to enter. Every man who was below at the time of the explosion was killed. At the stables near the foot of the shaft a horrible scene was presented. According 1 .1. ■ 1 148 HEART-BENDING SCENES. to the indications, three of the men were in the stables, taking care of the horses, at the moment of the explosion. The sta- bles were thrown down, the men and horses were covered with the fallen debris, and death by suffocation seemed to have ensued in a very short time. At tjae end of the gallery, where the explosion had taken place, the bodies of the men were found in some cases hardly scorched, while in others every particle of clothing had been burned away. In some instances the bodies were so baked that they could not be recognized. Around the mouth of the pit the families of the miners were congregated. As each body was brought to the surface, there were shrieks and loud lamentations that could be heard for a long distance. A more terrible sight cannot be seen in the whole world, than at the mouth of a mine shaft after an acci- dent of this kind. A story is told of an explosion, in one of the Welsh mining districts, which caused the death of forty-seven men. Only two men that were below at the time escaped with their lives. These men were brothers. When the explosion was heard, one of the brothers rushed towards the other, who was a short distance away. A second explosion followed, more severe than the first, and threw the men down. Both were stunned, but they gradually recovered their senses, and were able to move. The air was thick and hot, and they could only move with great diflSculty. The older brother had his can of tea, and bathed their faces with the liquid, so that they revived. Supporting each other, they tried to reach the entrance to the mine. They crawled on their hands and knees in the midst of darkness, over the bodies of their late companions, Bome of whom were still breathing, while the rest were silent and dead. After many narrow escapes, they reached the end of the gallery, near the shaft, and were saved. An apparatus has been invented by which a man can enter places filled with choke-damp, either to carry aid to suffering men after an explosion, or to make explorations. A bag, or case of leather, or metal, is carried on the back, into which .^ AN INGENIOUS APPARATUS. 149 air has been driven tinder a heavy pressure. A rubber tube extends from the bag, and is fastened to the mouth and nose. It is furnished with two valves, one opening inward, to carry the air to the lungs, and the other outward, to carry oflF the air after it has been breathed. For long journeys extra bags filled with air may be taken. Some of these reservoirs, made of sheet iron, will resist a pressure of thirty or forty atmos- pheres. Another apparatus, fastened to the back, like a sol- dier^s knapsack, has a kind of valve, placed above the reser- voir, allowing the air to enter the lungs at the ordinary pres- sure onJy. A similar apparatus is made by filling an air-tight goat-skin with air. The same kind of tubes are employed, and suflS- cient air can be carried to last the bearer fifteen or twenty minutes. To guard against gas explosions. Sir Humphry Davy in- vented a safety lamp. He protected the flame with wire gauze, on the principle that flame cannot be made to pass through a tube, however short, unless it is driven through. The wire gauze is in fact a number of short tubes close together, and thus, while the explosive gas may pass through, the flame can- not do so. An improved lamp of this class has a glass cylinder around the flame, with gauze at the top and below. The glass is pro- tected by stout wires. A great many forms of these lamps are in use in mines, but all are constructed on the same principle. By the use of this safety lamp, many mines that had been abandoned were reopened ; and Sir Humphry Davy is regard- ed as one of the greatest benefactors of this age. His lamp might well be called, like Aladdin's, the Wonderful Lamp. Sometimes, when fire-damp is very abundant, and is steadily given out, it is utilized for lighting purposes ; the gas is col- lected, and by means of a pump a jet of gas is poured from a tube and is ignited. One of these jets has been burning for more than twenty years in an English coal mine. In the same mine the gas was collected in pipes, and carried outside, where it was used to run a steam engine. ) * w 150 CHINESE FIRE-WELLS. A Frencli traveller has given a vivid description of the fa- mous fire-wells of China. He says that where the air escapes it is very inflammable, and if a match is presented at the mouth of the shaft, the gas explodes like gunpowder, and forms a great column of fire twenty or thirty feet high. He says the largest fire-wells are situated in the mountains about one hundred miles from Wutung. They are in a val' ley, where pits were sunk in the hope of finding salt water. The water was not found; but suddenly a column of gas rushed out, bringing masses of earth and stones. The noise was ter- rific, and was heard a long distance. The mouth of the pit was surrounded by a stone wall six or seven feet high. As soon as the fire reached the mouth of the well it caused a ter- rible explosion, something like an earthquake. The flame was several feet high, and the force was sufficient to throw down some of the stones composing the wall. Several men carried a large flat stone to the pit, and placed it over the mouth. It was immediately thrown into the air, and some of the men were badly injured. Neither water, stone, nor earth would extinguish the fire. After two weeks of hard work a quantity of water was brought over the mountains from a small river, and a lake was formed. The water being suddenly turned into the well, the fire was extinguished. In some mines it is the custom, where the accumulation of fire-damp is gradual, to light it every night, so that the works may be always accessible in the daytime. The man whose duty it is to light the fire-damp wraps himself in a thick blanket, covering his face with a mask, and with his head en- veloped in a hood like a monk's. The fire-damp is lighter than the atmosphere, and always rises to the upper part of the level. Consequently the man crawls upon the ground in order to put himself in the best position for breathing. In one hand be holds a long stick, with a lighted candle fixed at the end. He pushes the stick to its full length, and creeps along, firing the gas ; and as soon as he has fired it he changes his position, and walks upright, since the fire-damp is always fol- R-^-li:? ; :a^ ^♦*^ ^ '■4 THE PENITENT. 151 -yi lowed by tbe choke-damp, which is heavier than air, and sinks to the bottom. In the French mine this man is called a penitent, on account of his dress resembling that worn by some of the orders of the Catholic church. His name sometimes would seem to be a cruel jest, as he is liable to be blown away by an explosion, and never return alive. In other mines he is called the can^ noneeVf and when the fire-damp kills him he is said to have died at his post. ''J .ii i i r r XL A DAY IN POMPEII. A VISIT TO POMPEII. — NEAPOLITAN HACKMEN. — AN INTERESTING ADVEN- TURE. — HOW TO AVOID A QUAUREL. -- BEGGARS. — BEGGARY AS A FINE ART. — A PICTURESQUE SCENE. — MAKING MACARONI. — TRICKS OF AN OLD ROOSTER. — POMPEII. — ITS HISTORY. — DISCOVERY OF THE BURIED CITY. — A SCENE IN THE STREETS. — AN ANCIENT BAKERY. — HOW THF MILLS WERE TURNED. — INVESTIGATING AN OVEN. — A WONDERFUL DIS- COVERY. — PRESENT CONDITION OF THE HOUSES. — ADVERTISING IN OLD TIMES. — POMPEIIAN PERSONALS. — A PICTURE OF THE DESTRUCTION. — OBSCENE OBJECTS IN THE CITY. On a pleasant spring morning several years ago, I started from Naples to pay a visit to the ruins of Pompeii. Our party consisted of four persons ; and our first work was to engage a carriage, as we thought the carriage road would be prefer- able to the railway. Engaging a carriage in Naples is a tax upon the patience equal to some of the trials which were visited upon Job. I am not quite certain that Job would have remained patient after a contest with Neapolitan hack- men. Boils would be nothing compared to it. One of the school-books that I studied in my younger days made the assertion, '* A horse is a noble animal." I do not question the nobility of the horse, and his possession of blue blood ; but of one thing I am certain, and that is, a great majority of those who associate with him are the reverse of noble. Hackmen, all the world over, are proverbial for dis- honesty. Horse-jockeys are never mentioned as types of human perfection ; and the history of the race-track is the history of a great deal of fraud. If the horse is a noble beast, it must be that his nobility and excellence of character develop the opposite qualities among his human intimates. Hackmen are bad enough everywhere ; but I think the per- (152) A PICTURESQUE HACKMAN. 153 fection of badness is to be found among the hackmen of Naples. They will lie with the most unblushing impudence ; and if they receive any future punishment for telling untruths, their roasting will be perpetual. The day before our journey to Pompeii, we had chartered a carriage to take us to the Sibyl's Cave, and the other curiosities in the neighborhood of Pozzuoli. We made a positive bargain with the driver, includ- ing the amount which he was to receive as drink money. 1 believe we were to pay twenty francs for the carriage, and two francs for drink money. When we returned and were settling the bill, he swore by all the saints in the calendar, — and he named every one of them, — that we agreed to pay thirty francs for the carriage, and ten francs for drink money. He took his hat from his head in his rage, and threw it upon the ground, pulled his hair, and made things in general very unpleasant. He called several unwashed Neapolitans to wit- ness that no carriage was ever hired at a lower rate than the one which he insisted was our contract price. We found that we could not reason with him ; and so we light- ed our cigars, and waited for his paroxysm of rage to come to an end. We finally compromised the matter by paying twenty- five francs for the whole business ; that is, we compromised by handing him the money, and walking away. He followed us two or three blocks; in fact, he stuck to us until we entered our hotel, and there we lost sight of him. The hackman who was to take us to the buried city might have been useful, but certainly he was not ornamental. He was covered with dust, so that he resembled a walking ash-heap; and as for washing, I do not think he had ever experienced its terrors. Judging by the odor which arose from his skin, he had been put through some embalming process, in which garlic was the preservative substance. He resembled a sponge which has been dipped in garlic water, and kept with- out squeezing. His clothing was of all sizes except his own. His trousers were made for a man twice as large as he ; and his coat for one of about half his dimensions. His face was as prepossessing as a basket of old bottles ; and as for his man- ners, he did not appear to have any to boast of. •*^i 154 PERTINACIOUS BEGGARS. I spoke to him in French, which he pretended to under- stand, but could not comprehend. He answered in a mingled patois of French and Italian, in which there was no French to speak of, and very little Italian. I forget the exact sum we agreed to pay, but think it was altogether about twenty- five francs. I may as well explain here, that on our way back we invented a new plan for paying him, and at the same time avoiding trouble. When we neare'd the hotel on our return, I counted out the money in francs and half francs, and threw in a few copper coins by way of adding to the confusion. With the proper amount in my hand, I stepped from the car- riage, and waited until my three companions were a dozen yards away ; then I dropped the money into the hands of the driver, and started at a rapid walk to overtake my friends. Before he had finished counting the money we were inside of the hotel. As we walked up stairs, I heard a volley of Neapolitan and French oaths following us into the building, and rolling through the hall like a small cloud of smoke. We started from Naples in the direction of Vesuvius, pass- ing through several villages on our road to Pompeii. The road was excellent, being paved or macadamized the entire distance, and ornamented with houses and beggars in about equal proportions. The beggars deserve great credit for the study they have devoted to the perfection of their art. Sores are cultivated as a handsome man would cultivate his mustache ; and as for a withered leg, it is worth a fortune to its possessor. Every time our carriage halted, the beggars surrounded it, as flies in July surround a lump of sugar, and pretty nearly for the same reason, as they wanted something on which to exist. They accosted us in two or three languages, Italian of course predominating. We told them, in French, in English, and in German, to go away, and that we would give them nothing; but they stuck to us with the most unruffled pertinacity. They had heard all. that before, and knew that if they were adhesive, they had a good prospect of extracting something. I tried a new plan on them, and found that it worked well. m ' v^l BEGGING AS A SCIENCE. 155 / / , i /•J i) Assuming an air of great indignation, and with as much ^ severity in my face as I could command, I addressed them 1 very loudly, with my hands extended, in Russian and Chinese. ^ Those languages were new to them, and fearing that it wa« some horrid imprecation, several of them dropped away. I afterwards found the plan quite successful, not only with Italian beggars, but wiih beggars of every nation. Tell them in any language to which they are accustomed, that you will give them nothing, and, if you are so minded, consign them to the infernal regions, and they do not mind it ; but if you assume a priestly attitude, and utter something very solemnly in a language they do not understand, you have a fair pros- pect of getting rid of them. At one place, on the road to Pompeii, there is a small hill. From the foot to the summit the distance is not more than one to two hundred feet ; but the slope is so steep, that horses, in ascending it, do not travel faster than a walk. At the foot of this hill, four beggars — middle-aged women — were located; and they evidently had purchased a monopoly, or possibly a grant from government for the possession of the spot. In front of a small wine shop they had erected a ^ pavilion, and each of them had a comfortable chair. They watched the place, and attended closely to business during the entire day. When they saw a carriage approaching, they left their chairs, and proceeded to the road, adhering closely to the vehicle until it reached the top of the hill. They begged persistently until they received what they demanded, or the top of the hill was reached. Then they returned leisurely to their chairs, and waited for the next customer. If there was but a single carriage at a time, all of them worked it. If there were two carriages, the beggars divided into couples; and if by any chance there were four carriages together, the professionals scattered, and each of them took a vehicle. I drove out on this road several times, and always found it begged by the same persons. I proposed one day to my friends to engage five carriages, and drive them out there together. I thought that we might kill the beggars by cans- J 156 MAKING MACARONI. ing them to die of grief and rage at seeing a carriage pass without being able to annoy its occupants. Another object of interest along the road, and closely asso- ciated with the beggars, is the manufacture of macaroni. I did not enter the houses to see how the stuflf was made ; but I saw great quantities of it drying on frames in front of the places of its manufacture. One of my companions, who had witnessed the process, said they made macaroni by putting some dough around a long hole, and letting it dry. He said the holes did not cost anything, and the dough was not expensive. " And that is the reason," said he, " why the confounded stuff is so cheap." I was rather fond of macaroni as an article of diet ; and my friend advised me, if I wished to continue so, to remain in blissful ignorance of the manner of its preparation, and not to ask any questions. I took his advice, and to this day do not know much about the process. One thing in connection with macaroni, which amused me much, was the dexterity of the chickens in eating it. A string of macaroni in its soft state, four or five feet long, is bung across a horizontal bar in such a way that the ends are a foot or so from the ground. The frames look like candle-moulds, with freshly moulded candles hanging from them. The macaroni, as it hangs, is pretty thick, there being just space enough between the sticks to allow them to dry. When the stuff is soft, chickens can easily eat it. As it hangs from the frames, these birds would get beneath them, and bite off the ends of the perpendicular sticks. The young chickens were rather awkward; but the old hens and roosters were very successful. I watched one venerable old cock under a frame, and studied his perform- ance. He elevatjBd his head as if he were peering through a gun barrel up to the sky. He took careful aim, and then jumped upwards, with his mouth open. The soft macaroni went down his throat a couple of inches or so, as a sausage might go down the throat of a terrier; and at the exact DESTRUCTION OF POMPEH. 15T instant when bis head was highest, he closed his bill, and 1 nipped oflF the morsel. I saw him *take half a dozen bites v; in that way, and he did not miss his mark a single time in the ) whole performance. We had pleasant glimpses of the Bay of Naples, though not | as many as we could have wished on account of the height I of the fences. After a drive of something more than an hour, J we reached the gate of Pompeii. Dismounting from our car- -l riage, and paying two francs to the custodian, we entered the ^ ancient city. ^ Pompeii was violently shaken by an earthquake in the year ^^ 63. Several temples tumbled down along with the colonnade ' j of the Forum. The theatres and many tombs and houses were also overthrown. Nearly every family went from the place ; and it was some time before they returned. The 1 senate hesitated for some time whether to rebuild the city or ^ not, and finally decided to do so. The work of rebuilding was going on quite vigorously, when all at once came the terrible eruption of 79. It buried Pompeii under a deluge of stones and ashes, and buried Herculaneum under lava and liquid mud. These cities and many villages were wiped out in a single day, and a large region of country was depopulated. After the catastrophe, some of the inhabitants returned, and made excavations for recovering their valuables. Some robbers also crept into the city. The Emperor Titus enterlained the idea of cleaning and restoring the city, and sent two senators to examine the ground; but the magnitude of the work frightened the government, and the restoration was never undertaken. In time Pompeii became almost forgotten, and its site was lost. For more than a dozen centuries the locality where Pompeii had stood was unknown. In 1748, under the reign of Charles TIL, when the discovery of Herculaneum had attracted the attention of the world to that locality, some vine-dressers struck upon some old walls, and unearthed a few statues. The king ordered some exca- vations to be made in the vicinity ; but it was not until eight » 1 r r. [ ! I 'i. 158 DODGING A REGULATION. years later that any one supposed that they were exhuming Pompeii. Since tliat time the work of excavation has gone on with a great iDany intervals of inactivity. Whenever the government makes an appropriation, or some crowned head or other wealthy personage makes an addition to the Pom- peian fund, the work is prosecuted; but as soon as the money is expended the work stops. It is now more than a hundred years since the excavation began, and the third part of the city is not yet uncovered. Since 1860, the whole system of work and management has been reformed, and moralized, as it were. All the guides and door-keepers are under the control of the government. The visitor pays two francs at the gate, and is guided about the city by a man clad in uniform. Notices are posted in all the modern languages, telhng visitors not to give money to the guides under any pretence whatever, and forbidding the guides to receive the money. This is all very well as far as it goes ; but human ingenuity is able to get around the rule. We had a guide who spoke French fluently, and was a very polite and agreeable fellow. He took pains to call our atten- tion to one of the signs, and assured us that he could not receive a penny under any circumstances. But at almost every step he had photographs to sell. Whenever we found anything particularly interesting, out from his pocket came a package of photographs, and of course we purchased. By the time we had finished our journey, we had bought photo- graphs enough to stock a small store ; and the profit on the transaction was probably six times as much as the guide would have wrung from us had the old system been in vogue. It is very evident that the government winks at this transac- tion 5 otherwise the guides would not be allowed to sell pho- tographs or anything else. We walked through streets silent and deserted, except by groups of visitors like ourselves, and the occasional patrolmen or guides. We walked on the pavement where, two thousand years ago, chariots rolled along, and we saw on those pave- ments the marks of the chariot wheels as plainly as if they -m SCENES IN THE STREET. 159 had been worn during the past month. At the drinking foun- tains on the street corners, we could see where the Pompeian stopped when he was thirsty. The stone at the orifice, whence the water poured out, was worn away by the many applica- tions of Pompeian lips. We looked into the ovens as they were on the day of the eruption. The bakers were preparing their store of bread, and we were shown the loaves which had been drawn from those ovens after resting there eighteen hundred years. We saw the shops of the wine merchants, the butchers, the bakers, and the men of other occupations. We saw the names that had been painted on the door-posts, a little faded and dull, yet still legible. We sat down on benches which were unoccupied for seventeen hundred years ; and we entered the dwelling-houses where, two thousand years ago, the members of the family passed their daily life. It was a picture of the past, and not of the present. Pompeii was preserved, and not destroyed. To its inhabit- ant, on the day of the eruption it was destroyed ; but for us who now look upon it, and study its history, it has been pre- served. The most complete bakery in Pompeii was in Herculaneum Street, and occupied an entire house. The inner court-yard of the house contains four mills of curious construction. At a little distance they resemble hour-glasses. Imagine two large blocks of stone in the shape of cones, the upper one overset upon the lower, and you have their construction. The lower one remained motionless, and the other was turned either by a man or a donkey. The grain was crushed between the two stones. Sometimes the servants of the establishment turned the mill. At other times slaves, for some misdemeanor, had their eyes put out, and then they were sent to work at grinding. The story goes that, sometimes, when the millers were short of hands, they established bathing-houses around their mills, and the passers by who were caught in the trap h^d to J 160 STALE BREAD. work the mill. In the establishment now referred to, the ma- chinery was turned, not by men, but by a mule, whose bones were found lying near. In the stable of the mule the racks and troughs were standing. Near the bake-ovens were the troughs where the dough was kneaded. There Avas one oven which remained uninjured. It had two openings ; the loaves went into one of these, in the shape of dough, and were taken out at the other opening baked. Everything seemed to be in a fine state of preservation, and the oven could be made use of again for a repetition of its work of eighteen centuries ago. The oven when found was full of bread. Some of the loaves were stamped to indicate that they were of wheat flour, and others to indicate that they were of bran flour. The oven had been carefully sealed, and there were no ashes in it. Eighty -one loaves were found in it, a little stale, to be sure, and very hard and black, but lying in the same order in which they were placed on the 23d of November in the year 79. The loaves weighed about a pound each. They are round, depressed in the centre, raised on the edges, and divided into eight lobes. Imagine an American pie which has been marked with the knife as if for cutting before it is placed in the' oven, and you have an almost exact picture of a Pompeian loaf of bread. I did not try to eat it, partly be- cause I prefer my bread fresh, and partly because the loaves are considered too precious to be given or sold to visitors. Whoever goes to Pompeii thinking to find a perfect city will be very much disappointed. The ruins of Pompeii, as the old lady said about the ruins of the Coliseum, are very much out of repair. The walls of the buildings are mostly standing, but the roofs and doors, which were constructed of wood, are gone, having rotted away in their long exposure to the moisture. Everything whatever, of wood, planks, or beams, was turned to ashes : all is uncovered, and there are no roofs to be seen. Almost everywhere you walk under the open sky ; every- thing is open, and if a shower were to come on, you would r 'I ^ M i ART IN POMPEII. 163 Jmrdly find shelter. Imagine yourself in a city in process of ^ building with only the first stories completed, and with no floorings for the second. Many of the statues and works of art have been carried to the Museum at Naples, so that in the old city itself, there are, comparativel}", few curiosities of a portable character. The sky, the lan48cape, the sea-shore, the walls and the pavements are antique, and it is only the visitors and their guides that are modern. The streets are not repaired, the sidewalks are not changed, and we walk upon tlie same stones that were for- merly trodden by the feet of the Pompeian merchant and his slave. As we enter these narrow streets we can almost think we are quitting the century we live in, and going back to the century that witnessed the birth of Christ. When first uncovered, the paintings of the walls were as fresh as though they were made but a week ago, the ashes having preserved them perfectly. In a few weeks or months \5 their coloring fixdes, and they become dingy and hardly J visible. 1 The Pompeians were great lovers of art; every wall is 4 frescoed, and the mosaics on the floors are an interesting A study. Statues adorn the interior of the dwellings, and i abound in the public places: even the ordinary utensils of the kitchen were fashioned in a remarkable manner, and far more artistic than those of the present day. The most ordi- nary utensils of the household are specimens of art that evoke the admiration of every beholder. -^^ 3 As one walks through Pompeii he sees much to tell him " ] that advertising is not altogether an invention of the present '^_ age. Placards and posters enlivened the streets ; the walls "2 were covered with them ; and in many places there were ;^ whitewashed patches of wall, serving for the announcements i which the writers wished to make public. These panels were dedicated entirely to the public business, and anybody had j the right to paint upon them, in delicate and slender letters, the advertisements which we now find in the columns of the newspapers. 164 ADVERTISING IN THE OLDEN TIME, Many of these announcements were of a political character, Buch as proclamations of candidates for public office. Pom- peii was evidently swallowed up just before an election. In reading the posters you will find that Bometimes it was a no- ble, sometimes a group of citizens, and sometimes a corpora- tion of tradesmen, who recommended some one to the office of aedileov duumvir. Thus Paratus nominates Pansa ; Philippus nominates Caius ; Felix, and Valentinus, and his associates prefer Sabinus. Sometimes the elector was in a hurry, and asked to have his candidate chosen quickly. Sometimes a dozen guilds, such as the fruiterers, the porters, the mule dri- vers, the salt makers, carpenters, and others, united to urge the election of somebody. Rather curiously, we found on some of these placards that the sleepers declared their preference for somebody, and it puzzled us to know who were these friends of sleep. Per- haps they may liave been gentlemen who did not like noise, or perhaps they were an association of tumultuous fellows who thus disguised themselves under an ironical title. They may have been a type of the class who are described in the present slang of New York as roosters. There were advertisements of lost property, hotels announ- cing rooms to let, stolen horses, performances at the theatres, and various other things, such as we see in the advertising papers, and in posters on the walls at the present day. There were some of these posters devoted to what we call 'personals. Of course they were obscurely worded, so as to be understood only by those for whom they were intended. One of my companions asserted that one advertisement read, ** Julia, same place, six P. M., Tuesday ; ^' and another said, ** Scipio, come back ; all will be forgiven ; " and another was, " Marcus has gone west, will return next week." I did not see these advertisements, and make the statement only on his authority. I might have been inclined to believe it had he not declared, with the most solemn visage, that he read an advertisement thus : " Secure me a suit of rooms on the Boston steamer tomorrow." This was too much ; and I told him that biisiness was played out. 1 *.-■ I *'^ 1 1- 1 PICTURE OF THE DESTRUCTION. 165 ' There wore inscriptions in reference to the cleanliness of -^ the city ; and some of them recalled, in terms too precise and definite for modern times, the announcement of the present day, ^'Commit no Nuisance.'' Pompeii was not a large city ; it contained only about thirty thousand inhabitants, and was rather a suburb than a great na- 1 tional dwelling-place. The Rome of that day was many times larger ; and when we are considering the buried city, we must remember that we are considering a small hamlet rather ^ than a large capital. A volume might be filled with descriptions of Pompeii and its contents ; the forum, the theatres, the dwellings, the tombs, the baths, the shops, the stables, the gardens, are all interest- ing. According to the histories, it was during a festival that 1 the eruption took place. We may imagine the picture, that while the amphitheatre was crowded and gladiatorial combats were in progress, the earth shook, and the sky was dark with the clouds of smoke and ashes rising from the great volcano. The Pompeians rushed from the amphitheatre, and were over- j taken by the shower of stones, and the deluge of ashes falling ^ like a burning snow upon the streets ; the dust fills the streets. ^^j Heaps of the burning ashes break through the houses, crush- ing the tiles and burning the rafters ; the fire falls from story to story, and accumulates like earth thrown in to fill a trench. The amphitheatre is speedily ingulfed, and no one remains in it but the dead gladiators, and the prisoners enclosed in their cages, from which there is no escape. Those who have ;^' sheltered themselves under the shops, and in the arcade, were Wr buried beneath the ashes and stones. Skeletons are found everywhere, indicating how people were overtaken in their flight. Here is a fallen woman grasp- ing a bag of jewels ; near by is the skeleton of a man with a bunch of keys in one hand, and the remains of a bag of coins in the other. A woman holding a child in her arms took ] shelter in an oven, and was enclosed there. A soldier, faith- | ful to his duty, remains at his post before the gate of the city, 4ne hand upon his mouth, and the other on his spear, and in -iT' 166 OBSCENITY OF THE P0MPEIAN3. this brave attitude he died. The family of Diomed assem- bled in his cellar, where seventeen victims, women and chil- \ dren, were buried alive, clinging closely to each other. The r last agony of these poor wretches is terrible to imagine. A priest of Isis, enveloped in flames, and unable to escape into the street, cut through two walls with an axe, and fell at the foot of the third, still clutching his weapon. A goat was found crouched in an oven with its bell still attached to its neck. Prisoners were found with their ankles riveted to iron bars. Everywhere skeletons have been discovered, and they all picture the anguish and terror the suflerers endured on the day of the eruption. Many moralists, those who consider that Sodom and Go- morrah were destroyed as a punishment for their crimes, are J of opinion that Pompeii was also destroyed because of its wickedness. The discoveries in that city are, many of them, ; of a character not to be described in public prints, especially by the aid of the engraver's art, at the present day. Some of the eardrops worn by the women were curious to behold. Lamps were fashioned in forms quite as obscene as they are fontastic ; and the same may be said of the chandeliers, and of many of the utensils used in ordinary life. Curiously en- graved seals are found that would hardly be suitable to im- V press to-day on the back of a letter, and there were paintings t on manv of the walls that should be covered from fastidious eyes. Certain houses which in American cities are visited by *^ stealth, and whose locality is, to a certain extent, shrouded in obsciarity, were boldly designated by various symbols cut upon the stones of the sidewalks and upon the lintels of the doors. Many of these objects have been preserved, and are now in the Museum at Naples ; they have been placed in apartments by themselves, where any curious visitor may ex- amine them ; and those who are curious in such matters I respectfully refer to the Museum. The impressions on the sidewalks and over the doors remain as they were, and may be examined by any tourist who is interested in their study. r /A/ fit**'' XII. VESUVIUS AND ITS ERUPTIONS. VUE GREAT ERUPTION OP VESUVIUS. — WHAT IT DID. — THREE CITIES WIPED OUT. — LAVA AND ITS CHARACTER. — GOING TO THE MOUNTAIN. — SKIRMISH- ING WITH GUIDES AND BEGGARS. — ARCHITECTURAL STEEDS. — A HORSE WITH A HAND RAIL AROUND HIM. — COAT-HOOKS TO LET. — A MOTLEY CROWD. — HOW AN AMERICAN WAS MOUNTED. — A NEW MODE OF SPURRING. — THE ROAD FROM RESINA. — BURNING LAVA. — CROSSING THE LAVA BEDS. — CLIMBING ON FOOT. — HAPS AND MISHAPS. — AN ENGLISHMAN'S ACCIDENT. — LIGHTING A CIGAR AT THE CRATER. — SUFFOCATED BY SULPHUR FUMES. — DOWN AMONG THE ASHES- — A LONG FALL AND SLIDE. — IN HERCULANEUM. — UNDERGROUND BENEATH THE CITY. — **LOOK HERE." — HOW THE CITY WAS DISCOVERED. — THE ERUPTION OF 1872. — HORRIBLE SCENES. — EXTENT OF THE DESTRUCTION. The eruption of Vesuvius that buried Porapeii destroyed Herculaneum at the same time. Some historians contend that the occurrences were not identical in point of time ; but, after all, it makes little diflference to us whether the two cities were simultaneously destroyed or not. The probability is, and it is pretty well settled, that while the ashes and stones from the crater of Vesuvius were blown upon Pompeii, the lava and mud flowed in the direction of Herculaneum, and covered it. A third city, Stabise, was destroyed at the same time — a fact which is not generally known. Castellamare, a well-known summer resort near Naples, stands on the site of Stabise, wliose excavations, not having promised very well, were filled up soon after they were begun. A The lava which flows from a volcano during violent erup- tions is a composition of melted stone and oxide of iron. The stone is mainly feldspar and hornblende. There is a good deal of sulphur also in the lava when it rises in the volcano, but the most of it is thrown out in the form of sulphurous fumes. The lava very much resembles the slag or scori» (169) ,'i i f- ? 170 STARTING FOR VESUVIUS. flo\vin;j^ from an iron founder j, and, when suddenly cooled, it as.su in uri a glassy character. When it consolidates or cools, it forms what are known as volcanic rocks. If the streams of lava are cooled under no other pressure than that of the at- mosphere, they assume a porous appearance. Lava, cooled under the surface of the water is much more compact, and where it is cooled under heavy masses of earth and rock, it becomes quite solid. Our party visited Herculaneum after making a journey to Vesuvius. We wished to see the volcano first, and afterwards to explore the city which it had destroyed. We rode out of Naples, after our usual struggle with the hackman, and at Resina left our carriage to proceed on horseback. About half the population gathered to see us off. A staff, or heavy stick, is considered indispensable, and each of us purchased one from the crowd of boys and men, whose wooden material was suflScient for starting a small forest. I think our selection was made from about two hundred and forty-seven sticks, which they simultaneously presented in our faces, and with the demands of the venders and the piteous appeals of forty or fifty beggars, we had, for a few minutes, a concord of sweet Italian sounds. As soon as ^ve had bought the sticks we used them to clear away the crowd, and as we w^ere all young, reasonably power- ful, and as indignant as we were powerful, we made a clear circle around us in a very short time. Then we bargained for animals on Avhich to ride. I obtained a horse, something like tliose Avith which the famous Mackerel Brigade was equipped. My horse had no hand rail along his deck, by which to cling on, though his back-bone had a close resemblance to a rail with a great many knots on it. Ho had an elegant selection of knobs sticking out all over him, on which to hang superfluous coats and other garments. One of my companions offered to charter two of the knobs as coat-hooks, but immediately with- drew his offer when the horse which he was to ride was brought out. Mine looked like a frame with a skin drawn ■0. REMARKABLE STEEDS. i over it, but bis resembled a frame without any skin. I sug- | gested that, when he got through the journey, he might sell ;( out his horse to be used as a lantern for a h'ght-house, and that ^i the ribs would give a peculiar effect to the rays of light. ' -; The third man of the party obtained a mule that had lost J one ear, and had his tail eaten off by the rats. The beast had - \ a habit of going backward faster than forward, and before we - \A had gone a mile we asked the guide to shift the saddle so that J our friend's face could be turned towards the stern of his ^ craft ; but the guide insisted that such a thing had never been done, and that the mule would be all right if the man behind liim would give an occasional prod with his stick. The fourth man was mounted on a donkey, or mule, or horse ; I cannot say exactly what the animal was, but he seemed to bo a mixture of the three, with a small infusion of bull-dog and rhinoceros. He had a hide that would turn a six-pound shot, and as for cudgelling, he rather enjoyed it than otherwise. His rider had brought along a pair of spurs, which he picked up a day or so before in Naples. He proposed to show us his skill in mulemanship, but the mule was so small, and his rider's legs | were so long, tliat the latter could not reach the beast with his heels. I suggested a dodge which I had seen in practice [j before. With the spurs on his heels my friend found his feet too far aft, when he raised them, to do any good ; I ac- ; cordingly suggested that, if he buckled the spurs on just below the knees, he would find them to be of more advantage. He tried it with one spur, which had a perceptible effect on the activity of the animal; but, unfortunately, the activity was '- *: sidewise, or backwards, or in circles, and not straight ahead. ^ The beast either sidled along the track, or else went in quick plunges, in a way that was very uncomfortable. Our whole cavalcade, considered as an average, did not get along very fast, and every fifteen minutes we had a grand kicking plunge all round ; but we were all sufficiently accustomed to the saddle to save ourselves from being thrown. We made about three miles an hour each along the route, or fifteen miles an -1 \ ■{ I r 172 A SAFE HORSE. hour for the five of us, which, on the whole, was not to be considered bad. fc , The road from Eesina winds along sometimes over the lava beds, and sometimes on a carriage-way, constructed at great expense, but now almost entirely useless. In some places the lava, though it had been lying there several years, was quite warm, and there were cracks, from which the heat steadily f issued. Lava requires a long time for cooling, and sometimes, where it is of great depth, it will not cool enough for one to walk upon it within two years after it has flowed from the mountain. We got along very well, assisted as we were by I the native loafers, who followed us, and occasionally took a :. turn at, or, rather, with, our animals' tails. With the mild : beasts tliey got along very well, and I think the animals would have had their tails twisted oft' before breaking into a run ; but the vicious beasts did not like the arrangement, and they either quickened their pace, or let fly their heels at the ' twisters. My horse had been warranted to me as a safe beast, and after we had fairly started, I found that he was pretty nearly ( as safe as a dead horse. When he began to climb the moun- tain, he really seemed to be more dead than alive, and no per- suasion, whether with my stick or heels, could induce him to : break into a run. When we reached the foot of the cone, I half a dozen boys ofiered to hold him ; but I concluded he had ^ better hold the boys — one was quite sufiicient to keep him quiet while we made the upward journey. Tlie real work of climbing Vesuvius began at the foot of the cone. The beasts that had brought us w^ould not go be- ■ yond this point, and so we dismounted. After refreshing ourselves with a bottle of villanous wine, that tasted of sul- phur, sewer-water, and other delightful things, we removed our coats and started upward. There was a fresh lot of loafers, who wanted to assist us. They had chairs strung upon two poles, by which four men could carry a person to the summit. The chairs were very good things in their way, but I preferred to walk, and so did my companions. The path sloped at an . V. ' ^ et SEDAN CHAIRS. 173 angle of forty-five degrees, and was made up of aslies and stones. The natives had arranged the stones in such a way, that a person could step from one to another without great ^^ diflSculty, only that it happened that the stones were so far apart that they occasionally needed a pretty wide step. Finding I would not be carried in a chair, the loafers im- r portuned me to be dragged up with a strap or rope. A stout fellow went in front of me, and continually pressed me to seize a strap which he invitingly pushed before my nose. I repeatedly told him that I did not want it ; but he stuck to me half way up, and then concluded I was a bad bargain. As I would not accept his offer of assistance, he proposed that I should give him half a franc to leave me. This I refused to do, and told him he might go to the summit if he liked, and enjoy the scenery; but he wanted no summit, unless he could earn something. He started back down the mountain, and I had the pleasure of seeing him miss his footing, and roll to the bottom. I learned afterwards that, most unfortunately, he did not break his neck, and was not seriously injured. I have had a good deal of climbing in my life, but that was the worst thirteen hundred feet I ever made at one time and in one piece. I had to stop several times on the way up, in order to take breath, and something with it to make the breath go down. One of my friends suggested giving it up when near the summit ; he said there had been a great mistake io the statements of the guides and guide-books. I asked him how it was, and he said, " We were informed that donkeys go only to tlie foot of the cone, and not to the top ; but it is my impression that there are now four of the greatest donkeys nn the known world trying to reach the summit." We forgave ^ him for his joke, and, after a mouthful of bad wine, he felt better, and proceeded. For a good deal of the distance where we climbed it seemed as if we slipped back one step for every two or three that we took forward, and in some places we slipped back two steps where we went forward one. An exhausted Englishman was just ahead of us, and his misery gave us great comfort. ■.'. 174 AN ENGLISHMAN'S MISHAP. One of the Italians had a leather strap fastened about his own neck, and persuaded the Englishman to take hold of it. I Another Italian went before the first, and held on to a strap around the first man's waist. Another Italian went behind the Englishman, and pushed him ahead, so that he managed '{' . to get along very fairly. At a critical moment the rear Italian slipped ; the English- man slipped next, and pulled down the two fellows in front. The result was, that the whole four were doubled up in a heap, rolled over in the ashes, and lost about fifty feet of dis- ; tance before they could recover themselves. For about a \ minute there was a confused mass of legs, arms, and curses, 1/ Fome Italian and some English, which drew forth shouts of [ laughter from the spectators. The enraged Britisher did not I like the journey, and gave up the attempt as a bad job. We were sorry for this, as w^e expected him to be suffocated in the sulphur fumes at the top, and afibrd us an opportunity to observe his agony. When we readied the summit we sat down to rest, and take a little wine. Then the guide led us around to the crater, where the fumes of sulphur and clouds of steam were rising • ' out of tlie volcano, and around a great, yawning gulf, that was a complete mass of fire. We had to hold our kerchiefs over our noses to save us from suffocation, and even with this it was almost impossible to breathe. The crater, at that time, was comparatively small, — at least, so they told me, — but it seemed to me a very fair crater for all practical purposes. The flames filled it from side to side. Their colors were white, purple, yellow, and crimson, and they threw up clouds of smoke and steam. It seemed as if the summit of the moun- tain was hollow, and might easily be broken in. If a man should fall into the crater, his chance of escape would be as good as if he was dropped into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, with a twenty ton anchor fastened to his neck. It seemed to me as if there might be an eruption at any moment, and I wanted to get away from the place ; but the guide said there was no danger, that the crater always filled *^" 'N^ LOOKIKG INTO THE CRATER. 175 up before an explosion, and that they knew days and weeks beforehand when it would occur. To convince me that there was no danger, he said that he had a family to support, and wanted to live, though I could see no reason why, and he had no hesitation in going close up to the edge. Although I had no family to support, I knew a man who had one. I therefore concluded to do as he did, and so crept up and looked over, holding the kerchief all the while to my face. A very brief gaze was suflScient for me, not because the sight was less grand than I had expected, but because the fumes of sulphur were so strong that I feared I might faint, and in falling, drop into that confounded hole. There are various modes of death which I should consider disreputable, and dropping into a volcano is one of them. We went so near to the fire that I lighted my cigar at the flames of Vesuvius, and as I was quite weary I enjoyed the cigar with a great deal of relish. We cooked some eggs which we purchased of an Italian speculator. Ho had brought them up at a venture, and provided himself with salt and bread, and a few bottles of wine, so that we were able to make a comfortable meal. Our appetites had been sharpened by the labor of climbing, and we made a hearty repast. Going down the mountain was much easier than going up. We did not go down at the same place where we made the ascent, but went a little to one side, where we could walk down through the ashes. The first step or so is a little trying to the nerves, but after two or three steps you acquire confix dence and then let yourself out. All you need to do is to stand erect, throw your head back, and start oflP, putting one foot before the other in a dignified sort of way. The ashes are generally dry and dusty, but at the time of my descent they had just been moistened by a slight fall of rain, so that no dust arose from them. Our feet settled in the ashes up to the ankles, and at every step we went forward six or eight yards. It took us an hour and a quarter to climb the moun- tain, and we came down in seven minutes, including a halt on ■-' ■ '.'i 4 •A ■iCi ' ''f\ ^ 'J 176 RACING IN THE LAVA BEDS. the way to make love to an English girl, who had slipped, and was unable to pick herself up. We assisted her to her feet, P and lost a minute or two in our work of gallantry. A countryman of ours who attempted to come down just behind us was not quite as successful as ourselves. He managed to pitch forward and turn a very pretty somersault; but the exercise did not improve his personal appearance or ' his temper. When he brought himself to rights, and reached the place where the horses were standing, he was very much dilapidated, and as cross as a bear with a chewed ear. y It is hard work to ascend Vesuvius, but it is jolly fun lo come down. We mounted our animals and came away. On the steepest part of the descending road, we tried to get up a race, thinking that the laws of gravitation would help us. Part of the beasts were induced to run, but there were two or three out of which no speed could be made faster than a walk. Even a descent as steep as the roof of an ordinary house had no temptations for them, and I wanted to try the experiment of flinging them over a precipice, to see whether they could be started into anything like a. respectable pace. I have my doubts about it; and had they been flung from a perpendicular cliff, I think they would have come down through the air as majestically and as calmly as a parachute descends from a balloon. When we reached Kesina, we rode to Herculaneum. The modern discovery of this city resulted from digging a well in the year 1709. The site of the city had been lost, owing to the great depth — nearly one hundred feet — of the solid material which covered it. Properly speaking, Herculaneum ^ was destroyed by liquid mud, rather than by burning lava. Since the destruction of the city, there have been six differ- ent overflows of lava, so that for all practical purposes the site is covered with this solid material. When the well referred to was being made, the workmen came upon another well ; an ancient affair, nearly eighty feet from the surface. Several works of art were brought to ligbt| BBSCENT OF \ESUMUa DISCOVEBY OP HERCULANEUM. 179 but, for some reason the government of Naples prohibited the explorations. Thirty years later they were renewed, and have since been prosecuted at diflFerent intervals. The area thus far opened does not exceed six hundred yards in length by three hundred in breadth, and some of the portions exca- vated have been filled with rubbish, to avoid the expense of raising it to the surface. A village or city stands directly above Herculaneum. Underground passages, like those of a mine, have been explored without uncovering them to the light of day. A large theatre, capable of seating eight thousand persons, is the most important building discovered. Its walls were highly decorated, and its floors and pillars were constructed of diflFer- ently colored marble. The streets of Herculaneum were found to be paved with lava, just as the streets of Naples are paved to-day. One street was more than thirty feet wide, and furnished with raised sidewalks. The houses were of brick, not very large, and only one story high. Among the works of art taken from the ruins there were many statues, and busts, and articles of furniture, some of them admirably executed, and evincing a highly cultivated taste. There were various musical and surgical boxes and instruments, and many utensils belonging to the kitchen and toilet. There were specimens of colored glass imitating precious stones, and a great variety of cooking utensils, among them pans of copper lined with silver. Many fine paintings were discovered on the walls ; some of these have been removed, and are now preserved under glass. Like those of Pompeii, when first discovered they were brilliant, but latterly have lost their color, and are greatly faded. Our descent into Herculaneum was by a staircase opening from a small house, where we found a number of guides in uniform. We paid our two francs each, and were remitted to the care of a guide who spoke English. He preceded us down the stairs, describing objects as he went. His best English words were "Look here," and he injected them into every sentence. His description was something like this : — 10 180 ''LOOK HERE.^ ''Look here: Herculaneum was destroyed the same time as Pompeii. Look here : these are the steps which led down in Herculaneum. Look here: the street — look here — runs right by ns. Look here : eighty-five feet high. Look here : you can hear the carriages rattling in the street. Look here • here is the theatre where they used to have the great shows. Look here : here you have the stage. Look here : eight thou- sand people might be seated in this theatre. Look here : they dug out the rock, but they have quit digging now. Look here : it does not pay the government to dig out this rock any more. Look here : the guides take no money from visitors. Look here : some fine ppecimens of stone ; you will buy. Look here : only two francs u box. Look here : here is where they found a fine painting. Look here : you will see them at Naples. Look here : in the Museum. Look here : this is the mask which was worn by the actor, which was Poesy. Look here : this is a mask which was used for Comedy. Look here/' And so he went on describing the place, and telling us its history, offering specimens for sale, giving us the number, names, and sex of his family, and letting us into all the details of his private life, and at every sentence throw- ing in " look here." It was his trump card, and he made the most of it. It was probably the first sentence of English which he ever learned, and he was bound to make it as useful as possible. By the light of the candles we examined Herculaneum, but it was far less interesting than Pompeii, nnd we remained only a short time below the earth. Bidding our ** look here " guide good by, we mounted the steps into the open air, and returned to Naples. The natives and guides around Vesuvius claim to know when there will be an eruption, as there are certain signs which never fail. The crater fills up, the wells in the neigh- borhood become dry, and there is a series of rumblings and shakings for a few days before the outbreak. There were indications of an eruption at the time of my visit, and in the following year the eruption came. It did much damage, and 1 THE ERUPTION OP 1872. 181 attracted many visitors to Naples, but it did not equaV in extent or magniGcence the great eruption of 1872. This out- break began on the 23d of April, and was at once the grandest and most terrible of all the eruptions that have occurred during this generation. For some days previous to the outbreak the mountain gave indications of approaching activity, and when the eruption began, hundreds of people observed it from the old lava beds between the observatory and the town of Resina, and some of them remained there during the whole of the night of April 25. Early the next morning two great seams opened under these spectators' feet ; hot sulphurous vapors enveloped them, and as they sought safety in flight, great rivers of lava rushed out of the newly-opened craters, and threatened the frightened sight-seers with speedy destruction. Some found the earth under them too hot to be walked upon, and, falling down, perished where they were. Others were suffocated by the gaseous emanations from the earth, and still others were so injured that they died after reaching a place of safety. In the towns and villages around the volcano the de- struction of property was very great, but the people gener- ally escaped by timely flight. In all the towns the terror was wide-spread. Nine distinct craters were opened, and lava streams, some of them sixteen feet deep, ran down the sides of the mountains, destroying everything in their paths. Several of the villages were i almost entirely buried in ashes, as ancient Pompeii was in \ the eruption previously described. Even in Naples, people were almost smothered with the shower of dust, cinders, and sand that poured down for days. Every window was kept M closed, and every traveller through the streets was com- ^v ?j polled to protect himself by carrying an umbrella ; and there ; were serious fears, on the part of the timid, that the beau- tiful Italian city of to-day was to play the tragic part of Pompeii in a repetition of the terrible scenes of eighteen hundred years ago. 182 STORY OF AN EYE-WITNESS. iMany people lost their lives, some in consequence of remain- ing to protect their property, and others from venturing too near out of motives of curiosity. At one time a group of fifty or more people were surrounded by the lava, and burned to death in sight of those who were powerless to aid them. They were standing on a little hill, and did not see, until too late, that the lava had flowed around it, and placed them on an island, as it were, with a red-hot river all around them. Many others were burned by the lava and the hot blasts which came from it in various parts of its course. A gentleman who witnessed the eruption thus describes the scene in a letter written from Naples on the 27th of April, 1872: — " Yesterday morning I went out to get a carriage to go up Mount Vesuvius, and on my way I was asked by a respectable looking man in the street if I had heard the news of the night. He then told me that hundreds of people, who had gone up the night before to see the burning lava in the Atrio di Cavallo, were dead. I had seen the mountain at eleven o^clock the night before, when there was a stream of lava running from the top of the cone into the Atrio — that is, the valley between Vesuvius and the adjoining hill, the Somma, where there seemed to be a lake of fire. Later in the night there was a tremendous eruption, a large crater opening suddenly between the Observatory and the Atrio di Cavallo, across the path of the visitors, it is said, of a mile in diameter. We started from Naples at eight o'clock. The view of the mountain was magnificent. An enormous cloud of dense white smoke was ascending to an immense height above the mountain, like great fleeces of cotton wool, quite unlike any cloud I ever saw. I could see the lava rushing from several openings to the right of and above the Observatory, but below the cone. The lava was still flowing from the cone into the Atrio, but no ash or dust was thrown up. We drove on to Resina, where the population were in fearful excitement, not knowing what to do, and apparently apprehensive of instant death — everybody making signs to us, and telling us to go back. We went on to the Piazza di Pugliano, where we J 1 AN ISLAND OF FIRE. 185 were stopped and told that no one was allowed to go up the mountain, by order of the police. However, after some ex- | postulation, I took a guide on the box and started again. i " A few minutes afterwards we met a cart bringing down a \ dead body, and as we went on we saw other bodies — at least J twelve — of which one only appeared to be living. They ^ were frightfully burned on the face and hands, and some, | which were carried on chairs, in a sitting position, were very i ghastly objects. Further on we met people — officials, appar- j ently — coming down, all warning us to go back. At last, 1 when we had arrived at an elbow of the road not far below the Observatory, we met the officer who has charge of the Observatory, who said we could not go on ; that the danger was imminent; that the lava was running across and down the road before us ; that he had orders from the prefect of Naples to prevent any one ascending, and that we could not pass. My coachman was getting a little anxious, though I will do him the justice to say he was not afraid ; so I consented not to take the carriage beyond a turn in the road above us to the right, especially as I did not wish to^paeet the lava in a narrow road where we could not turn the carriage. We left the carriage there, and ascended on foot with the guide by a path straight up the mountain-side. " At length we stood on the edge of the flat ground reaching to the foot of the cone. Currents of lava were running down J on both sides of us far below ; the craters from which they flowed were hidden by the smoke ; clouds of smoke were as- cending from the top of the cone, and the lava still pouring down the Atrio. The roar of the mountain, which we had first heard at Portici was now tremendous, continuous, and unlike anything else I ever heard, — millions of peals of thunder roll- ing at the same time, — when suddenly, about noon, there was a cessation, with a low, rolling sound ; and one heard the tick- ing and rippling of the lava currents pouring down the hill- sides below. Then, in about a minute, came a deafening roar, shaking the ground under our feet ; and a new crater burst forth just on the other side of the Observatory, as it seemed 186 A MAGNIFICENT SCENE. to US, and dense clouds of ashes and stones were thrown up into the air on the left hand of, and mingling with, the great white cloud, making a great contrast with the dark-brown dust and ashes, which rose perpendicularly to an immense height. The roaring continued and kept on increasing till it became deafening, and I began to think it might injure our ears. We staid there about an hour and a half. " The scene was magnificent, the smoke occasionally clear- ing away and giving us the view towards the Atrio, that towards the cone being always clear ; but as some of our party fancied that the ground might open under our feet, and that we might find ourselves in the midst of a new crater, I at length reluctantly sent the guide to bring up the carriage. Had I been alone I should have staid there till the evening. When we had gone down a short distance the same phe- nomena again appeared. The sudden cessation of the tremen- dous roaring, the clicking and rippling of the falling lava, and the low muttering became then again audible ; then the fearful roar, and the shaking of the ground, and another crater burst forth on the flank of the mountain, below the Observatory, sending up clouds of dust and ashes, which rolled over and over till they reached an enormous height, but quite separate from the other clouds. All this time the sun was shining in an Italian sky without a cloud. " After stopping some time to admire the scene, we contin- ued our descent ; but before we reached the bottom of the hill we saw the lava from the last crater tearing its way down through the vineyards to our right with wonderful rapidity. Just an hour after we left tlie top of the hill the cone com- menced sending up torrents of stones, which fell in all directions; but whether the red-hot hail reached our position on the height I know not. When we reached Resina it was curious to see the congratulations for what they thought our escape on the faces of the people. The uncertainty and the panic were gone, and they were steadily packing up their beds and the few things they could carry, and starting with every sort of conveyance to put their guardian saint, St. ?TT "MPfKiMCTW*?*' ■•■^'-':^ '.v-i,^ciT7.ri"^*;'-.'--^3'7' THE ERUPTION SUBSIDING. 187 Gennaro, between them and the danger. When I started from Naples I expected to find all the world at the top of the mountain ; but, to my great surprise, there was not a single stranger there — only the few persons employed in bringing down the dead. I believe the police prevented any carriage passing after ours. The awful roaring of the mountain con- tinued and increased till midnight, when it ceased, and only roared again for a short time about four o'clock. To-day the mountain is quieter, and the Neapolitans are a trifle less pale. The view of the mountain at midnight was grand in the extreme." Several villages were destroyed In this eruption, and many acres of vines were covered with lava and ashes. But as soon as the eruption was over, many of those who had fled returned to whatever of their old homes they could find. There is something strange in the fascination of the people for the places which they are well aware are liable at any time to the lava torrent or the storm of ashes. Eruptions have occurred, and will occur again ; but all the reasoning you can offer would not induce these Italian peasants to go and ,^ live elsewhere. '1 XIII. PERILS OF THE MINER. KABBOW ESCAPE OP THE AUTHOR. — CAUGHT IN A LEVEL. — SETTLING OF THE ROOF. — BREAKING TIMBERS. — A PERILOUS PASSAGE. — FALLING OF A BOOP. — THREATENING DANGERS. — ADVENTURE OF GIRAUD, THE WELL- DIGGER. — CAUGHT IN A FALL OF EARTH. — THREE WEEKS WITH A CORPSE. — ONE MONTH WITHOUT FOOD. — HOW HE WAS BESCUED. — A MINEB COVEBED WITH COAL. — HIS BESCUE. — AN IRISHMAN'S JOKE. — INUNDA- TION. — CURIOUS THEORIES OF THE MINERS. — EFFECT OP STRIKING A VEIN OF WATER. — DRAWING THE MEN IN A MINE. — THE SEA BREAK- ING IN. — CLOSING THE SHAFT. — A TERRIBLE STORY. — EXPERIENCE OF A FRENCH ENGINEER. — CASUALTIES AND THEIR NUMBER. — SUFFOCATION OP THREE HUNDBED AND SIXTY-ONE MEN IN ONE MINE. I WAS once in a mine in Colorado, when I fervently wished myself out of it. I had been there a day or two before, and found that in one of the levels I was just able to stand erect. At the visit in question I found I could not stand erect with- out hitting my head. I was certain that 1 had not grown six inches taller in the mean time, and I accordingly concluded that the roof had settled. All at once, while proceeding on my walk, I was astonished at hearing a crackling sound behind me ; and on looking around, I discovered that some of the timbers were giving way. Here was a predicament. The breaking timbers were between me and the entrance to the mine, and I knew that if they should fall, so as to close up the passage, I should be cut off from escape. It did not take a long time for me to determine what to do. At the risk of being crushed by the falling timbers and rock, I darted backward, extinguishing my light in the rapidity of my movements, and becoming wrapped in almost complete (188) HiVll^ V^,'' ^^H^^l HPdm iMffiiii^Ni l^")v''^-.H^ H i 1?^ Wjfl liK n "^^tf fjj ^ 9Kif ilH IKi ^ ^ 4 r ^^?&^^?^»^-:< " AN UNPLEASANT PREDICAMENT, 191 darkness. Luckily, however, there was a light burning in the level ; and as I crept among the breaking timbers, it was as welcome to me as the polar star to a man at sea, when his compass has become unreliable. Another and another of the timbers gave way as I walked, or rather crept, beneath them. When they were broken in the centre, they had partly, but not completely, closed the passage, their ends being held firmly in the rock. I managed to reach the other side, and as soon as I considered myself safe, I turned round to see what was going on. The timbers settled very slowly ; there was no one on the level beyond them ; and had any persons been there, the settling of the roof was so slow, that they would have had plenty of time for 1 escaping. When T reached the outside, I made a vow to avoid similar 'i dangers in future, and it was some time before I again ventured where I should be liable to a similar accident. Falls of the roof are a kind of danger which is always thought of when underground works are considered. In certain kinds of rock there is no liability to occurrences of this sort. The roof is as solid, and as well supported, as that of any house, and there is no danger of its yielding; but where the rock is slippery and loose, or where the ground is soft, the peril that threatens is constant. Falls of earth are not unfrequent in digging wells. Many j a man has lost his life in consequence. j An exciting story is told of a well-digger, named Giraud, I who was excavating a well near Lyons, about twenty years I ago. The earth caved in, and Giraud found himself dashed to the bottom of the hole by the side of a fellow-workman. Luckily, .\ the timbers fell in such a way as to form a sort of arch above ^ their heads, and thus saved them from being crushed at once. 'I Some men, who were above at the time of the accident, i immediately set to work to save the sufferers. It was neces- sary to dig a new shaft near the first, and then connect the two by a drift-way, which would reach the men at the point 192 TERRIBLE FATE OP A WELL-DIGGER. where they were enclosed. Their efforts were constant, bnt in spite of them, a whole month Wcis spent in reaching the spot, as fresh falls of earth were constantly occurring in the new workings. Giraud and his comrade could hear the noise of the pick, and could converse with the workmen, and assure them that they were alive. At the end of a week, Giraud's companion died of exhaus- tion and starvation. Giraud was a man of great strength, both of mind and body, and bore up as well as he could under his suffering. The dead body of his companion, which lay near him, poisoned the little air he had to breathe ; but some- how he lived day after day for a whole month. Every moment his rescuers expected to reach him, when some fresh accident occurred, and much of the work had to be done over again. On the tliirtieth day they reached the prison, and Giraud was saved. He was wasted to a skeleton, and unable to stand. His body was a mass of sores ; gangrene had attacked all his limbs, caused by the corpse which had been rotting at his side for three weeks. He was carried to the hospital, and every attention was given him ; but he had suffered too much, and died within a month of the day of his rescue. Occasionally masses of rock drop from the roof without the least warning, and fall upon the heads of the miners. Some- times a man may escape with the loss of a limb, or he may be killed outright. In other cases, the walls and timbers give way, and men are crushed beneath their weight. A story is told of a miner who was caught by the fall of some coal which nearly crushed him, but ho had sufficient strength remaining to call for help. A comrade heard him, and gave the alarm. All the men who could work in the small space were immediately gathered ; and a part of the coal having been removed from around the sufferer, his head and one of his hands became visible. He was lying on his right side upon the floor of the gallery, with his legs doubled beneath him. There was a mass of broken timber above him, 80 that he could not move, but fortunately his chest was not « ] AN ibishman's joke. 193 compressed. Air wad supplied him by means of a ventilator and a tube. The rails and some of the other timbers by which he was enclosed were cut through, and a space was opened in such a way as to reach him from below. He did not lose courage a moment ; he remained perfectly cool, and gave his preservers several useful suggestions. Finally, after six hours of suffering, he was removed. In several instances miners have been enclosed in such a J way that escape was impossible. All efforts to relieve them ] were unavailing, and those who remained uninjured from the ^ fall of the rock died of suffocation or starvation. ^ Let us change a moment from the horrible to the ludicrous. j A few months ago, an Irishman, who was digging a well in ] Illinois, left his work, and went to breakfast. When he j returned, he found that the earth had caved in. There was a 3 clump of trees a few yards away, and after looking around to \ ascertain if any one was in sight, and knowing that some friend would be there shortly, he took off his coat, hung it i upon a post, and then, taking his shovel and pick, retired to the shelter of the trees. He had just concealed himself, when his friends made their appearance. They saw the coat hang- ing upon the post, and they saw that the earth had caved in. Immediately concluding that their friend was buried below, * they set at work to rescue him. They worked with the greatest energy for two or three hours, and at the end of that time had removed all the fallen earth. But no Pat was there. Just as they were wondering what had become of him, he walked leisurely from his place of concealment, and thanked them for what they had done. At first they were inclined to be indignant, but finally con- cluded that it was a good joke, and a few drams of bad whiskey removed all differences. The danger of underground inundations is as great as that of falls of earth. Water is constantly accumulating in a mine, and sometimes in such quantities as to defy all attempts to keep it under control. Miners have curious theories about streams of water which 194 FLOODING A MINE. enter the mines. Some of the English miners believe the earth is alive, and they compare the veins of water in the earth to the veins and arteries of the human body. Some- times they say, " When the water breaks into our working- places, it is the Earth which revenges itself upon us for hav- ing cut one of his veins." The Belgian miners have the same belief, and they call the water which flows out of the coals, ' le sang de la veine,^ that is, ^ the blood of the vein.' " Inundations of mines are frequently fatal. Sometimes the water enters with great force. One day, in an English coal mine, the water fairly drove out the auger with which the workmen were boring a hole. It came as if from the nozzle of a fire engine. The workmen made several attempts to plug the hole, but could not, and were driven out. A few hours later the mine was flooded. Pumping machinery was set up, but it was not until the end of seven years that the water could be removed. It was only then stopped by means of banking, that prevented its further entrance. In a mine near Newcastle, many years ago, there was an inundation which enclosed ninety men in a place where it was impossible to relieve them. Several persons, who were work- ing close to the shaft when the water entered, managed to escape, but they were very few in number. The accident occurred in May, and it was not until the following February that the bodies of the drowned men were recovered. With one exception all were recognized. At another coal mine, which was worked on the sea-shore, and extended a distance of fifteen hundred yards under the Irish Sea, the manager, in his anxiety to produce a large quantity of coal, recklessly cut away some of the pillars which supported the roof One day the whole neighborhood was alarmed with the report that the mine had fallen in. The commotion was so great that many persons on the shore ob- served the whirl of the sea directly over the spot where the water entered. A few of the laborers escaped, but thirty-six men and boys were drowned. The accident happened more than thirty years ago. The coal mine is now, and always "i DEATH BY SUFFOCATION. 195 must remain, ander water, and the bodies have never been recovered. Some of the most terrible mining accidents are those which occur in consequence of the closing of the shafts. Where a mine has two shafts there is little liability of such accidents; but where there is only a single shaft the danger is constantly threatening. The terrible calamity at Avondale, which is fresh in the minds of many readers, will be described else- where. A similar accident at an English coal mine, a few years ago, was even more terrible in its results than the calamity at Avondale. The beam of the pumping engine gave way, and killed five men who were at that moment coming up in the cage. One hundred and ninety-nine men and boys were then working under ground. The enormous beam of the engine weighed more than forty tons. In its fell it carried down all the timbers of the shaft, damaging the walls in several places. The rubbish and broken timbers accumulated in the shaft, and closed the only mode of egress for the miners. The beam and timber- ings cut oft' all connection between the interior of the mine and the outside world. The mine was furnished with venti- lating furnaces, in which a large quantity of fuel was burning, and it was supposed that the imprisoned miners died of suffo- cation within twenty-four hours. Some of the men who were imprisoned tried to force an outlet, but they were unable to do so, and died in the effort. Many accidents of this kind might be described. In the various coal-mining countries of the globe, they may be said, in the aggregate, to be of almost weekly occurrence. Where the owners of mines neglect or decline to provide their works with two entrances, it is imperatively necessary, for the pro- tection of life, that the law should interfere, and compel them to do 80. A few years ago, at a mine in Prance, the engineer one day observed that the cages did not work properly in the guides. Fifty-six yards below the surface he discovered that the lin- I 196 ACCIDENT AT A FRENCH MINE. ing of the shaft deviated from the perpendicular. The joints and displacements were visible at several points. All the men, three hundred in number, were ordered to leave the mine. Men went down the shaft to cover the openings, but the result was only to create fresh ones. For the next two days the lining of the shaft repeatedly cracked. The planks broke one by one, and the water rushed into the works. The consulting engineer of the mine was called in, and when he arrived he descended with the superintendent, both of them in fear that they were going to certain death. Their lamps went out while they were descending, but they carried a lantern, which was hanging to the bottom of the tub in which they descended. By the light of this lantern they discovered an enormous opening in the middle of the lining. Stone, and earth, and rubbish were continually falling, and a torrent of water ran through. " Let us go up again," said the engineer. " The water is master of the situation, and all hope of saving this working is gone." In relating this incident afterwards, the engineer said, " I lived ten years in half an hour. My hair turned white in that perilous descent, which I shall never forget as long as I live." A few hours afterwards, holes which began at the middle of the shaft extended from top to bottom. At the pit^s mouth, an immense opening had formed nearly forty yards in diame- ter, and ten 3'ards deep. Engine, boilers, buildings, ma- chinery, and scaffolding gradually fell into the opening. At each movement of the ground a fresh ingulfraent took place. The sky was dark and covered with clouds. The timbering of the shaft gave out sparks under the enormous friction which was caused by the sudden fracture of the wood. A peacock, shut up in the neighboring court-yard, gave signs of alarm, and uttered loud cries at every movement of the ground, and at every fresh fall. "No poet could describe, nor painter represent, the desolating spectacle which we wit- nessed," said the engineer, in concluding the account of the occurrence. STATISTICS OP ACCIDENTS. 197 1 In this country it is next to impossible to give correct statis- tics of the number of lives lost by these accidents. In Great Britain and France statistics are obtainable. In those countries, according to the report of the inspectors of mines, about one half the mining accidents are occasioned bv falls of the roof and coal. A third of the accidents are in the shaft in various ways. The remainder, or one sixth of the casualties, occur from blasting, explosion of fire-damp, 1 suffocation, and, finally, inundation. \ According to an English report, there was one death for ] every two hundred and sixteen persons employed in the 1 mines. It was estimated that one life was lost for every six- ty-eight thousand tons of coal obtained. In some districts of England the proportion was one life lost for every twenty-two thousand tons. In the year 1866, six hundred and fifty-one \ \ \ lives were lost from explosions of fire-damp. In the previous \ year there were only one hundred and sixty-eight deaths from the same cause. Altogether, in the year 1866, there were fourteen hundred and eighty-four deaths from mining acci- dents in Great Britain alone. The total number of deaths from all violent causes in the mines of Great Britain, in ten years, was nine thousand nine hundred and sixteen. Twenty per cent, of these were caused by fire-damp explosions. The greatest number of lives lost at any one time through mining accidents was at the Oaks Colliery, in 1866, when three hundred and sixty-one miners lost their lives. At the Hartley, Wigan, and Bury Collieries, many fearful accidents have taken place within the past few years, where- by many lives were lost. These accidents, in justice to the owners, or superintendents, let it be said, are not always due to the want of precaution on the part of the managers, but from gross neglect, or through non-observance of the rules under which the mine is worked. For example, the men were very careless in the use of the safety-lamps. Every lamp is locked before it is given out, and every care is taken to prevent its being opened. The men will occasionally amuse themselves by trying to pick the locks, and that, too, in places where the ■1 198 GREAT LOSS OP LIFE. air is full of explosive gas. So accustomed are they to dan- ger, that they hold it in great contempt ; and the result is, that fatal accidents were much more common than if men were cautious and obedient. At the time of the Oaks Colliery explosion, great sympathy was manifested throughout England, just as was subsequently seen in the Avondale disaster in America. For days after the occurrence, the daily papers were filled with long details of the horror, the recovery of the bodies of the victims, the dis- tressing scenes at the mouth of the mine, and at the graveyard, and the brave deeds of the men who were fortunately absent from the mine at the time of the explosion. Subscriptions were opened in nearly every church for the benefit of the survivors, and at the suggestion of Queen Vic- toria, the then Lord Mayor of London and Common Council held a public meeting to. raise money for the families of the victims. The appeals were liberally responded to through the whole country. Many of the wives of the dead miners re- ceived life pensions, and all the bereaved families were placed above immediate want. %. - "^1 XIY. t THE INUNDATION AT LALLE. IKUKDATION OF A MINE ON THE LOIRE. — HOW THE MEN WERE SAVED. — SONO OF THE PUPILS OF THE MINING SCHOOL AT ST. ETIENNE. — TERRIBLE FLOOD OF A MINE AT LALLE. — BREAKING IN OF A RIVER. — COURAGE OF AUBEKTO, A WORKMAN. — SAVING SIX LIVES. — PLAN FOR RESCUE. — DISCOVERING THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE PRISONERS. — ONE MONTH'S WORK IN THREE DAYS. — OPENING THE DRIFT-WAYS. — SIXTY FEET OF TUNNELLING. — IN THE DARK- NESS WITH A CORPSE. — STORY OF THE RESCUED. — THIRTEEN DAYS OF PERIL. — FINDING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD. — ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE MEN DROWNED. — SAVING A CHILD. — EATING WOOD AND LEATHER TO SAVE LIFE. — A HORRIBLE SIGHT. In one of the mines on the River Loire, about thirty years ago, there was a terrible accident, caused by the sudden eruption of the water. The water came in like a torrent, and drove the miners up an inclined gallery, where there was no outlet. The people above ground r^ished to their assistance ; the engineers brought their plans of the mine, and determined where the enclosed men were to be found, if still alive. Workmen volunteered to go to the assistance of their com- rades, and a new gallery was begun in the direction of the supposed place of refuge. The blows of the pick upon the wall were at first unanswered ; but after a while, faint sounds M'ere heard in response. The rock was hard, and progress was slow ; but every man did his best, working night and day. Sound is transmitted through rock with great facility, and in a little while the workmen could hear the voices, as well as the knocking of their imprisoned friends. Six days passed in this way, and at length a hole was bored through the rock, and the colliers were found to be all living. Though they were near starvation, and had eaten their candles, and even their leather straps, their first appeal was 11 (199) -.4 200 SONG OF MIXIKG STUDENTS. for light, not for food. Prolonged darkness is distressing in the extreme, and these men had suffered the total absence of light nearly the whole of their time of imprisonment. Candles were passed through the bore-hole, and then a tin tube, through which broth was poured. The work of relief was pressed forward, and at the end of the sixth day the sufferers were released and brought to daylight, amid the cheers of the men assembled around the mouth of the mine. The story of the release of these miners is familiar to all the inhabitants of that region. The pupils of the Mining School of St. Etienne composed a ballad, of which the follow- ing is the opening stanza: — " Mineurs, ecoutez Tlnstoire De trois nmlheureux ouvriers, Kcstes sans manger ni- boire Pendant six grand jours entiers. Au fond d'une galerie Serres comme en un local, lis auraient perdu la vie Sans la coupe verticale." This ballad was sung two or three times daily, at the be- ginning and end of lessons when the master was not present. One of the teachers of the school assisted at the rescue of the miners, and used to tell the story to his pupils. He added a moral to it, after the manner of -^sop with his fables, and endeavored to impress upon the school the importance of vertical shafts from all the principal galleries to the surface. Many lives have been lost in mines in consequence of the absence of these shafts, and in every locality where mining is conducted on an extensive scale, the law should compel the owners to make at least two openings to the outer Vv^orld. In 1862 an inundation occurred at the mine of Lalle, in France, by which one hundred and five persons lost their lives. The story is thus related by M. Simonin: — On the 11th of October, between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, a violent storm visited the country, and it is asserted by some of the inhabitants, that a waterspout had f f i < r COURAGE OP AUBERTO, 203 burst there. The waters of the River Ceze, as well as those of a stream and of a ravine, which is dry at ordinary times, both of them being tributary to the Ceze, rose higher than they had ever been seen before. It was a vast inundation, or, as the people of that region describe it, a deluge. The mine extended under the river, and its mouth was not far from the bank. The water made a whirl at one point, and then rushed into the mine through a large opening over the outcrop of one of the coal seams. There was a rumbling noise all through the mine; all hands were at work under ground, and there was danger of a terrible calamity. Some of the men managed to escape by the ladders, while others hastily ascended a shaft, and floated upwards on the surface of the water. A noble act of courage and devotion was performed by a Piedmontese workman by the name of Auberto. He escaped up a shaft, and as he did so, he gave the alarm to a comrade who was at work in a lower level. Auberto then ran to another opening, fastened the tub to a rope, descended, and called, the water failing all the while in a perfect torrent. Five men came out; four entered the tub, and were saved; the fifth hesitated a moment, and was lost. As soon as they reached the surface, Auberto caused himself to be lowered again. Perceiving a man entangled in the timbering of the lower gallery, he drew him out, threw him into the tub, and was drawn up at the moment the water took possession of that part of the mine. Auberto had saved six lives, and would have saved more, but no other point was accessible, the whole mine being theu under water. There was only one outlet remaining, and this had been formed by the breaking of the ground near the point where the waters were rushing in. Lights were seen shining there, and ropes were thrown in ; but the violence of the waters in- creased, the ground fell in afresh, this last outlet became closed, and all the men in that part of the mine were drowned. In half an hour the interior of the mine was converted into a %. ^v I 204 PLANS FOR BELIEF. lake. The air and gas in the mine were compressed by the weight of the water, and were forced out through fissures in the ground, producing the effect of gunpowder, throwing the earth to a considerable distance, and in some cases overturn- ing houses. Everybody in the vicinity rushed to the mouth of the mine, and an anxious and terrified crowd was speedily collected. The engineers nnd superintendents were first on the spot, and were speedily joined by the engineers and workmen from the neighboring mines. No immediate relief is possible. Perhaps the colliery is only a vast tomb, for out of a hundred and thirty-nine men who entered the mine in the morning, only twenty-nine have escaped. A hundred and ten are scattered in the interior of the mine, some at one point and some at another, at differ- ent depths and in varying conditions. How are they to be found ? and is it certain that even one of them is living? A dike was made at the surface to keep out the water, and the engineers consulted the plan of the mine, in order to de- vise the surest and readiest means of relief. While this was being done, a young boy, who had previously been employed in the mine, entered one of the galleries, and, after knocking for some time on the walls, thought he could distinguish sounds answering to his own. He called his comrades, and repeated the experiment with the same result. The engi- neers were informed, and everybody hastened to the spot, M. Parsan, of the Imperial School of Mines, had arrived from Alais, to direct the work of salvage. He ordered everybody to maintain the most perfect silence, and then he made a signal by knocking with a pick at regular intervals of time. He has written an exciting account of these operations. " With ears resting on the coal," he says, " and holding our breath, we soon heard, with profound emotion, extremely faint, but distinct and timed blows, — in fact, the miners' signal, — which could not be the repetition of our own, because we had only knocked at equal intervals." Between the prisoners and their rescuers there was a solid 7'~-^-K\,^ — ---■.,-.■■■■■- -J. -' >-. -\ ■ - ■ , 1 • PUSHING THE WORK OP RESCUE. 205 wall more than sixty feet thick, which must be cut through ; but the greater part of the miners were shut up in the mine. But volunteers were ready from the other mines, and soon the blows of the pick carried hope to the hearts of the pris- oners. The work began at six o'clock on the evening of the 12th, at five differents points in the gallery where the sounds were heard. The five drift-ways were made towards the place where the BulTerers were enclosed. One pickman at a time worked in each heading, and he was relieved at the moment when he began to feel weaned. He worked with all his energy, and the coal which he removed was carried away in baskets as fast as it was detached. The labor proved more difficult in conse- quence of a want of air, and it became necessary to put up ventilators. Sometimes the lamp's would only burn in front of the air-pipe. At two o'clock on the morning of the 14th, the voices of the imprisoned colliers could be heard. '* There are three of us," they said ; and they gave their names. The coal increased in hardness, and the heat became unbearable. All that day and the next the best pickmen went to the front, hewing the coal with all their strength, the prisoners all the while making themselves heard. Finally, at midnight of the 15th, one of the drift-ways was completed, and the three men were reached. Only two were alive. The youngest was sobbing, the other was in a high state of fever, and the third, an old man, had been unable to survive the trying ordeal, and was found dead not far from his companions. v' The two survivors were covered with blankets, refreshed with cordials, and carried to the hospital of the mine, where they were put in the care of the physician, who next day pro- nounced them out of danger. The work of rescue had continued without intermission for seventy hours. On calculating the amount of rock and coal removed from the drift-ways, it was found that a full month would have been required, under ordinary circumstances, to do the work which had been performed in three days. V r . » 'J 206 STORY OF THE SUFFERERS. The most precise details of the circumstances of their con- finement were given by the two rescued colliers. They were at work in a heading when the water was heard coming upon them. They then ran to the upper end of the gallery, where they were' found — a narrow place with a considerable slope,and very slippery. With their hands and the hooks of their lamps they dug a little place in the shale to sit down in ; the water was up to their feet, and they were in a sort of bell, in which the air was highly compressed. They felt a singing noise in their ears, and for a time they lost their voices. Their lamps went out for want of oil. They tapped with the heels of their shoes on the walls of the gallery to summon assistance. This sound was the one which w^as heard, but only after they had been imprisoned twenty-four hours ! Convinced that help would arrive, the eldest of the three, the one who was destined never to behold the light of day again, shed tears of joy. Another, mad with thirst, descended into the level with the water up to his armpits, in a vain search for a way through the rubbish ; but he afterwards re- gained his place, being guided by the voices of his compan- ions. The youngest, seventeen years of age, frequently fell asleep, and w^ould have fallen into the water but for the help of his neighbor, who held him in his arms like a child, and thus saved him from death. At one time the noise of the ventiia- tor connected with the operations of their preservers reached their ears, when they imagined that a new influx of water was about to occur, and they became discouraged. The old man was constantly active. Overcome by his efforts, he slid from his resting-place into the water, and was drowned without a struggle, and without uttering a cry. Frozen with horror, and held motionless in their places, the two others dared not move to his assistance, and they even refrained from announcing the accident to those who were working to relieve them. " There are three of us," they cried, when in reality only two were alive. The one who suffered from thirst finally determined to move, but -touching the dead body while drinking, he clambered T^'-r^^ig^ai^jw^rn^^^ars?^ "5 T^^^ V r^^-'^rj^y-i^rvf^^ IN DARKNESS WITH A CORPSE. 207 -^ ■■a i back again. Fatigue, bad air, and this fearful vicinity to a corpse, rendered him delirious, and he said to his com- ;^ rade, " Come, let us leave this." The other was frightened, i and in order to divert his attention, suggested that he H should go and drink again. He went, and returned, striking : against the dead body in passing. " The darkness," said he, I '* made the place more horrible than anything I had ever ' r imagined." In the mean time the water got lower in the level, but it ^ was cold there, and the two captives remained in their places j where the air was dry and warm, though constantly growing j more impure. At last they were recovered, and carried into ■ i the light by their comrades. By a strange phenomenon they i had lost all notion of time, and thought they had not been in | the mine more than twenty-four hours. Other instances of 1 a similar nature are recorded. Some miners of Hainault, | who lived twenty-five days shut up in a mine during an in- | undation, thought they had only been there eight or ten ^ hours. While the operations for saving the lives of these two men were in progress, other \vorks were undertaken, with the view of penetrating the interior at other points. Pits were dug where the miners \vere suspended from ropes for fear of explosions, while other workings, which had been injured by the flood, were repaired. One of the old shafts was undergoing repairs at ^ the time of the accident. In ordinary times, fifteen days, at the least, were required to refit the engine, put up the ropes, and get everything read3\ In this instance everything was done in four days: the pumping began on the 15th of October, and was not again interrupted. The workmen continued to bore and dig shafts. On the 24th of October, thirteen days after the accident, the men working at the bottom of the shaft heard shouts. Three men were still alive, only separated by rubbish and a vacant space of ground from the point where the workings were in prog- ress. Disputes arose as to who should save them, each man desiring the honor of going down first. At last the favor was * 1 ;*; 208 A CHILD BURIED IN THE COAL. given to one of the overmen, who descended and found two men, who cluug to him, and begged for relief. He encouraged them, and fed them from a can of broth which he carried. In a little while the timbermen made the place secure, and the captives were brought out. A third prisoner, a child, was still left. His comrades de- scribed the place where they had buried him in the coal to keep him warmer. The engineer hastened to the spot, and seized the child, who embraced him and wept; the three were taken at once to the hospital, where they soon found themselves in the company of the other two, who had already been saved. Like their comrades whose story I have just told, the three last colliers had fled before the water from the first moment of its breaking in, and finding a rubbish passage stopped up, they despairingly made an opening into it. They afterwards clambered to the heading of the gallery as a last refuge. Their lamps were out, but they heard the water rise, and re- treated before it. The noise occasioned by falls, and the breaking of timber, as well as the sound of explosions caused by compressed air, reached their ears distinctly, like a fright- ful tumult, which seemed to announce to them the last hours they had to live. One of them had a repeating watch, which he caused to strike several times ; but it stopped on the morn- ing of the 12th of October at a quarter to three o*clock. They heard the noise of the tubs plunging into the water in two adjacent shafts. They conceived the idea of reckoning the progress of time by means of the short intervals of rest caused by changing the gangs. They thus formed a very near guess at the period of their captivity, which they reck- oned at fifteen days, instead of thirteen. To satisfy their hunger, they ate the rotten wood of the timber supports, which they crumbled in water, and then devoured, having previously eaten their leather belts. They could quench their thirst at will, and that sustained them. Afterwards the water rose to where they were, and wet their feet. Subsequently it fell, and then they thought of fastening ^jijnr^f^T^--' "■>' - THIRTEEN DAYS IN DABKXESS. 209 one of their Soots to a string and drinking out of it. Finding the water retiring, the child resolved to go in search of an outlet. Swimming or holding on by the walls, he groped his way along, but found nothing. Exhausted and chilled with cold, he returned to his companions, who lay close to him to warm him, and then covered him with small. coal, in which position he was found. These men were liberated after being shut up thirteen days: the temperature, the pressure, and the composition of the air in which they were found, were favorable to life, and, more- over, they had the means of quenching thirst. Under such conditions, it may be possible to live a month. Our nature can endure a great deal when it is compelled to exert itself. The energy and tenacity of life are great, and few men know how much they can undergo until they are driven to make the experiment. Only five were saved in this catastrophe at the mines of Lalle. All the rest of the one hundred and ten perished. Drainage of the mine was steadily pushed amid innumerable accidents, and the colliery was free of water on the 4th of the following January, fifty million gallons of water having been removed. During the interval the bodies were slowly dis- covered, and heart-rending was the spectacle which the mouth of the shaft presented as the bodies of the victims were drawn up, relatives and friends pressing forward and endeav- ing to recognize or guess at some well-known face. And the scene in the mine, as the water slowly fell and the bodies were found floating on the surface with the light thrown upon them by the lamps of the searchers, is described as horrible in the extreme. From the managers to the humblest workman, everybody connected with the rescue did his full duty. Every man vied with his neighbor in doing what was needed, however difficult it might be. All the directors of mines in the De- partment of the Gard, assembled, and brought their overmen, surveyors, and workmen, who, in every instance, gave proof 'r i h ^ . 210 GOVEBNMENT MEDALS. [ of a courage and self-denial which never failed for a single moment. The government bestowed crosses and medals upon [^ those who rendered material assistance in the rescue, and the I Bad occurrence will long be remembered in and around the ' mines of Lalle. r I.: XY. THE WIELICZKA SALT MINES.. THE GREAT WIELICZKA SALT 3IINES, THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD. — THEIR HISTORY. — EXTENT AND PRODUCT. — DESCENT INTO AND EXPLORATIOK OF THE5I. — WHAT IS TO BE SEEN. — BIINERS AT WORK BLINDFOLDED. — WONDERFUL CHAMBERS. — GLOOM CONVERTED INTO SPLENDOR. — BAN- QUETS IN THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. — THE INFERNAL LAKE. — HUMAN DEMONS. — AWFUL APPARITIONS. — EXTRAORDINARY NARRATIVES. 1 , '* .> ^1 ."1 HI ,1 1 ■ i If < 1 The Wieliczka salt mines in Galicia, Austrian Poland, are probably the largest and most productive on the globe. They are generally called the Cracow mines, though they are ten miles from the ancient capital of Poland — perhaps because % Wieliczka (pronounced Vyalitclika) is so much harder for the "^ tongue to master. They are connected with the mines of \ Bohemia, — this town is some eighteen miles east of Wieliczka, — and extend over a space two miles long, and nearly one mile broad, with a depth varying from six hundred to eleven hundred feet. The time of their discovery is unknown ; but it is held that salt was obtained from them in small quantities as early as the eighth century. That they were worked in the beginning of the twelfth century, when they belonged to Poland, there can be no manner of doubt. Less than two hundred years later, they had grown so productive, that Cas- simir the Great established rules respecting them. In 1656 they were ceded to Austria, and twenty-seven years after recovered by John Sobieski. Austria again obtained posses- sion of them at the first dismemberment of Poland, and has held them from 1772 to the present time, except for the six years preceding 1815. They have been a great source of wealth to the empire, and from them the Polish monarchs have . ' i drawn their principal revenues. So important were they con- ■ sidered, that, at each royal election, the Polish nobles stipn- i 212 ENTERING A SALT MINE. lated that the salt of Wieliczka should be furnished to them at cost. The mines have never yielded so abundantly as at present ; the annual product being, I have understood, about six hundred thousand tons, which, at ten dollars a ton — the usual market rate — creates a revenue of some six million dollars. As many as fourteen or tifteen hundred men, and as many as six or seven hundred horses, are generally employed in extracting the salt, which is found in lenticular masses in- clined at a high angle. The salt varies very much in purity. Some of it, called green salt, has six or seven per cent, of clay ; another kind (spiza) is mixed with sand, and the third and best sort (szybik) lies at the lower levels in unadulterated and beautifully transparent crystals. The Bohemian mines employ six or seven hundred workmen, and yield from two hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand tons of salt yearly. The figures I give, I obtained on the spot, and they may therefore be regarded as accurate. A year or two ago I made a special journey from Vienna, ^'n order to go through the Wieliczka mines, in which I had felt a great interest ever since the geography of my boyish days had introduced me to their acquaintance. I had no trouble in procuring a ticket of admission at the Chateau of I Wieliczka; and, well supplied with kreuzers for the workmen, I changed my clothes, and announced myself ready for the descent. There are ten or twelve shafts, but I asked to enter f by the one the miners generally used. This is rather primitive, I — material improvements having been made in some of the \ others, — or rather the means of descent are primitive. I was I' assigned to the charge of two miners, who were as stout, and ^ '■ hardy, and grim-looking as if they had toiled in the bowels of the earth — as no doubt they had — nearly all their lives. They were provided with torches, and they handed me one, at I the same time showing me a place in the cap I had put on into I which I could thrust the torch for convienence in carrying it. I At the top of the shaft was a kind of windlass for letting us I, ' down, the construction of which I did not examine. A long i vertical iron bar was in the centre of the shaft, and about this 1-4. i^ A DESCENDING IN DARKNESS. 213 yf 1 ■^ ^ bar was a steel ring, to which iron baskets or chairs were fastened by chains. In these we took our seats, our legs hanging down, while I we held to the chains above. At a given signal, tlie steel ring slipped along the bar, and we went smoothly and steadily down. The sensation very closely resembled that of descend- ing a well. The darkness of the pit, which the feeble light of our torches made still darker, and the flickering shadows lent a certain gloomy picturesqueness to our perpendicular journey. I might describe the anxiety and apprehension which I felt lest the chains should break, or I should be thrown out of my narrow seat into the great blackness below ; but, as I did not | have any such feeling, and as I question seriously if men of nerve or experience have it either, I will not try to render myself the hero of an imaginary situation. | I had supposed we should go to the lowest depths of the mines, but we stopped when we had descended four or five hundred feet, and got out. I learned then that the mines were full of wooden bridges and staircases by which the dit ferent levels were reached, and that by these communication was kept up with distant quarters. Some of the other shafts, as 1 was informed, are much deeper, requiring to be on a | level with the galleries where the excavations are working. I had been taken down that particular one in order that I might see the entire arrangement and construction of the mines. My guides were Poles ; but I soon found that they spoke ,li German, of which I had sufficient knowledge to ask ordinary ^ questions, and understand the answers thereto. We set out 1 on the second part of our journey, one of my conductors in "t front, and one behind; each of us carrying a torch in j the left hand, at a forward point of elevation, so as to furnish \] as much light as possible. We threaded several passages which seemed to be veined with quartz, but which, on exami- nation, I discovered to be the green salt. We went over bridges, down staircases, to the right and to the left, passing - i .1 i' -4 214 A TORTUOUS ROUTE. various chambers and avenues, until my head became com- pletely turned, and I could not have retraced my way to save my soul. I observed, however, that our general course was downward ; and finally we arrived at a large chamber, repre- sented to be seven hundred feet below the surface. This chamber had been abandoned because all the salt in the stratum had been obtained; but it had been arranged like a chapel, containing an altar, several crosses, and some images of saints, all made of rock salt. When the light of the torches was reflected on these natural objects, the effect was superb. The crystals glittered like diamonds, and only a little imagi- nation was needed to transform the rude vault into an apart- ment of Aladdin's palace. After I had sufficiently admired the chapel, we resumed our excursion over more bridges, down more steps, and through more passages, until we came to what the guides termed a river. It was not a very remarkable stream, remind- ing me, in its smallness, of the renowned Rubicon, or the Manzenares, when the latter does not happen to be altogether dry. Such as it was, however, we stepped into a rude little boat and crossed over, where we were soon on another bridge, and crawled down another staircase of the most rickety and tumble-down description. I was surprised that we had met so few workmen, and men- tioned my surprise to the stalwart fellows with me. They informed me that the part of the mine through which we had passed had been worked out, and that the miners had gone farther down, following the strata containing the salt. In half an hour or less, we encountered a number of miners hew- ing out a new passage. They were naked above the waist, and some of them wore the garb of southern savages, the high temperature rendering clothing uncomfortable, if not superfluous. They used picks and crowbars, and, in the beginning of their excavations, would lie down on their backs, and strike out the salt with their implements, covering their eyes with pieces of leather, to prevent injury from the falling fragments. It is not often that men can work well with CROSSING UNDERGROUND RIVERS. 217 their eyes blinded, but there they succeeded better without seeing than with seeing. As they increased the cavity to sufficient height, they stood up and labored in the regular way. There was now no lack of miners, who were visible on every hand, delving hard, steadily, and silently. Their toil is excessively monotonous and severe. As most of them have done nothing else, and as they are densely ignorant, they are not tortured by brighter memories, nor haunted by pictures of the possible. Their earnings are miserably small — not more, I believe, on an average, than thirty to forty cents a day, and working about twelve hours out of the twenty-four. Out of these wages they usually have families to support ; for it is as true in Austria as in every other land, that extreme poverty incites to marriage and prolific paternity. The one so-called river which we had crossed was an intro- duction to a number of others, all of them small, and more like pools than streams. The two workmen generally pushed a little boat over with poles, though they sometimes used oars very much in the same fashion as the Lethe and the Styx in the Mammoth Cave are crossed. These pools or rivers are formed by percolations of water through the strata, and in them the miners have not unfrequently been drowned. Our onward progress soon brought us to a largo open space — it must have been a hundred feet high, and nearly two hundred in length and breadth — called the Chamber of Letow ; and about half a mile farther is another of still greater dimensions, known as the Chamber of Michelawic. These chambers, which were excavations, were decked out in all the splendor of rock salt. There were chairs, candlesticks, chandeliers, statues, thrones, columns, and altars composed of the chief staple ; and when lamps were lighted in the natural hall, the rays of light were reflected from thousands of points, and the whole interior shone in sparkling splendor. It recalled to my mind the Crystal Saloon, as it is styled, in the New Palace at Potsdam, when it is illuminated on some special occasion. 218 A WONDERFUL SCENE. I had brought with me from Cracow some small fireworks, such as red lights, serpents, and Catharine wheels, for the [ purpose of burning them in the mines ; and this was evidently one of the places for their use. I handed some of them to the guides, and in a few seconds the cavern, more than eight hundred feet under ground, was ablaze with different colors, : and showers of radiance. To produce a greater effect, all the [ lights were extinguished, and then another pyrotechnic exhi- I bition began. The result was marvellous. One would have ; imagined that the moon, and stars, and sun, had all burst through the earth, that divided us from the upper air, and i were gleaming and flashing under our very eyes. The rock i salt was as so many prisms, revealing all the lines of the h rainbow, and coruscating like a vault studded with jewels. Such glorious radiance I had never witnessed underground, nor had I deemed such radiance possible there. The extraor- dinary contrast between the pitchy darkness and the mag- nificence of the illumination can hardly be expressed in words. It was as a sudden plunge from a Memphian night into a tropical noon, and the first effect was almost blinding. I have witnessed, in my time, numberless exhibitions of fireworks on a grand scale, but none of them furnished so splendid a L spectacle as the few pieces burned in the depths ofWieliczka. ^ So much for accessories. Rock salt has its aesthetic as well as material uses; and, confronted with common lamps and common fireworks, it assimes the beauties of Dreamland and the shining glories which theological rhapsodists have associ- ated with the Celestial Kingdom. The Chamber of Michelawic is consecrated, I was told, to St. Anthony, and I think the saint would show his much boasted power, — not to speak of his kindness, — if he would re- lieve the poor devils who so implicitly believe in him from their need of wasting toil in those dreary caverns. On the 3d of every July, grand mass is celebrated in the chamber, — then regarded as a chapel, — and is followed by a banquet, in which the principal officials of Cracow and the directors of the mines participate. At that date the workmen are given a 'i^'-yjp VISIT OP THE IMPERIAL FAMILT. 219 1 partial holiday, and receive trifling sums of money, that are quite enough to render them happy, and to make them wish that every day of the year were the 3d of July. 1 Now and then some of the members of the imperial family of i Austria make a visit to the mines, the superintendent being 1 notified beforehand of the important event. Great prepara- | tions are then made. The main passages and different cham- % bers of Wieliczka are brilliantly illuminated ; the miners are '] relieved from work ; festivals are Jield in the villages, and j presents are given to the people in the name of the House of \-^ Hapsburg. One of these royal visits had been made a few ] weeks before mine, and many of the peasants were still speak- .^ ing of it in terms approaching ecstasy. How merely relative \ is everything we give the name of pleasure to ! The poor x Poles and Aiistrians, relieved from twelve hours of their customary labor, and given a few unexpected kreuzers, are made happier than many men would be in the midst of material blessings, and surrounded by the answered wishes of their hearts. One of the principal sights in the mines is the- Infernal Lake, a body of water seven or eight hundred feet long, some four hundred broad, and fifty deep. Above and atound it is a vast cavern, that might be the abode of the gnomes and gob- lins once supposed to inhabit the inner parts of the earth. The atmosphere of the place is oppressive, and its every sug- gestion superlatively dismal. It is infernal in seeming as well as in name ; and if the Hahnemannic principle be true,, that " like cures like," melancholy spirits, after a visit there, would be converted to cheerfulness and content. The deep gloom of the vault at once prompted the benefit it would ' derive from fireworks; and so I sent a number of serpents j whizzing through the thick air, and ignited blue and red | lights, until I had wrought a perfect transformation. The ' 1 scene was strikingly theatrical, only far more vivid and ^ impressive than anything could be on the stage. If I had heard a chorus of imps, or had seen blue, yellow, and green devils, of the most improved spectacular pattern, dancing: ia 12 -i ,1 i 220 THE INFERNAL LAKE, horrid measures on empty space, I do not think I should have been surprised. Assuredly there could be no evil spirits anywhere if they were not there. Never could they find a more inviting region for the display of their malignity, or a more attractive rendezv^ous for the perfection of their schemes against the human kind. A boat was ready for our embarkation upon the inky bosom of the lake, and we rowed out upon it with our gleaming torches, and our voices returning to us in the dreariest echoes. I was still thinking of the charms of the demons, when, of a sudden, the strongest and wildest sounds burst from the cav- ern. I strained my eyes, but in the thickness of the darkness I could descry no forms. Groans, and shrieks, and horrid laughter rose, and reverber- ated through the vault, until — had I been the least supersti- tious — I should have become convinced that I had reached the Orthodox Tophet at last. The sounds were as weird as mysterious ; but I concluded that it must be part of the ex- hibition, for which I was expected to pay at the usual rate, and I soon discovered that I was right. It is the habit of the workmen, when strangers make a visit to the Infernal Lake, to go out in boats, distribute themselves at diflferent points, and set up this diabolical yelling, that a proper impression may be made upon the visitors. That they acquitted themselves handsomely of their task I can testify ; for a more discordant and abominable sound it has never been my fortune to hear. The howls of the miners finally lessened in volume, — prob- ably from exhaustion, — and I could distinguish, at the end of the wild refrain, the words *' Gluck Auf! Gluch Auf! " (Welcome ! Welcome ! ) There was something singularly sardonic in the idea of being welcomed to that dreary depth. Such a welcome the demons of the fabled Pit would extend, I should suppose, to the doomed and damned. The efiect of the cheery words was more dispiriting than if they had been of evil omen. While we were rowing grimly about on the lake, " Olack J i •ii 1 CHORUS OP DEMONS. 223 Atif^^ assumed a fiery form in letters of flame, about a hun- dred feet in front of us. This seemed to be done by magic ; -I but a little reflection taught me that lamps must have been hung in the shape of an arch over a narrow part of the cave, and thatj while we were otherwise occupied, the workmen had lighted the lamps. The very moment the illumina^ou was made, the harsh chorus began again, louder and more fu- gubrious than ever. I set off the last of my stock of fireworks, and amid the sulphurous blaze and the infernal din we fle^tfed :) back to the shore, when I was informed that the entertain- 1 ment was over. In a few minutes the chorus of demons appeared in the shape of hard-featured, muscular, ill-looking miners, asking for kreuzers, in consideration of the efficient aid they had lent to the depressing performance. As I have said, I was well supplied, and I could play the part of My Lord Bountiful with very little expense. Three or four kreuzers were enough to make the stolid faces of the miners brighten as if they had fallen into the possession of pecuniary independence. What they could purchase with such a trifle, I could not compre- hend, for I felt that I should be no better off, in my own judg- ment, with fifty times the amount I had bestowed as gratuities upon the gnomes of Wieliczka. My two guides denounced the begging unfortunates for their mercenary conduct in a vile Polish patois^ which must have consisted chiefly of curses. I am sure they mentioned mercenary conduct, which must have been an ironical expres- sion, since none of the wretches, in asking for trinkgeldj re- ceived, at the highest, more than four or five cents. The rebuke reminded me of the familiar instance of the parsimo- nious father who handed his boy a penny, accompanied by the precaution that he should not make a beast of himself, or of the over-thrifty husband, who, having been asked for a lit- tle money by his wife, wished to know what had become of the dollar and a half he had given her a month before. The majority of the miners are Poles, unable either to read or write, to whom labor in the mines has been an inheritance .1 224 STOLIDITY OP THE MINERS. — their sole one, indeed. Many of them have never been five miles from home, nor do they expect to be. They are rooted to the spot by the necessity of toil and their narrow circum- stances. Some of the workmen are Austrians, and they are usually more intelligent, or rather less ignorant, than the oth- ers. After a few years of service, they often leave Wieliczka, seek a larger field of labor and a better kind of employment. But the Poles, possessing a certain kind of stupid content- ment, appear to have no ambition, and no future. I ascribe this partially to their loss of nationality, than which no greater calamity can befall a people. It robs them of their individu- ality, impairs their energy, and depreciates their self-esteem. They feel that they are deprived of what they have a right to enjoy, and that they are likely to be despised for a misfortune for which they are not directly responsible. Nearly all the miners reveal in their features and expres- sion the hard fate that has attended them. They have all the marks of undevelopment, all the traces of an animal and un- disciplined nature. Mind, in the strict sense, is omitted in their composition. They are merely machines of flesh and blood, obeying physical instincts, and impelled by the law of self-preservation. Years ago, the Austrian government used to condemn polit- ical prisoners to a term of service in the mines, sometimes extending through life ; but of late this practice has been abandoned, and now all who work are regularly paid, and free to go or stay, as they like. Going out of the mines, I followed almost the same course that 1 had coming in. Altogether I spent some six hours under ground, and might have spent weeks there, had I been in- clined to exercise, since the combined length of its excava- tions and passages is said to exceed three hundred miles. Accidents are uncommon in the mines, not averaging more than thirty a year, and few of these are fatal. They occur either from falls, or from being run over by the cars drawn to and fro by horses. These cars run on tracks from the place where the salt is dug out, to the mouth of the shaft, and THE MIRACULOUS SIGN. 225 thence the salt is drawn up by machinery to the surface of the earth. I had made my entrance through the parts that had been excavated and abandoned, that way having been selected to give me a clear idea of the progress of the work, and the gradual deepening of the mines. I observed after- wards, at the lower levels, where hundreds of men were ac- tively employed, how the salt was thrown into the cars, and then carried by the railway to the principal shafts. Wieliczka is impregnated with tales and traditions, natural and supernatural. Of the latter the peasants relate manj'^, and believe them sincerely. One of these is, that a miner, who had been sent to Cracow, found, on his return, an image of the Virgin, which, as the nar- rative runs, had been stolen by the devil from the cathedral of that city, and dropped by the wayside ; St. Paul, or some other saint, having detected the theft, started in pursuit of the diabolical thief. A poor workman picked up the im- age, which was of wood, and knowing it to be sacred, carried it back to the church in the midst of a storm. When he had reached the edifice, summoned the priest, and given it into the holy man's hands, the inanimate image suddenly shone w^ith celestial light, sped through the air, and took its accus- tomed place at the altar. The awe-struck priest and peasant fell upon their knees in prayer, and when the latter arose, there was an illuminated cross on his forehead. By inspira- tion he understood that whenever this symbol was visible, it was to indicate good fortune ; and going back to the mines, the cross proved to be very beneficial in pointing out the richest veins of salt. The man walked under ground, and whenever his forehead kindled with the divine token, it was a certain sign that the spot on which he stood would yield richly. He received handsome presents, and numerous sums of money from the government, and so excited the envy of his former fellow-workmen, that they entered his cabin one night, and knocked out his brains. His murderers disappeared mysteri- ously the next day, and it was supposed, in the Galician vil- lage, that they were carried off by demons. r'.J 226 STORY OP A POLISH REBEL. The image in the cathedral was heard to wail at the time the crime was committed, which was probably intended as a warning, though it did not do any good to the victim, at least in this world, however much it may have benefited him in the next. I cannot see the moral of this monkish story, unless it be that persons who find things should not return them. If the miner had taken the image home, and split into kindling-wood, he might have lived much longer, and died peaceably in bed at a ripe old age. During one of the periodic Polish revolutions in Warsaw, a prominent nobleman, resident in the city, and the leader of the insurrection, had volunteered to proceed to St. Peters- burg, and assassinate the czar. The government spies de- tected the plot before it was mature, and went to the dwell- ing of the Polish conspirator to arrest him. He had been apprised of the discovery, and knowing that he would instant- ly be executed, he had been wise enough to flee from the town. He was sought for everywhere, for the authorities considered him extremely dangerous, and felt confident, from his character, that the emperor would not be safe while the desperate noble lived. All the subtle detective machinery of Eussia was set in motion to hunt up the fugitive Pole, but all to no purpose ; and the emissaries of the government, after a year of unexampled activity, abandoned further effort. Pot- zoporousky, the name of the arch rebel, feeling that he would not be secure anywhere on the surface of the continent, con- ceived the happy idea of going below it. He proceeded in disguise to Wieliczka, claimed to be a native of Vienna, and was hired as a miner, at thirty kreuzers a day. He labored most faithfully, and was considered an excellent workman, strangely preferring, as was thought, to remain in the mines, even when he might have been enjoying the sunlight. No- body ever dreamed of looking for Potzoporousky a thousand feet under ground ; and there he remained for fifteen months. Then he applied for his last week's pay, saying he had met with an injury that would prevent him from working for a lit- r- L,W( I I ■— ^wiK^i .1 ■^v^l^i^>»^ ^ T. -■ f •.■■,-*-^'- " ,~»'f; ^. MUBDEB OP A SUPERINTENDENT. 227 • -i , ft -J tie while, hurried to Vienna, thence to Constantinople, and -^ finally to Smyrna. There he resumed his correspondence with some of the former conspirators, and had perfected a plan for a new revolution, when he was seized with cholera, and died. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, a scien- tist of Radour was implicated in a conspiracy to defraud the J Russian government of several millions of roubles by means of forged array orders, and sentenced to ten years' exile in Siberia. He asked, as a special favor, that he might be sent, instead, to Wieliczka, where, he afBrmed, his scientific knowledge would be of use in separating the green salt from the clay, with which the directors of the mines were then having considerable trouble. Prompted by interest, the gov- ernment granted his request, and, the fifth day after he had entered upon the service, he induced one of the superintend- ents to visit a new passage in process of excavation, crushed his skull with a lump of rock salt, put on his garments, and escaped. He had always been regarded as a purely intellec- tual man, absorbed in his studies, and his deliberate taking of another man's life only shows how sweet liberty is to all of " ;^ us, and of what desperate deeds we may be guilty to regain the freedom we have lost. From 1825 to 1851, one of the most vigorous and enduring miners was Johann Gerbroitz, a German, who, in all that time, is said never to have missed a single day's work. He was a great favorite, on account of his kindness of heart and uniform good temper, especially with the women of the village, who, wheth- er young or old, manifested a great deal of fondness for him. When in his thirtieth year he married Elisa Dosbrinski, a cob- bler's daughter, regarded as one of the prettiest girls in the town. They lived together so very happily that they were considered a model pair. They were never known to have even those slight differences which are not uncommon to the most sympathetic and harmonious couples. They seemed wholly devoted to each other, and though Johann had been something of a flirt before he became a Benedick, nothing 4 r-1 i 228 HOW A WOMAN KEPT A SECRET. of the kind could be charged upon him afterwards. Every- body declared he was a manly and noble fellow, and that his serenity could not be ruffled. In his fortieth year a ftagment of rock fell upon him, and killed him instantly. His wife was wild with grief at her be- reavement, and all her neighbors lamented, sorely too, because Johann was a loss to the village that could not be supplied. The children of Wieliczka had learned to look for his smile, and little acts of kindness, — he was a Rip Van Winkle of Austria, without Rip's infirmities, — and literally cried for him when he appeared in the streets. After the poor fellow's corpse had been brought to the stricken homo, it was discovered, to the amazement of the whole town, that Johann was a woman ; and it is to be pre- sumed that he had never been anything else. The secret of his sex had been most carefully preserved, and it would never have been thought, from any outward indication, that it had been shared even by his spouse. This is an excellent proof, if proof were wanting, that women can keep a secret, and that there are some things which even the busybodies of a village cannot find out. The story of the man-woman Johann Gerbreitz is still told at Wieliczka, along with many other curious histories, of which specimens have already been given. Like the great capitals, the mining town of Galicia has its comedies and tragedies, its lyrics and its epics, perhaps tri- fling in themselves, but of wondrous moment in its too par- tial eyes. t "■^f^jv^^f^^ smw/m ' XVI. CORAL CAVES IN THE PACIFIC. ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. — CORAL REEFS, AND THEIR FORMATION. — ROMANTIC STORY OF A CAVERN. — HOW IT WAS DISCOVERED. — AN ELOPE- MENT, AND EXERCISE IN DIVING. — LOVE AND TURTLES. — A FEEJEEAN VENUS. — A DISTRACTED FATHER, AND WHAT HE DID. — WAR AND CANNI- BALS. — A BATTLE IN THE WATER. — KILLED BY SHARKS. — A MAIDEN*8 GRIEF. — THE PERIL OF A LOVER. — VICTORY AND MAGNANIMITY — SURPRIS- ING A FATIIER-IN-LAW. — END OF A SUBMARINE COURTSHIP. — " BLESS YOU, MY CHILDREN, BLESS YOU." The islands of the South Pacific Ocean are mostly of vol- canic origin, having been produced by a sudden upheaval from below the surface of the water. Exception must be made, in this connection, to the coral islands and reefs which have been built up by the coral insect, working patiently through un- known centuries. The coral insect does not work at a greater depth than two hundred feet, • — so the savans tell us, : — and he ceases his labors as soon as he reaches the surface. Conse- quently, the coral islands and reefs are but just above the sea- level, except in cases where they have been lifted by earth- quakes or other internal action, after they have been com- pleted. Many of these coral islands are of circular form, witb an opening which will admit the passage of boats, and some- times of ships. The waves break on the outer edge with.that long, steady swell peculiar to the Pacific, but on the inside the water is as calm and peaceful as that of a mountain la- goon. Sometimes the coral reefs have been formed around the volcanic islands so as to encircle them completely, ex- cept at a single opening. In such cases they make excellent harbors between the reef and the island: the harbor of Tahiti is a splendid specimen of this kind of work. The reef sur- rounds the island in such a way as to make a lagoon of still (229) -"<3 - .-1 2 yi [ _ / k 230 AQUATIC SKILL OP THE FEEJEEANS. water, like the moat around a castle. The entrance is deep, and suflSciently wide to admit ships of every size. On many of* the volcanic islands there are caverns, some of them of considerable size, and often of great depth. Runaway Bailors frequently hide in these caverns, and they are also resorted to by the natives in times of warfare. There is a tavern in the Island of Hoonga, one of the Tonga Islands, .vhich has a romantic history from the use that was made of it by the man who discovered it. One day a young chief of Hoonga was out on a fishing ex- cursion, and caught sight of a large turtle. The turtle dived, and BO did the chief, leaving his canoe floating on the surface of the water. The natives of nearly all the Pacific islands can swim like seals ; they are in the water and learn to swim about as soon as they learn to walk. It is commonly said that a Feejeo baby will swim instinctively, like a puppy or a kitten ; but this is not strictly true. The natives think nothing of swimming a mile or two at a time, and they frequently get up swimming matches, in which they show great speed and en- durance. The accomplishment is not confined to the sterner sex; girls and women swim as well as boys and men, and frequently the girls carry away the prizes in the swimming matches. It is proper to say that they are not as elaborately dressed as the young ladies of New York and Paris; on some of the islands nobody wears any clothing whatever, except a little oil rubbed over the skin, to keep out the water. Since the missionaries settled in the South Pacific, more attention is paid to dress than formerly; but the quantity worn is sur- prisingly small, and would not admit the wearers to a fashion- able party in America. The young chief dived for the turtle, and the two had a lively race. The turtle went into a hole in the rocky shore, and the chief went after him. The turtle disappeared, and the chief rose to the surface of the water to regain his boat. But instead of finding himself in the open air, he was in a cavern, a hundred feet wide and twice as long, with a dome as high as the roof of an ordinary church. It was lighted from ■VJt \ ■i i WHAT A PAIR OP LOVERS DID. 231 the water and from a few crevices in the rock, where nobody could reach them. On one side there was a floor of solid rock, smooth as the best sidewalk of a city, and evidently the resort of the turtles of that neighborhood. He explored the cavern, and concluded that he had hit upon a good thing, and would keep it to himself. Taking a new twist in his neck-tie, ad- justing his collar, and seeing that his diamond pin was well j>i fastened, he dived into the water, swam outside, and rose "^ near his canoe. With his thumb on the side of his nose, he , la paddled home, lighted his gas, and sat down in his easy-chair. He was not a married man, but he had hopes in the direc- tion of matrimony. He loved the daughter of an old chief whose tribe was then at war with his own, and as long as the war lasted there was no hope for their union. His tribe was preparing for an assault upon the other, and the economical 'J custom prevailed there of eating all who were killed or made prisoners. His tribe was more powerful than the other, and if the battle should be on the side of the stronger party, they would have the pleasure of devouring the vanquished ones. He had no particular objection to eating, or seeing his friends eat, the body of his father-in-law, and especially that of his mother-in-law, — many a married man in America can under- stand his feelings, and sympathize w^ith them, — but he did object to seeing his bride roasted or fricasseed ; so he studied out a plan to save her from the gridiron or stewpan. He managed to communicate with her the next day, and told her to meet him at a certain place on the shore, at an appointed time, where he would be ready with his canoe. He was there on time, and she came, with her waiting-maid, who carried their entire wardrobe in an old bottle. A quart of J cocoa-nut oil was sufficient to dress her for several days, and a^ it did not take long to pack up. They entered the canoe, and " ji the chief paddled them to the cave, which they reached just ' as the sun was rising. .i "Dress yourself, my dear," said he, as he ceased paddling, 'j "and have your maid do likewise." -^ She poured out a handful of the oil, and rubbed it over hex 232 THE HAPPY COUPLE IN A TURTLE CAVE. porphyry-colored shoulders, so that she could slip easily through the water. Her maid followed her example, and then fastened the bottle to a string around her neck. " Now, if you Ve ready," said the lover, " follow me." " Ready,*' was the response. He went overboard, and mistress and maid went after him. Down they dived like three dolphins, the princess keepiitg close at his heels, and the maid following the princess. The lady had some misgivings when they entered the hole in the rocks, but she concluded that her lover knew" what he was about, and therefore she asked no questions. In fact, she could not talk at that time, as any one familiar with effoiits at subaqueous conversation can testify. They rose in the cavern, and clambered out upon the solid floor, disturbing half a dozen turtles, and capturing one of them just as he was sliding off into the water. The princess was delighted, and so was the maid, who thought the place one of the joUiest she had ever seen. They talked about the best plan to arrange the house, and laughed to think what a commotion her absence from home would create. After an hour or so he left her, promising to bring some furniture, and fit up the establishment, so that they might start at housekeeping in good style. There was a precious row in Oklingee's palace when he found that his daughter had disappeared. He searched through his village, but could find no trace of her ; and, after ^ ' several hours of fruitless endeavor, he came home, and for I the first time discovered that she had taken the bottle of cocoa-nut oil, and then he knew that she wouldn't return in a hurry, and that her absence was premeditated. He did not know that anybody was in love with her, but very naturally suspected that she had eloped with some young man. His rage was great, and he ordered all the youths of the tribe to be sent before him. All came, and were closely questioned. None of them knew anything about the princess and her flight, and all were able to prove where they were the night before. His anger r * ■ _.,1 A HOME UNDER WATER. 233 was partially appeased when some one brought in a prisoner freshly caught, who was immediately killed and served up for dinner. Oklingee's wrath turned to grief, and he determined to bring on a great battle at once, by way of distracting his sad thoughts. Moreover he suspected that his daughter had been stolen by some of his foes, though his spies brought him word that she was nowhere to be seen in the camp of the enemy. Meantime the lovers were happy in their new home, though the visits of the young chief were never of long duration. He carried her a liberal supply of mats for bedding, and kept the place well stocked with cocoa-nuts and other things good to eat. Anything that would be injured by the water was carefully wrapped in a shark's skin before it was taken to the cave, and as the skin was quite water-proof, the articles did 1 not suflfer in transit. It was no easy work for the youth to dive and swim into the cavern with a bundle fastened to his neck ; but love gave him strength, and he was ready to under- go any hardship for the sake of his heart's idol. She recipro- cated his kindness, and arranged all the mats and other furniture so that the house was quite comfortable, and even luxurious. The turtles did not approve of the invasion of their home, and made up their minds not to live in the society of the .1 moonstruck couple and their servant. As the latter showed no disposition to leave, the former abandoned the placOj though now and then one made his way there and climbed upon the rocky floor. When the splashing of the water denot- ed the approach of a turtle, the princess and her maid would quietly slip aside, and leave him to pick out the spot he wanted and go to sleep. They would then stealthily approach him, and turn him on his back, where he would be helpless. Cutting oflF his head was the next step, and by the time the chief made his appearance the turtle would be ready to take v home. He was thus able to account to his friends for his ^ absence, as he took a turtle home nearly every day, and was greatly praised for his skill in the chase. *s ,•■*■ r I r 234 FATE OP A SPY. One day a fellow who had been unfortunate in turtle hunting, and taken nothing for a fortnight, determined to follow the chief, and find out where he had so much good luck. He paddled his canoe silently along, keeping some distance in the rear, so that he was not noticed by the lover. The latter reached the cave, and was so intent on seeing his lady love that he did not think to look around. Taking a bag of cocoa-nuts, he dived and rose as usual. The other waited I'.' ^ a long time for his reappearance, and at last was rewarded by \ seeing him come up dragging a turtle, which he lifted into : the canoe. Just as he was picking up his paddle, he discov- ^ ered the spy, and knew that his secret, or at least a part of it, ^ , had been found out. \ The other laughed, but his laugh was brief, as the lover I went for him, and there was every promise of a fight. The ( canoes met with a crash, and the men grappled and fell into j the water. Their struggle was long, as neither had any \ weapons or clothing, and their oily skins did not ofier good holding-ground for their hands. At last the chief had the spy by the throat, and at the same time struck him a violent \ blow on the nose, so that the blood spurted out. [ The waters of the South Pacific swarm with sharks. Some [ of these grow to a considerable size, and are strong enough to \ seize a man and kill him. They rarely attack the natives; there seems to be a friendliness among the sharks and the natives, as the latter can swijn among them with almost com- plete safety, while a white man would be caught in a moment. It sometimes happens that a group of natives will be bathing and frolicking in the water with sharks all around, as inattentive as though nothing were near them. But let a white man join the party, and he will instantly attract the ^ sharks. A white cloth thrown into the water will bring them around ; anything white seems to draw them and receive j^y their attention. It not unfrequently happens that sailors who have incautiously put their naked hands or feet into the water over the sides of a boat have had them bitten off by sharks. rS-f f^. t'fl"^'^,-','i"n"r -|5r M T FOOD FOR SHARKS. 235 «J^ Blood also attracts them, and where there is blood, they make no distinction between natives and foreigners. In the present instance, the lover had drawn blood from his antag- onist, and it instantly occurred to him that both then* lives were in danger if any sharks were around. He released his hold, dived under his canoe, and swam away a hundred feet or more, so as to be out of the vicinity of the blood he had drawn. As he rose to the surface and looked around, he saw that the spy was just recovering from the force of the blow.. His head was above the water, and his hands were moving as if he were slowly swimming towards the rocks. Suddenly he gave a shriek, and disappeared as if drawn under, and the lover then knew that his expectations were not incorrect. But with a taste of blood the sharks would be likely to attack him, and he therefore swam farther away, and climbed upon a small reef just even with the surface. Fortunately a light wind came up and blew his canoe towards him. When it was near the reef he swam out and reached it, and then paddled home with his turtle. For two days he did not go out again ; partly through fear that the sharks might be around the spot where his antagonist was killed, and partly in order to allay any suspicions that his previous movements might have aroused. When he next visited the cavern, he found his princess greatly distressed, and almost dead with grief. Soon after his last visit her maid took it into her head to go outside. She dived into the water, and rose close to the foot of the chflF, The lover had been gone an hour or more, but an empty canoe was floating not far away, and near it a dozen sharks were quarrelling over something which she naturally supposed was the body of the owner of the bark. Of course she thought that the canoe must belong to the young chief; and when she returned and told her story, it is no wonder that the princess went into hysterics. On the next day he cameoiot, and they then knew that he was lost. Their grief had been great, and so were their surprise and relief at his return. ■■;! JJ s' * ■ y.v -£.^ 236 A CANNIBAL WEDDING. He went and came safely. Next day the warriors went out to battle, and the stronger tribe was victorious. The slain were eaten, and the prisoners were reserved to be killed whenever wanted. Among the latter was Oklingee. The young chief had shown great courage in battle, killing two of the fattest and tenderest warriors with his own hand, and his people were consequently inclined to do the handsome V thing by him. Oklingee was old and lean, and the young chief easily persuaded his people to let the patriarch live. The old fellow was gratified at being saved from the hash- mill for the present, and asked the youth what he could do f for him. - " Give me the hand of your daughter,^' said the young man, respectfully. ^ " Certainly, my dear boy," said Oklingee ; " not only her ^- hand, but her entire self, provided you can find her. She has eloped, and I don't know where she is.'' " I will show you," said the youth, as he led his prospective father-in-law to his canoe, and seated him on a mat in the ■ bottom. Then he summoned his friends, and together they ? paddled their light canoes in a gay procession over the water. Near the mouth of the cavern they halted, and the chief jumped overboard. While all were wondering at his strange behavior, he reap- peared with his tawny princess at his side. Everybody was surprised, and the old man gave the happy couple his blessing. The wedding was appointed for the following Sunday ; cards were issued to all the relatives, the prisoners that had been held over were killed and roasted, and everybody was happy. ^ r- ■ ■ I. I' l .■ •'!' ■;•/•«>.- -«' / j(-* » ^ -. -^ '^'1 _ i; .( XVII. DUNGEONS. UFE IN THEM. •— ANCIENT DUNGEONS. — THE PRISON OP ST. PAUL. — THE DUCAL PALACE. — " 80TT0 PIOMBI." — THE POZZI. — .SHUT UP IN THE DABK CELLS. — A NIGHT OF HORROR. — A GUIDE*S BLUNDER. — DUNGEONS OF ST. PETERSBURG. — PETER THE GREAT TORTURING HIS SON. — A PRINCESS DROWNED IN PRISON. A GREAT many people have at some time in their lives been in dungeons ; some of their own accord, and others much against their wills. Those who have gone there voluntarily rarely stay long, as their visits are made out of curiosity ; and curiosity in regard to dungeons is very speedily satisfied. I have been in a fair number of dungeons, but I generally made my way out of them with very little delay. They are not very agreeable places of residence ; and if one of them were assigned to me as a spot to dwell in, I should get out at the earliest moment, when it was in my power to do so. A dungeon is an old-fashioned institution, Uut it is not altogether out of date. If the history of all the dungeons in the world could be written, there would be many startling tales narrated, and many volumes could be made concerning what has transpired within them. In the days of the ancient Romans, every emperor of good and respectable standing kept a private dungeon for his own use ; and he had a good many public ones lying round loose for his friends to occupy. Some emperors kept their dungeons well stocked at all times, with an assorted lot of humanity. They were not particular as to age or sex, as long as they could have their dungeons liberally patronized. Nero did a fine business in the dungeon line, and successfully rivalled many of his competitors. He displayed great ingenuity in starvii^g 13 (239) 'Til I 1 \ 240 IN THE PRISON OF ST. PAUL. his prisoners, and occasionally in putting them to death ; and 80 did others of the Roman rulers. Nero was a festive old fraud, and did not mind putting his friends to a good deal of trouble in order to amuse himself. I have elsewhere alluded to his fine array of gridirons, toasting-forks, racks, and thumb- screws with which he used to get up exhibitions of a very select character. Many of the old dungeons are now closed, partly for want of business, and partly for the reason that their present pro- prietors have a delicate regard for the reputation of their an- cestors, and do not wish any prominence given to these old prisons. Other dungeons are kept open to visitors, but no- body is confined in them. One of the most celebrated dun- geons of Rome, for instance, is that in which St. Paul was involuntarily lodged during a part of his stay in Rome. There are two dungeons, one below the other : the upper one is not altogether uncomfortable, though its space is rather re- stricted, and does not afford much room for exercise. When I visited this place the guide pointed out several of its peculiar features: one of them is an impression of a hu- man face in the solid rock, at the side of the staircase ; and he related, with great solemnity, that while St. Paul was being led down the stairs his keeper pushed him, and pressed his face against the stone. An ordinary face, he explained, would have been injured by the operation, but a miracle was performed, in the instantaneous softening of the rock, so as to receive the visage of the apostle without injury. The im- pression thus made remains to this day. Another curious feature is the spring of 'water from which St. Paul baptized one of his jailers. It is related that one of the jailers became converted, and desired Paul to baptize him. No water was at hand for the purpose ; but a miracle was performed, by the opening of the rock in the floor of the dun- geon and the appearance of a spring of water. This spring remains at this day, and contains water apparently fresh and sweet. The keeper of the place dipped a quantity of the water from the spring, and offered it to our party for drinking. *'80TT0 PIOMBI/' 241 We were about to drink, when the guide who accompanied us shook his head, and intimated that the liquid was not good. We did not taste it ; and therefore I cannot speak positively as to its character. A picture has been painted, and is pre- served in the room above, showing the miraculous opening of the floor, the water rising like a fountain from the rock, and the apostle engaged in the act of baptizing the jailer, who is kneeling before him. In the middle ages every owner of a feudal castle had a dungeon about his premises, though it was not always under ground. Sometimes it was hewn out of the solid rock which formed the foundation of the edifice, and sometimes it was in a high tower placed at one corner, where the occupant could look out and enjoy the scenery, though he was debarred from any practical knowledge of it other than what he could obtain through his eyes. Many a person has lived and suffered for years, shut up in a high tower where he could look out on the world around him with the consciousness that he was never more to enjoy his liberty. The Ducal Palace of Venice was well provided in the dun- geon line. There were prisons under the roof of the palace which were known amongst the Italians as the " Sotto Piombi," or " Under the Leads." They were so named from their po- sition, directly under the roof. They were hot as ovens in summer, and as cold as refrigerators in winter, and they were connected with the room where the famous Council of Ten used to sit. From these prisons persons accused of crimes against the republic were taken before the Council, whose members sat with their faces covered with masks, and their bodies wrapped in cloaks and mantles, so that it was utterly impossible to identify them. To be dragged before the Coun- cil was equivalent to a sentence of death ; and generally the trial of an offender would be very brief. Any one could make an accusation against a person, who would be speedily arrested and taken to trial. He never knew who were his accusers ; and very often he did not know what testimony was to be given against him. 'f^ 1£* i. 242 THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. From the Council Chamber he was generally taken to execution, though not always ; in either case he was led across the famous Ponte di Sospiri, or Bridge of Sighs ; and accord- ing to tradition the bridge received its name because prison- ers, weeping and sighing, were led across it for execution, or were taken from the prison for trial before the Council of Ten. Byron has written, — " I stood in Venice by the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on either hand.'* Between the Ducal Palace and the prison proper of Venice there is a narrow canal. The bridge is elevated far above the water, and has two passages, each about four feet in width. In regard to these passages traditions differ : one tradition is, that the two were designed, one for noble prisoners, and one for plebeians, while another says that they were used in- differently, patrician or plebeian being allowed either pas- sage without regard to the rank or position he held. The reader can accept whichever explanation suits him best. Down beneath the palace was a real dungeon: it could never have been an inviting place, and it is very far from being so at this day. No effort is made to keep it in fine con- dition : it is not carpeted ; its walls are not painted, neither are they frescoed. I remember on my first visit that, after we had wandered through the palace, our guide descended a series of stairways, and finally brought us to a place below the level of the water which surrounds Venice. " Here," said he, '^ are the dungeons ; and here is where many state prison- ers, who offended the laws of Venice, passed the portion of their lives immediately preceding their deaths. You can enter them, gentlemen, and see how you would like them." Torches were lighted, and we told the guide that we pre- ferred to follow him. On we went, where not a ray of light from the out^r world could reach us. Had our torches been extinguished we should have been in darkness as deep as that of the lowest and most elaborate mine in the world. It 'A- IMPRISONED IN THE LOWEST DEPTH. 248 ■ 'I ■'1 ■1 -■-J did not require a vivid imagination to roll back the centuries, and bring before us the thousands and thousands of men who " ^ had lain there, day after day, without hope, until led to trial, and thence to execution. What a world of mystery lies con- cealed in these prisons ! Here is the cell where Marino Fa- liero was confined ; and here is the cell where Jacopo Foscari passed the days preceding his execution ; and here is the cell ^ where dozens of men of noble birth and gentle rearing were kept day after day, till they died of starvation and for want of fresh air. The cells are little boxes, some of them not J more than six or eight feet square, and not high enough to J allow a tall man to stand erect. One cell is only four feet i high ; and it was said that a healthy man confined in this cell ^^ generally died on the sixth day, owing to the dampness and 1 impurity of the air he was compelled to breathe. i To have a practical realization for a few moments of the ^i horrors of imprisonment, we entered one of these cells, and j told the guide to take away the torches and not to return for five minutes, whether we called him or not. He went away ; the air had been chilly, damp, and disagreeable ; and it seemed ten times more so as the light disappeared. The darkness J was of the intensest blackness; we could not distinguish any- \ thing. With our faces turned towards the door of the cell it ^ seemed the same ; the finger held an inch before the eye was ] no more visible than if it had been cut off and buried a hun- dred feet deep in the earth. One minute was quite enough of this sort of thing, and we were inclined to shout for the guide, when we remembered | that we had told him to get out of hearing, and not to return | even if we called. tI I almost expected the ghost of one of the departed occu- ;| pants to rise before me, and add to the discomfort of the '^■ occasion. A ghost is bad enough anywhere; but I always prefer to encounter him above ground, and where there is, at J least, enough light to enable me to see him. Had one of }^ those gentlemen made his appearance, it would have been i necessary for him to bring a lantern, or rub his unearthly ^ limbs with phosphorus, to enable us to see him. 244 SHUT UP ALL NIGHT. But no ghost made his appearance, possibly for the reason that the body in the flesh had had quite enough of that place, and had no wish to send his shadow back again. The five minutes' absence of the guide seemed at least an hour, and when he returned we welcomed him with all the enthusiasm with which we would have welcomed a brother from whom we had been separated a dozen years. We told him that we thought he had been away much longer than the time stipu- lated, but he assured us he had not. On narrating this incident afterwards to a party of gentle- men in Paris, I was told of a similar experience, only a great deal more so, of a couple of travellers, one an Englishman and the other an American, who tried the experiment which we did. It seems that the men wished for a little taste of imprisonment, and sent away their guide for half an hour. It happened to bo near the close of the day. Their guide was a stupid fellow, and thought he would improve his thirty minutes by retiring to a Trattoria to indulge in a bottle of cheap wine. So he came out of the palace and crossed the Piazzetta San Marco to a restaurant near the corner of the piazza. He took his wine, indulged himself for about twenty minutes, and then started on his return. He had not observed the hour of his departure from the palace, and when he re- turned to the entrance he found it closed. It was the time for closing, and the persons in charge of the premises had shut the doors and gone away. Here was a predicament. He had left the two gentlemen down in the dungeon in total darkness, where he could not reach them, and where their shouts could not be heard. He tried to obtain an entrance to the palace, and to explain the matter, but the porters were obstinate, and did not believe his story. Italians are very suspicious, and the custodian of the palace suspected that he wished to get inside in order to steal something ; so they turned him away, and he walked off sorrowing. It was during the time Venice was under the rule of Austria. The Austrian officers were never inclined to show MAKING A NIGHT OP IT. 245 ■1 ^ -wi "1 H any favors to the Italians, and consequently the appeals of the guide to those in charge of the city were of no avail. So, finally, with Italian resignation to what could not be very /^ well helped, he went home, wrapped himself in the bosom -* ^ of his family, and slept the sleep of the innocent and con- scientious. ; Meantime the two travellers were having a good time of it down below. They stood it for a while very well, but the half hour appeared to them three or four times what it really was. Very soon the thing ceased to be a joke. They were well aware that the time might seem long to them, but they thought it was stretching itself out altogether too much for comfort. They were in a cell where they could not walk around, and where there was no chance to kill time by turning summersaults or playing leap-frog. They stood a while and talked ; then they stood a while and swore ; and then they had another period of standing still and shouting. The '^ facilities for standing still were unlimited, but those for doing anything else were very much restricted. They shouted themselves hoarse, and obtained no response. The result of their swearing was pretty nearly the same. ^ They began to grow hungry and thirsty, but there was noth- ing to eat, and there were no materials at hand for quenching their thirst. The half hour extended to an hour, and then to two hours, and then they concluded to sit down and wait for the fellow to come back. They had no means of knowing how time was passing, as their watches were not of that peculiar kind that strikes the hours, and tells you how you '< are getting along. * They listened and listened, and finally they heard sounds ; .] but they were not welcome ones, as they were caused by the %j rats that ran about the place. The rats seemed to have a ?= fondness for the dungeon. They did not make much noise, and ■ could only be heard when the strangers were perfectly still; j but there they were in goodly numbers, and their presence 1 was not consoling to the travellers. From hungry and thirsty they began to grow sleepy, but the ■i i 'i 246 RATS AND THEIR FAMILIARITIES. facilities for sleeping were not good. The furniture of these prisons was never elaborate, even in the days of the glory of Venice. The rulers of that city never thought of provid- ing their prisons with upholstered sofas, and four-post bed- steads. The furniture generally consisted of a bundle or two of straw, and possibly a chain. Sometimes a stool was added, but it was a luxury which every prisoner did not possess. There was neither straw nor sofa in the cell at the time these unhappy travellers were shut up there, and consequently, if they wished to sleep, they must lie down on the bare floor of stone and hard earth, at the risk of taking cold and spoiling their store clothes. They compromised the matter by sitting down in the corners and taking occasional winks of sleep. Their slumbers were not of long duration, and were interrupted by the rats running over them, and making themselves remarkably free, considering that they had never been introduced. Hour after hour passed away. One of the men said, "it seemed as if we were shut up a full month ; and," said he, " 1 suppose if I had been alone it would have seemed to me about six months." Finally, in the morning, as soon as the palace was opened, the guide returned with his torches, and rescued the prisoners from their confinement. He tried to make them believe that he had only been gone about half an hour, and he almost con- vinced them of the truth of his averment, by proceeding to show them, in a very mechanical way, the other curiosities of the place, and to tell them it would soon be sunset, when he would go home and prepare to show them the way to the theatre in the evening. He told them, " I suppose, gentle- mans, it seemed to you as if you were there a good many hours. It always seem so to gentlemans; they say so always." The travellers admitted that it did seem as if they had been there a good many hours ; and as they came up stairs, saw the sun rising, and saw the movements of the people indicating that it was morning, they perceived how they had been I baci^'^.:^ . I ii*ii-i^ii— ^^i— 1M>— i^M^ !!■ \i^mimtttittA^Xi's'm-i ;dk < > m •:,,> ■. . ■- — i J 3 ■Ji i ■i DUNGEON ON THE BANKS OP THE NEVA. 247 treated. Without heedrng the request of the guide to be paid for his trouble, they kicked him from the door of the Ducal Palace half away across the piazzetta, and left him to 1 go home without any fee for his day's services, and with the "j impression of an Engh'sh and an American boot painfully evi- dent on his person. On the banks of the Neva, in St. Petersburg, there are some famous dungeons in which prisoners of state have been con- ' | lined. Peter the Great ordered one of his sons imprisoned J there, and treated him with great severity. Peter was a hard- | hearted monarch, and with his love for Russia, he was as ^ ready to visit punishment upon the members of his own family as upon any one else. The Empress Catharine is also said to have shut up some of her relatives in these prisons ; but her /* cruelty never quite came up to that of Peter, who is said to have caused his son to be put to torture in his own presence, and to have stood calmly by and witnessed his dying agonies. But then she was a woman, and a good deal must be allowed to her in the way of womanly feelings. A pleasant feature of these dungeons at St. Petersburg is that they are located under the level of the river. St. Peters- burg was built originally on a marsh. There is not a hill in the whole city, and the level of the street is only a few feet | above the banks of the Neva at high-water mark. Once or twice in a century, the city is inundated, and in such cases the prisoners in these underground cells are quietly drowned ; at any rate, such has been their fate on two or three occasions. It is true they might have been saved, had the officers in charge of the prison been willing to open the doors, and allow them to leave their cells ; but no one thought of an inunda- tion, and as the prison-keepers had strict orders to keep the prisoners in their cells, unless otherwise commanded bv their superiors, and as the superiors were away at the time of the flood, the poor victims were drowned like rats in cages. There is a thrilling story about one of these dungeons, or rather about one of the prisoners confined there. J A Russian adventuress, said to be a princess, of great J i * 248 A PRINCESS DECOYED. beauty and accomplishments, about the year 1822, was in the south ot Europe, and claimed a relationship to the emperor's ' family. Some persons at this day insist that her claim was ; well founded, while others say that it was purely fictitious. [ At any rate she made a great stir, and created so much r trouble to the emperor and the Russian government, that an attempt was made to bring her back to the empire, where she could be properly dealt with. * Various traps were set, and various plans were laid, but none of them were successful, until one day — I think it was at [ Genoa or Leghorn — she was invited to visit some ships lying at anchor in the harbor. A party had been made up, and ; every one, including the princess, whose name I do not now 1^ recall, had partaken liberally of champagne. r A Russian officer in civilian dress was of the party, and adroitl}^ managed to induce her to go on board a Russian ship of war then in the harbor. The instant she touched the deck the anchor was lifted, and she was invited below. The rest of the party were put ashore, and the ship sailed for : Cronstadt. She was kept in close confinement during the voyage, and ; on her arrival at St. Petersburg was consigned to one of the dungeons. There she was kept a close prisoner in the hands , of the government to W'hich she owed allegiance, and which J she had deeply offended. While she was still in this dun- ^ geon there came the great inundation of 1824. The prisoij I ' where she was kept was flooded, and the unhappy princess \ was drowned. I heard the story of her unhappy fate while in St. Peters- burg, and afterwards in Paris. It was recalled to me in the latter city by a painting in the Russian department of the great Exposition of 1867. The most attractive picture in the Russian collection was the one which represented her death. It was not a large picture, but fearfully realistic in its character. It showed the interior of her cell, and the torrent of water flowing in through a small grated window near its roof. It !»■ !f-*v>.-: DROWNED IN A CELL. 249 was pouring in like a miniature cascade. It had covered the floor up to the very edge of the rude pallet which formed her bed. Its sheep-skin covering was hanging over its edge ; rats by the dozen were climbing up this coverlet and crouching around the unhappy woman, who knelt on the couch, her hands clasped, and her face turned upward. There was a dim light in the cell, just enough to render the scene as gloomy as possible. The attitude and features indicated agony and despair at the nearness of a horrible death, from which there was little hope of relief. fA -*i: '" 1 ' r \ XVIIL UNDERGROUND IN SAN FRANCISCO. CHINESE OPIUM DENS. — PISCO. — EXPERIMENTS IN LIQUORS. — SATURDAY NIGHT AMONG THE CHINESE. — COCOMONGO. — MURDERER'S ALLEY. — CHINESE MUSIC. — THE THEATRE. — BETEL AND ITS USE. — THE BARBARY COAST. — CHEAP LODGING-HOUSES. — A DYING VICTIM. — A DEN OF THIEVES. — ** THE SHRIMP." — UNDER THE STREET. — A REPULSIVE SPECTACLE. — OPIUM SMOKING. — ITS EFFECTS. — SAMSHOO. — ITS PREPARATION AND QUALITIES. — INTRODUCTION TO AN OPIUM DEN. — THE OCCUPANTS. — EX^ PERIMENT ON A SMOKER. — HOW TO SMOKE. — TRYING THE DRUG. — MESCAL. — GOING HOME. — TRYING A SEWER. — A COUNTRYMAN'S DRINK. Underground life, of a peculiar and picturesque character, can be seen in San Francisco, in the parts of the city where the Chinese most do congregate. Soon after my arrival there, two of my friends, whom I will call the Doctor and the Col- onel, invited me to a nocturnal visit to the Celestials. I accepted with alacrity, and, dressed in my poorest and oldest clothes, met my friends at the appointed hour in the Alia i. office. Macrellish and Woodward gave us their benediction, f and we set out on our journey. " " The best thing we can do," said the doctor, " is to lay in a ' stock of some powerful disinfectant, or neutralizer, before we start; the stench in some of those underground China ken- nels is something frightful." I suggested carbolic acid. " Not strong enough ! " said the doctor, shaking his head, doubtfully. The colonel forced two long streams of smoke from his cigarito through his nostrils, stroked his long mus- tache thoughtfully, and suggested, — " Pisco ? " " What 18 Pisco? " I demanded. '' That settles it, my friend ; you have a new experience before you, and we will fall back on Pisco ! " said the colonel. (250) r/ '4 EXPERIENCE WITH PISCO. 258 '^ " You will be in luck if you don't fall back on the sidewalk . j after you have drank it ! " growled the doctor. The colonel took my arm, and as we went down towards Montgomery Street, proceeded, in a confidential manner, to ^ enlighten me on the subject of Pisco. It is really pure, un- adulterated brandy, distilled in Peru, from the grape known as Italia, or La Rosa del Peru, and takes its name from the port of Pisco in which it is shipped. It is perfectly colorless, quite fragrant, very seductive, terribly strong, and has a flavor somewhat resembling that of Scotch whiskey, but much more delicate, with a marked fruity taste. It comes in earthen jars, broad at the top, and tapering down to a point, holding about five gallons each. We had some hot, with a bit of J lemon and a dash of nutmeg in it, at a marble-paved and splendidly-decorated saloon, near the corner of California and Montgomery Streets. The first glass satisfied me that San Francisco was, and is, a nice place to visit, and that the doctor and the colonel were good fellows to travel with. The second glass was sufficient, and I felt that I could face small-pox, all the fevers known to the faculty, and the Asiatic Cholera, com- bined, if need be. The colonel rolled me a cigarito, and insisted on my smot ing it. I did my best, choked myself with the fine tobacco, let the paper wrapper unroll, burned my fingers, and failed ignominiously. I was glad to see that, while he pitied me, he did not wholly despise me. These Califomians have an ap- preciably large share of liberality in their composition, and will pardon your ignorance on almost any given specialty of their state, provided you don't claim that you have something very nearly as good " at the East." That assumption they cannot, and will not, tolerate on the part of anybody, and I don't so much blame them, after all. It was Saturday evening, and the streets were crowded, Montgomery and Kearney Streets swarming, as you may say, with people, well dressed, sociable, orderly, and satisfied with | themselves and the rest of mankind. Suddenly the colonel remembered that the wine called Cocomongo, from the vine- 1^ • I i 254 COCOMONGO. yard of that name, near San Bernardino, Southern California, was one of the specialties of a saloon which we were passing at the moment, and we went in and had some. It was a warm, fruity wine, of a dark-amber hue, very strong, and withal palatable, which I did not find to be the case with all the California wines that I tasted. We went up Wash- ington Street to Murderer^s Alley, and turned down it, to- wards Jackson Street. *' There is where the French woman was murdered in the night, within ten feet of where hundreds of people were coming and going all the time ; and her mur- derer, after robbing the place, coolly washed his hands and face of the blood, and walked away. He was never discovered. Here, right where we stand, is where the Chinaman cut his runaway mistress open with a sword. I saw him hanged for it. And there is where the police shot — " I thanked my kind friend for this cheerful information, but suggested that it might be well to keep a little of it back for another time. It was not well to exhaust all the pleasant things of life at one sit- ting. The subject was obligingly changed. I am satisfied that the name of the alley is well deserved h and appropriate. Swarms of Chinese women, with almond eyes, r baby faces, painted red and white in the most lavish manner, ' lips touched with vermilion, hair black and glossy, with a ^ , purplish tinge, like the wing of a raven, and clad in blue satin t coats and pants, trotted along the alley, their curious wooden- soled, silk and bullion-embroidered shoes rattling like the hoofs of a flock of sheep as they went. Others tapped upon the window panes, to attract our attention as we passed. Before • one house we saw *' joss-sticks" burning, and the white cloth festooned over the door, and hanging down on either side, ;. told that death was there. We heard the beating of gongs, the squeaking of one-stringed Chinese fiddles, the sharp notes of the kettle-drum and other discordant instruments, mak- ing music inside, and, as we passed, a woman, clad in blue and white, threw a bunch of lighted fire-crackers upon the doorstep, where they went off like a running fire of musketry, much to the edification of a gang of little pig-tailed, almond I-- * ■ -*i^-. A CHINESE THEATRE. — BETEL NUT. 255 eyed boys, — " demi-Johns," I think the doctor called them, — who were gathered around, chattering like so many magpies all the time, in their, to me, uncouth jargon. The Chinese is an ancient language, beyond a doubt ; and I don^t see why it has not worn smoother by use in the hundred centuries or more since the " Central Flowery Empire " became " known and feared among the nations." On Jackson Street we stopped a few moments in front of the Chinese Theatre, listening to the unearthly din of gongs, which from time to time announced the change of scene, in a never-ending historical drama, and looking about for a special policeman to take us into an opium den. While we stood there, the colonel called our attention to one of the specialties of the fruit stall, at the entrance of the theatre. Among the dozen nameless prepared delicacies calculated to tickle the Celestial palate, and catch the Mongolian eye, was a row of little conical packages, of about one ounce weight each. These were composed of an outer wrapper of some kind of a queer leaf — I could not make out its exact charao ter, but it was apparently that of a tree not native to Amer- ica — enclosing two or three narrow slices of fresh cocoa-nut, a few thin slices of some fruit or nut resembling in appearance a fresh nutmeg, and about a teaspoonful of a pink-colored paste. A small bowl, filled with this pink paste, stood beside the packages, ready for use, and some of the nuts ready sliced, but not done up in packages, lay near it. The doctor ex- plained that these packages were chewed by the Cliinamen as some Caucasians chew tobacco. The chewing produces a lavish flow of saliva, and the chewer has the appearance of having his mouth full of blood, as if from bronchial hemorrhage. The small nut was the famous " betd " (pronounced be-^eZ), and the principal ingredient of the paste was quick-lime. The betel is now raised in California. The colonel said he had always made it a rule to drink the peculiar drinks, and eat the peculiar delicacies, of every country he visited, and he had tried chewing the betel. It only made his gums sore, loosened *. 256 "the barbart coast." his teeth a little, and gave him the heartburn. He could con- scientiously recommend it as an experiment eminently worthy to be made by anybody in the interest of science, and thought I should try it by all means. I asked him if he had ever attacked a ready-made sausage in a cheap restaurant. He was forced to admit that his faith in human nature, broad and liberal as it is, had never made him equal to the attempt. I told him that in that case he was only a dabbler in the wide field of science, and until he had entered deeper, he was unfit to give advice to others on the subject. I declined the prepared betel, lime, cocoa-nut and leaf, but took a bit of the sliced betel plain, and chewed it. It had a slightly astringent eflfect on the mouth, and though without any very strongly perceptible flavor, soon produced a slight choking sensation in the throat, and a rather strongly marked palpitation of the heart. I don't think I like betel. It is evi- dently an " acquired taste,'' as the Englishman remarked about wild turkey, when a party of western practical jokers played oflF buzzard on him for the noblest bird of the American forest. They said that the officers had all gone over upon the " Bar- bary Coast " — another of San Francisco specialties — as there had been a shooting scrape over there. We went on through Dupont Street, to that part of Pacific Street known as the Barbary Coast. The locality is the favorite resort of the dregs of the population of the Golden City — thieves, robbers, prostitutes, and loafers of the very lowest class, and of every color and nationality represented on the earth, Africa, Asia, all Spanish America, the West Indies, the islands of the Pacific, all Europe and North America, having each contributed its quota to make up the mass of vice, crime, and utter rottenness which surges up and down that horrible " coast." It well deserves its name. We met the officers coming back with their prisoner, a drunken loafer from Australia, who was making night hideous with his yells as they hustled him along towards the calaboose, followed by a motley crowd, whose aimless curiosity led them \ '"< to rush along pell-mell in their wake. MflH^ i A DANGEROUS LOCALITY. 257 One of the specials, whom my companion famih'arly addressed as "Shrimp," — probably on account of his elephantine pro- portions, — consented to come back and pilot us to our desti- nation as soon as the party reached the calaboose. Meantime we went into a Spanish cigar shop, bearing the high-sound' ing and poetical name " La Flor de la Marijjosa,^^ literally ** The Flower of the Butterfly," and bought some villanous cigars, the colonel and the proprietor becoming involved in an ani- mated dispute in Spanish over the revolt against the Juarez government in Mexico. Out on the street once more, the colonel wanted us to go J^ through the dens on the " coast." He would take us to the " Bull Run," the '' Cock of the Walk," the " Roaring Gimlet," "Heirs Kitchen," and a few similar resorts, and convince me that we had nothing like them in New York. Rather than make the visit, I conceded all he claimed as to the superior and in fact unapproachable depravity of this part of San Fran- cisco ; and we retraced our steps to Jackson Street, where, in , j the heart of the Chinese quarter of the town, we found our officer, and set about the work of investigation, for which we had started out in the early part of the evening. " Better go down and see how some of these people live, be- fore you go to see how they die," said the officer, leading the cj way into a dark passage running from the streets into the centre of the block. We stumbled along the passage for some filly feet or more, and came to a rickety, dirty stairway, which we descended, feeling our way along step by step, until we stood in a court-yard surrounded with high brick buildings on all sides. We could see nothing round us for the moment ; but the stench was almost overpowering, and the chattering, which was going on in all directions, convinced us that we were in a locality Hterally swarming with the lowest clas& of the Mongolian population. The officer struck a match against the wall, and with it lighted a piece of candle, which he dhew from his pocket. Immediately curious faces peeped out at us from behind old gunny-sacks, which took the place* &f windows and doors in the low basement walls; and a^ dozen 14 ^ m m •m- 258 A DEN OP THIEVES. or two dirty, dilapidated, demoralized looking Celestials came out from different corners, and stood with their hands in their pockets, regarding us with evident suspicion as unau- thorized intruders. " This is a regular den of thieves. Not a single one of these fellows works at any honest trade for a living. They are the bummers and outcasts of Chinadom," said the oflScer. " Here, Sam Yap, you dirty rascal, have you robbed anybody's hen-roost yet to-night? — I suppose not, though; they don't generally get out at that kind of business until along just before morn- ing, when the streets are almost deserted, and they can move about without much danger of being overhauled and searched. All these fellows are on it, but this one is the worst in the deck. I have had him up at least twenty times, and the next time I am going to vag him. Yes, I am, you bloody old chicken murderer ! " said he, holding the candle up to his face that we might all get a good look at him. It must be admitted that it was not a prepossessing face. He then went to one of the openings in the wall, and pull- ing back the screen of old bagging, showed us a party of ten or a dozen such fellows gathered around a low table of rough boards, playing dominoes for " copper cash," as the brass coin of China, the value of which is one tenth of a cent of our money, is commonly designated. They stopped a moment, and looked up suspiciously at us, and then at a sign from the officer, whom they appeared to recognize, went on with the game. They played it rapidly, with all sorts of exclamations and facial contortions for accompaniments. The dominoes are the same as ours, but they play the game quite differently. I don't know exactly how it is done, but they seemed to win and lose rapidly. In the centre of the court there was a small brick building, which seemed to be the receptacle of all the filth from the neighborhood. It did not seem to have any connection with the street sewer, or if it had any, it was choked up, for the planking around was literally floating in the foul liquid from it, which oozed up between the cracks at every step as we walked over it, giving off a stench, which, J i ■'i IN A CHINESE HOUSE. 2o9 ,{ in any other city of Christendom would breed a pestilence in twenty-four hours. Behind this, near the opposite wall, we stumbled upon a bundle of filthy rags, which turned partially over as the foot of our guide came in contact with it. The officer held down his candle, and on examination we found that within the rags there was a human being, a man in the last stage of consump- tion, induced, no doubt, by opium smoking. He could not or would not answer our questions, and his glazed vacant eyes showed that death was close at hand to claim him. He was lying on the wet, dirty boards, without even a blanket urtder him, and had undoubtedly been placed there to die, having no friends, and belonging to neitber of the '* Six Companies " with which all prosperous or even partially respectable Chi- nese in California are connected. The officer turned his head over, and called our attention to- the fact that his queue had been cut off, which showed that he had been convicted of theft at some time, and was thenceforward debarred from respectable Chinese society, doomed to associate only with the pariahs of his race. We had seen enough, more than enough, in fact, of this I neighborhood, and our guide led us out to the street by the 1 way we came. The Shrimp said that there was another place just above, on the same street, which he wanted us to visit before we went into a first-class opium house. We went with him to a large % four-story building, which appeared to be divided into apart- I ments of the smallest dimensions, in which the Chinese swarmed i like bees in a hive. He said that there were over six hundred . ^ persons, all of the poorer class, sleeping in this single build- ing every night. In front of the building was a narrow open- ing in the sidewalk, with a stairway just sufficiently wide to allow one person at a time to descend into the subter- 1^ ranean regions below. Down this he dived like a rat into his hole, calling out to us to follow and look sharp for our heads. The caution was not unnecessary, as I soon found to my cost. At the bottom of the stairs he lighted his candle 4 ^^ n '. !*' m- m 260 A HOBBIBLE DEN. again, and passing through a low opening in the wall, showed us the way under the street. Here, congregated in total darkness, were some twenty of the poorest class of Chinese stowed away for the night. Some were lying on piles of old rags, evidently picked up by the chiffonniers in their daily rounds, and put aside for this purpose, as having no commercial value, and of no use other- wise. Some were lying on rude benches knocked together from pieces of dry goods boxes, and one, who evidently held a higher position than his fellows, probably a man who had at some time drawn a twenty dollar prize in a lottery, or had a run of luck at the game of " Tan," was stowed away in a bunk in a kind of alcove formed by an arch in the wall, before which was hanging an old tattered chintz curtain. He had an old blanket over him, and was doubtless looked upon with envy and hatred as a " bloated aristocrat " 'by his less fortunate fellow-citizens. We could hear the ceaseless tramp of the crowd on the sidewalk, and from time to time the rattling of the carriage wheels over the rough cobbles above our heads. The atmosphere was that of a charnel-house, thick with noisome exhalations from the foul and rotting rags, and the fouler persons, of the denizens of this worse than Black Hole rf Calcutta. Water dripped from the roof constantly, and the waUs were covered with mould and great patches of thick, oozy slime. What a place for a human being to sleep in and die in ! In the five minutes we were there our clothes be- came clammy from the foul moisture. What must be the con- dition, physical and mental, of that poor wretch stretched in the rags in yonder muddy corner? " And the wheels go over my head, And my bones are sliaken with pain, For into a shallow grave they are thrust, Only a yard beneath the street; And the hoofs of the horses beat, beat, Beat into my scalp and my brain. With never an end to the stream of passing feet. . . • • • " 0, me I why have they not buried me deep enough? Is it kind to have made me a grave so rough. -■>,4. ^' '<'^. AMONG THE OPIUM SMOKERS, 261 Me, that was never a quiet sleeper? May be still I am but half dead ; Then I cannot be wholly dumb ; I will cry to the steps above my head, 'J And somebody, surely, some kind heart, will comey -^ To bury me, bury me, .^| Deeper, ever 60 little deeper." 'i I wonder if there was ever a Tennyson of Celestial litera- | ture, and if lie ever read anything like the above, and recalled . M it to mind, as he lay cowering and grovelling through the long ? hours of the dreary night, in the depths of this living tomb 1 *^ Out on the street once more, and we lost our guide, who i was called oif by a loud whistling for aid, from some other * 4 officer over on the Barbary Coast. My companions fell in with a Chinese merchant with whom they were acquainted, and we went with him to his store on Dupont Street. He gave us some scalding hot black tea in little China cups, and offered to help us in any way he could. 0, yes, of course he was ac- quainted with the location of many " opium houses ; " the Chi- nese quarter is full of them 1 Opium smoking is the great curse of China, and four fifths of the Chinese in San Francisco indulge in it to a greater or less extent. Some use it merely as a sedative, and in moderate quantities. Others use it as commonly as American tobacco chewers use the nicotian weed, consuming a dollar and a quarter's worth every day, and being more or less under the influence of it all the time. The poorer class of opium smokers patronize the opium lodging- houses, where they frequently sleep all night, paying fifteen cents for a few grains of prepared opium and a raised couch ^ to lie on, while inhaling the smoke and sleeping off its effects. ;i Perhaps a quarter of the whole number of opium smokers \ use it to the extent of producing stupefaction habitually; j these are all old smokers. The habit grows upon one steadily, '] and it soon beomes a terrible tyrant. When once the habit * has become fixed upon a man, there is no possibility of its :^ being thrown off. He daily requires more and more of the ^ drug, while his strength slowly fails him ; his appetite for ordinary food disappears; he becomes lean and attenuated; 262 EFFECT AND EXTENT OF OPIUM SMOKING. his brain becomes so affected, that it refuses to act unless the stimulant is furnished, and sooner or later consumption sets in, and the victim dies by inches, as it were, sometimes suffering horribly, while at others he is hardly conscious of suffering at all. The importation of opium into the Pacific states amounts to millions annually, and the great bulk of it is consumed in smoking by the Chinamen. The women never smoke it; are not allowed to visit the opium houses, in fact. The wealthier Chinamen have accommodations for opium smoking in the upper or back rooms of the buildings which they occupy as stores and dwellings, and do not associate with the common herd who patronize the public opium dens. One Chinese friend thought it a very bad thing, this opium smoking, but admitted that he occasionally took a whiff at it himself, when he felt unsettled, and wanted to quiet his nerves for a night's sleep. While we were talking, the colonel suggested that T was a stranger, and had never tasted " Samshoo." Our merchant friend at once took down a curious looking black bottle, — some- thing like those that Curacoa comes in, wound with some kind of straw string from top to bottom, and having a label in white and vermilion, with Chinese characters, — drew the cork, and poured out a quantity of a dark-brown liquor, something like arrack in appearance, into a little china bowl, which he passed to me, assuring me that it was a very superior article, and pressing me to drink it. I tasted it, and found it not very strong, but with a curious flavor, something between old Madeira wine and bottled ale, with a marked unpleasant smell, as of decaying vegetable mat- ter. What is it made from ? " Licey ! ^' was his prompt response. The doctor explained that it was distilled from rice— mainly the cold rice and refuse from the restaurants, he said — flavored and colored with dried peas, or some similar fruit, and strengthened and enriched with a fine old nutty taste by the addition of a piece of fat roasted pork before bottling. The Chinese consider this a great luxury, and have their private stocks of it, which they regard with as •i i3 'i DRINKING SAMSHOO. 263 | much pride as is felt by a fine old English gentleman for his ^ cellar of "old crusted port; vintage of 1803.^' A little of it satisfied me. I think the taste for it must be an acquired one. Some months afterwards I drank some samshoo, in Northern ; % China, that was far worse than that furnished to me in San \ Francisco. It ^vas served hot, in small glasses about as large „ f1 as a thimble. It burned like nitric acid ; and I half believed I that I had swallowed a torch-light procession with all its lamps ;5 trimmed and blazing. I was dining with a Chinese official, and | the etiquette of the occasion required me to swallow the vile 'v| stufi*. By the time I had disposed of a gill or so, my head felt | like the paddle-box of a steamer, and my throat was as raw as \ a freshly cut beefsteak. No more samshoo for me, if you \ please. J Our new-found friend gave us a card, on which he wrote \ some characters in Chinese by \\^ay of an introduction, and pointed out the entrance to an opium house on the other side of the street. We went over aiwl found the establishment "% located on the second story adjoining a Chinese restaurant. The proprietor of the house, or " gentlemanly clerk," looked at our card, and at once offered us the hospitalities of the place. It was, of course, a very poor place, but he would do the best he could for us. There were half a dozen small % rooms on the one floor, divided by rough partitions. We I entered one of them, and found three raised platforms or ^'^ij beds, with bamboo framework; and in place of our usual mat- j tress, a flat surface of braided cane, like one of our cane-seated I chairs, on which to sleep. This is the usual bed of the Chi- | naman. He does not fancy spring mattresses, curled hair, or feathers to repose upon, and instead of stripping himself and crawling under a pile of woollen blankets, as we do, he lies down in his ordinary clothing, and rarely has anything else over him, unless it is a single blanket when the weather is unusually cool, or the room is open and subject to drafts. He does not destroy his lustrous black hair by burying his bead in a hot feather or curled hair pillow, as we do, but has a block of wood or a cylindrical pillow, of braided cane open at 1 * i ^ tA 264 OPIUM SMOKERS IN BED. both ends for ventilation, which he places just under the top of his neck. This keeps him from becoming bald-headed, and is uncomfortable enough to make him an early riser ; but like all other systems, it has its disadvantages. In time it throws his neck out of line, giving it a permanent forward bend, not graceful in itself, and rather unpleasant for an outside barba- rian to look upon. When he travels he usually carries his favorite pillow with him, and at his death his head rests upon it in his coflSn. Two of the beds in this room were occupied when we came in, the other was vacant. On one a Chinese was stretched at full length upon his back, in utter unconsciousness ; his eyes were wide open, but apparently receiving no impression from the objects before them, and there was a vacant, mean- ingless smile upon his sallow countenance. His opium pipe or stick lay on the couch beside him, having fallen from his hand, and near his head stood the small, nut-oil lamp, with a glass cover like an inverted tumbler with a hole in the bot- tom, the tiny taper burning low in the socket. The other Chinese, who was well dressed, and probably a merchant or manufacturer of the second class, was just pre- paring to indulge in his nightly dissipation. He did not ap- " pear to relish our intrusion, but said nothing, and went on \ with his smoking. Each guest who pays his fifteen cents re- \- ceives from the clerk in attendance a small ovster or clam f shell, on which there is a little dab of prepared opium, in a ' serai-fluid condition, resembling, in appearance, thick treacle or partially dissolved " stick licorice,*' such as we used to buy with our odd pennies at the grocery store at the corner, in the happy days of youth, when we had a terrible cold, and ; obtained permission to remain at home from school and in- dulge in the luxury of medicine of our own choice. A slen- der bamboo stick about three feet in length, hollow down nearly to the largest end, where a little tunnel-shaped brass bowl is inserted, which is the usual opium pipe, a bit of wire about a foot in length, and a nut-oil lamp such as I have de- scribed, are also given him, and his " outfit '' is complete. DBEAMS CAUSED BY OPnTH. 265 The man who was about to indulge in the luxury stretched himself at full length on the couch, turned on his left side, placed the end of the wire in the opium, twirled it around so as to take up a mass about the size of an ordinary garden pea, formed the mass with his finger into a ball, held the end of the bamboo pipe to his mouth, placed the brass bowl at the other end against the flame of the lamp, slipped the ball of opium off the wire dexterously into the bowl, and as it burned he inhaled the smoke slowly into his lungs, allowing it to escape in little jets at long intervals from his nostrils. By the time he had taken the third or fourth whiflF he was evidently affected. His eyes began to grow dull, his breath- ing was slow and heavy, and his grasp on the pipe relaxed little by little. In two or three minutes his muscles appeared to relax, his head fell back, and he was in a condition half sleep, half stupor. The doctor explained that the effect of this first smoke would wear off in half an hour or so, when the man would repeat the dose once or twice, and finally become wholly insensible for several hours. We spoke to him, but he did not answer, and it was hard to tell whether he was really unconscious of our presence or merely indifferent to it. It is asserted that the opium smoker sees nothing of what is going on around him, but revels in the most blissful creations of the imagination, his soul sailing away, as it were, from the dull and common-place surroundings of his body, to walk hand in hand with the "black-eyed girls in green" through the fair gardens, among the palm groves, by the banks of the rivers of Paradise. I said as much : the colonel char- acteristically denounced this practical version of the matter as "all blamed stuff, rot, and humbug. It makes them drunk, just simply blind, stupid drunk, and nothing else ! " He had tried it and knew. The doctor said one dose would not pro- duce any serious effects, and against my better judgment I permitted them to persuade me into making the experiment. The landlord started off to bring my allowance of opium, lamp, pipe, etc., and the colonel improved the opportunity to illustrate his theory that the opium smoker is not absolutely r ■*>H -■y \ 266 WAKING THE WRONG PASSENGER. insensible to pain, like the patient who inhales chloroform, but ' simply too drunk to resent the imposition which produces it. , Tearing off a little slip of cane from the edge of one of the ^ * couches, he went up to the wholly insensible customer on the j. couch, and inserting it in his nostril twirled it swiftly around. i A sharp sneeze and a convulsive winking of the dull eyes followed, but no other movement was made by the sleeper. " There, you see now that I am right I If he had taken chlo- L reform he would not even sneeze ; his nerves would be utterly [ incapable of receiving a sensation." ; Turning to the other customer, who now lay like a log on r his couch, he drew his penknife, opened it, then, changing ' his mind, put it back, and taking a pin from his vest, inserted f it quickly in the calf of his victim^s leg. The other leg, which was hanging half over the side of the couch, straight- ened out with a quick, convulsive movement, and the toe of the heavy felt and woodcn-soled shoe on the foot came in con- tact with the colonePs shin with a vicious energy, which sent him dancing back to the doorway with a remark which did not sound like a blessing, just as the proprietor came in with the opium and its accessories. " Why the don't you make your customers take their boots off when they go to bed?" the colonel demanded savagely of the smiling and obsequious master of the house, as he rubbed his shin and cast a ghiuce of hatred at the recumbent form of the lodger who had proved such a poor subject for experiments. " Me no shabbee ! " was the non-committal reply. I lay down on the bed and placed myself in the orthodox position, the doctor resting himself at my head, and the colonel rolling a cigarito and settling down on the edge of the couch at my feet. The host prepared the opium, placed it in the pipe, presented the end of the stick to my lips, and told me, after his own fashion, to pull away. I pulled, and began choking and coughing. The first experiment was a dead failure ; the next was more nearly a success, and I felt my head rapidly assuming the dimensions of a sugar-barrel while my body and legs appeared to be shrinking proportion- "y''^'^.y'/> '^^'■.'^T '"^ ■ ^' ""*•■ ' V EXPERIENCE OP A NOVICE. 267 ;j 7; i1 i^ 'd ^A atelj, all their bulk being drawn up towards and into my head. I felt as I imagine drowning people feel, and gasped convul- sively for breath. I could not recognize anything around me for a moment, and then I saw the dark eyes and long mus- tachios of the colonel coming out of a cloud of smoke and making directly for me at lightning speed, like a hairy comet flying through the air. The idea flashed through my brain that he was about to burn a match under my nose, or commit some similar atrocity by way of an experiment " in the inter- est of science," and as one struggling in a horrible nightmare I sprang ofi" the bed, staggering around without being able to feel my feet under me, and groping blindly about for some- thing to seize in order to steady myself. There was a low, dull humming in my ears, a giddiness in my head, and a general sense of faintness and nausea pervad- ^3 ing my entire system. "For God^s sake, take me out of this ! " I cried, at last ; and some time after I realized that I was being walked up and down the sidewalk, the doctor and the colonel supporting me on either side. My head was get- ting clearer, but I felt deadly ill. The faint, sickening odor of the opium fumes clung around me and oppressed me, and I said as much at last, as I leaned heavily against a lamp-post. The colonel with his usual enthusiasm exclaimed, " 0, yes, , ^ I see it ; you want a good strong stimulant of some kind to help you get rid of it. Now, I know a Mexican over on the corner of Vallejo Street, who has got some double refined Mescal, which will dissolve a gun-flint in half an hour j one good drink of that will set you all right." " Not if 1 know myself aright ! " I remarked, emphatically. " You are the most hospitable people I have ever fallen in - ' with. Your good intentions are unbounded, and 5"our kind- jl ness I never can forget, but I don^t want any Mescal to-night. ^ I have made a suflScient number of new acquaintances for one evening. Pisco, Cocomongo, Betel, Samshoo, and Opium, are all very fine in their way, but the new things are crowd- ing each other a little too fast. We will omit the Mescal on this occasion ; I want to go home I " t^ 268 LIVING m A SEWEE. They called a hack, and we rode back to the Occidental in silence. This was my first experience in a San Francisco opium den. It will also be my last ! Next morning the colonel called on me and said he had for- gotten something — an opium den worse than the one we had seen. " How's that ? " I asked. " Why," said the colonel, " it is an opium den of a very ro- mantic character. Some years ago the line of Jackson Street was changed by the city authorities, and it became ' necessary to build new sewers. The old sewer was given np, and in the new arrangements it was under some of the buildings occupied by the Chinese. They took possession of it, and hollowed out galleries on either side. The enterpris- ing proprietors converted it into an opium palace, at the pop- ular admission fee of two cents. The accommodations and odors are a hundred-fold worse than those of the place where we were last night. For two cents you can get smells enough to last you a lifetime. Do you want to go ? " I concluded that I wanted nothing more in the opium line, ^nd declined to go. I may have been too foslidious, but I had not then travelled as much as I have in later years, and novices, you know, are inclined to be particular. A sewer, whether abandoned or not, has few charms. At St. Louis there are, or were when 1 was last there, some of the smaller sewers that are so broken at their mouths, near the river's edge, as to present the appearance of natural ^ springs where the water oozes up through the sand. One day a gentleman was standing near one of these sewer mouths, when two countrymen came strolling along the bank, one of them thirty feet ahead of the other. As the foremost of the twain spied the water slowly pouring from the earth, he shouted to his friend, — ^' Hullo, Jim ; here's another spring I '' ^'Well, Gaul darn it," answered the other, "if tain't no better water than the last we found I don't want none of it." XIX. AMONG THE DETECTIVES. DETECTIVE LIFE. — CURIOSITIES OF LIFE IN A GREAT CITY. — NOT KNOWING YOUR NEIGHBORS. — PECULIAR ACQUAINTANCES. — ROBBERY OF A DRY GOODS STORE. — INGENIOUS DETECTION OF THE CRIME. — LOVE AND JUSTICE. — A SURPRISING DENOUEMENT. There are some men who seem better fitted to live beneath the surface of the earth than in the open air. Their habits are much like those of the mole or the weasel, and sometimes they are not altogether unlike those animals in general appearance. They have the burrowing propensity of the rat and the woodchuck, and in many instances their lives are about as reputable as that of the first-mentioned animal. They seem to avoid the light of day, and to spend their lives in under- mining the works and lives of others. Great cities can fur- nish a good supply of these men, and the rural districts are not altogether destitute of them. They flourish best in large cities, as there they have a better field for their operations than in the country. In the country everybody knows every- body else for a considerable distance around, and can tell yoii about his family and its antecedents for as many years as you care to know. Frequently the people observe the manners and habits of their neighbors with more care tban they ob- serve their own. In the city men go about their daily occupations, knowing little and caring little about others, except those with whom they come in contact or have relations of a business character. In New York, for example, there is not one householder in five who knows the name and occupation of his next-door neigh- bor, and generally he does not care to know. People may occupy the same house for years without knowing anything (269) ?^; 270 AN ODD EXPERIENCE. 1* about each other. I can give a personal experience of my own which will illustrate what I have here stated. During the first year of my residence in New York, after remaining a few weeks at a hotel I went one day in search of lodgings in a private house. I found a Iiouse whose exterior pleased me, and on the door-post there was the attractive announcement, " Rooms to let." I rang the bell, made known my object, saw the vacant room, was satisfied, and engaged it. Next day I moved in. I took my meals at a hotel, and for a year and a half occupied that room. I did not know the name of anybody in the house except the proprietor, and never troubled myself about the occupants of the rooms on the floor where I was located. One day, in ascending the stairs, I met an acquaintance coming down ; an acquaintance whose business was in the very office where I was located, and whose desk was not far from mine. We hailed each other, and our conversation revealed the fact that he had been for two years an occupant of that house, and I had been there nearly a year. Had we been in the country or almost anywhere else in America than in New York, we should have known each other's local habitation and names in less than a fortnight. City life, politics, and poverty are about equal in the opportunities they afford for making acquaintances with pecu- liar people. These acquaintances may not be formed very rapidly ; but as one moves about in a great city, he is certain, sooner or later, without any effort on his own part, to be introduced to men whom he would not always be willing to recognize in public. Without ever going to church he may make the acquaintance of clergymen. Without touching a playing card or entering a gaming house he may be ac- quainted with gamblers. Without studying the mysteries of the kinchin lay, or familiarizing himself with the language of the inhabitants of Blackwell's Island, or the state peniten- tiary, he may become acquainted with thieves of various grades. Without doing anything for which he should be " shadowed " he may be familiar with detectives, and without Ati-.---' , i^^- ' ^^m. if A detective's stort. 271 ■i speculating in stocks he may know the men whose fortunes are made and lost on Wall Street. A great city is an epitome of the globe, and in its streets, and alleys, and by-ways may be found all the vicious and dangerous elements of human existence. Some years ago it was my fortune to become acquainted with a professional detective. He was not of the elegant sort, whose labors are confined only to the exposure and punishment of crimes of the higher grades, but he was a man who, to use his own language to me one day, was ' ready for anything.' He told me several stories of his experience. He did not present documentary evidence of their authen- ticity, and some of them were rather too much for my belief. Others were plausible enough to be true, and as the man always appeared to have plenty of money, I concluded that he must be an export at the business. One evening he told me his experience in working up a case of robbery, which I will endeavor to give as nearly as possible in his own words : — "A dry goods merchant on Broadway had lost a consider- * able amount of property at various times, but on no one occasion was there a large quantity taken. Of course the clerks in the establishment were susi)ected, but there was no way of discovering whether they were guilty or not. A close watch had been set on all of them, but nothing could be dis- covered. I was engaged to work up the case, and to enable me to do so, I was employed in the store as an extra clerk and salesman. It was thought that the foreman and floor walkers might be guilty of the robbery, and therefore they were not taken into the secret. The head of the house explained, however, to the foreman that I was a relative of his wife, and had been thrown upon him to provide for. It was therefore understood that I was not to be required to work very hard, and was to be allowed to go out whenever I asked permission. With this understanding I went to work at my new business. I did not know anything about dry goods, nor about selling them, and consequently they put me upon the -1 n .1 'J ^'■\rs^ 272 MAKING FRIENDS. commonest articles, which were not in very great demand. This gav<) me plenty of time for looking around and observ- ing the habits of the clerks. " I became acquainted with one after another, but made no headway for several weeks in discovering the secret. I accompanied the clerks to their rooms occasionally, and some- times we were at the theatre together. I knew the salaries that were paid in the establishment, and I knew just how much money each man could afiord to spend, and my object was to find out what man among them was living beyond his income. All of them appeared to be quiet, well-behaved young men. Some of them were members of tho Young Men's Christian Association, and others patronized the Mercantile Library, and spent most of their evenings there. Three or four were a little inclined to fast lives, but evidently did not have riioney enough to carry out their wishes. '^ After a time I found out that one, who was tho most quiet and unobtrusive of tho whole lot, seemed to be living a little beyond his means. Upon him I fixed my suspicion and • watched him closely both in the store and out of it. '* He and I became fast friends. Wo went about the city together; we visited the theatres and beer-gardens, and on Sundays took a trip to Coney Island, whore we occasionally spent several dollars in entertaining ourselves and chance acquaintances ; but the young man, whom I will call Johnson, was constantly on his guard, and whenever I proposed any new amusement or any additional expcnr>c, ho always opposed it, and said that he could not afford it, tliough somehow he 1^'. generally did afford it before we got through. "I found he had a sister living in Ilarlem, Occasionally, but not often, she called at the store. She rarely bought anything, and never remained longer than a few minutes. He visited her every few days, though sometimes a week or two might intervene between his journeys to the place where she lived. Several times, when he was absent and I knew he was to be away for the evening, I visited his room, and searched it carefully ; but never a thing could I find to implicate him in ^ J ' !■ SEARCHING A LADY'S ROOM. 273 the robbery. Not a scrap of silk or lace or anything of the sort could ever be discovered in the room. " I next managed to be introduced to his sister, and of course I pretended a great liking for her. She was living in a very quiet way, in a boarding-house, and was a teacher, on a small salary, in one of the public schools. Having ascertained her salary, and, calculating her expenses, making an estimate of the value of her clothing as nearly as I could, I was satisfied that she was living somewhat beyond her salary. " One day Johnson told me that he was going with his sister to a school picnic. He had obtained leave of absence from the store, and I thought it an excellent time to make investi- gations. So I went to his sister^s boarding-house, inquired for the young lady, and of course was told that she was away. I explained to the landlady that I had received a message, saying that she would be at home several hours earlier than she had expected, and that I was to meet her that afternoon, to go on another excursion. I said it was about time for her to reach home, and, if the landlady had no objection, I would wait in the parlor. As I had been there frequently, and the landlady knew me, she made no objection. Luckily she went out a few minutes after, and gave me more freedom to operate than I had expected. " I immediately went to the young lady's room, — of course it was very impolite for me to do so, — and searched it thoroughly. It is of no use telling you all I found there, unless you have never been in a lady's room, and do not Imow what it contains. She had a very good wardrobe, better than most young women in her position. It struck me as very odd that she had four dresses of rich black silk, which did not appear to have been made a very great while. Four dresses of black silk are a pretty good supply for a school teacher on a small salary, and I made up my mind that the silk came from the dry goods store where Johnson was engaged. " There is a great difference between believing a thing and proving it. You may be certain of it from the circumstances, but it may not be very easy for you to go into court and show Id / •- J: 274 A DETECTIVE MAKING LOVE. its reality. Now, here was my predicament. I thought four dresses were too many for one young lady, just as I once thought, when I searched a man's trunk, and found fourteen coats of different sizes, and no trousers or vests, that it was a remarkable wardrobe for a gentleman to have. But how was I to get at the fact, and show the connection between the wearing apparel of Miss Johnson and the Broadway dry goods store? "To help matters along, I made love to Miss Johnson in the regular way, referred to my relations with the dry goods house, and obtained an indorsement from the head of the firm, as a relative of his wife. I was getting along very well, only I did not want to propose and get an engagement, because that might make the situation a little awkward. I deferred the day of proposal on the ground that my uncle in the country, from whom I had expectations, was opposed to my marriage, except to a lady of his choosing ; and that I should be obliged to wait until he had handed in his checks, which would be before a great while, as he had a lovely cough, and the rheumatism, supplemented with the dyspepsia and gout, so that the situation was perfectly charming. " Johnson approved of my attentions to his sister, and of course we became warmer friends than ever. All this time I was studying to entrap the two, so as to fasten the robbery of f the dry goods house upon them. One day I pretended a great admiration for a certain kind of silk that I had seen at the store. I told Laura that it suited her complexion exactly, and was just the dress she ought to wear. It was a light- ^ colored silk, of a peculiar shade, which had been made ex- ' pressly to order for the dry goods house, and I knew that they had the monopoly of it. I spoke about it several times, and said I hoped, one of these days, to be able to present her with a dress of this sort, but did not know when it would be, as my income, just at that time, was too small for any lavish expense. " Love for me made the girl incautious. Four or five days later, twenty or thirty yards of this silk were missing from the store ; and in a week or more, when 1 made a call, Laura ^^ •- ■'^ 1! 1 - 1 A SUPPER AT I>ELMONICO^a 275 1 surprised me with a dress of the material I had so much i admired. I praised it, and I praised her, and she was happy, 3 " I invited her to accompany me the following evening to a I theatre, and told her she must wear that dress ; that I wanted \ her to be the prettiest and best dressed woman there ; and, 1 dressed in that, I knew she would be. We went to the . 1 theatre, and afterwards to Delmonico^s, where I had arranged -A to be shown to a private room for supper. I had invited her brother to join us, and, to avoid his suspecting anything, I told him that the day before, I had received a remittance of fifty dollars from my uncle, and was going to have a pleasant evening, without regard to the expense. " -^ " But her brother was not the only person to be there that evening. The head of the firm was waiting where he could see us enter, and with him was a policeman. " Our supper was brought, and was progressing finely ; we had each taken a glass of champagne, and possibly two -] glasses, and, as the servant came into the room bringing some- ij thing I had ordered, he Avas followed by the head of the firm /i and the man in blue. Johnson was arrested for theft, and his- sister for being an accessory to the theft. Both turned pale ; the young lady fainted, so that we had to dash water in her face — seriously injuring the elegant dress she wore. John- son stoutly denied his guilt. He was taken from the room before his sister recovered. When she came to her senses, we told a pardonable falsehood, and said that he had confessed everything. She supposed our statement true, and then acknowledged that she had first urged her brother to the commission of the theft, in order to gratify her love for finery. With an eye to economy, she had always induced him, when stealing on her account, to take enough to pay for making up the material, so that she would not be subject to any expense at the dress-maker's. "Johnson maintained his innocence until his sister told him that she had made a confession. Then he acknowledged his guilt, and explained how the robberies had been carried on. " He had managed to ingratiate himself with the porter who . 4 1 : '*} 276 A CONFESSION. swept out the place after the day's work was over. During the day he would fold the silk he intended to steal into a bundle that might resemble a lot of waste paper, watch his chance, and throw it in a place just large enough to receive it, under a shelf, a few inches above the floor. When the porter swept the store, he brought out the package with his broom, taking care to have a sufficient quantity of waste paper and rubbish lying near to prevent attracting attention to the package. In this way he would get it outside, and take it to his home, where Johnson would call for it. The porter received something for his efibrts in the cause of dishonesty, and the stolen property would be taken to Laura's house, whence it would go either to the dress-maker or to a receiver of stolen goods. ^' The porter was arrested an hour later, and both he and Johnson received the punishment due to them for their crime. As for the girl who was the cause of the theft, she was allowed to escape, on condition of leaving the city immedi- ately. The firm would have prosecuted her, had it not been for my intercession. I liked the girl, and was ashamed of the trick I had played upon her; but then, you know, it was in the interest of justice, and a man ought to be willing to do any- thing for the sake of honesty. " It is a little ofl* color to make love to a girl, and pretend you want to marry her, just for the sake of entrapping her into the disclosure of a crime ; but this is the way of the world, and anybody who thinks diflferently does not know the whole duty of the detective. Why, I have been to a fellow whom I suspected, and told him that his wife and children had been killed by a railway accident, and got him worked up to a terrible condition of anguish. I did it just to throw him off his guard, make him a little crazy perhaps, and then, while he did not know what he was about, I would accuse him of a crime, and get him to own up. " If a man is going to be a good detective, he must not go frescoing around with anything like fine feelings. If he does not go in for all the tricks of the business, he is not likely to succeed in his profession.'' t^ .■ 'c. "* ■1 '4 ,-.1 XX. I i 'I ^ -J THE EARLIEST EXCAVATIONS. GBAYES AND THEIS CONSTRUCTION. — DIFFERENT MODES OP BURIAL. — TOMBS. — THE MOST EXTENSIVE TOMBS. — OBJECT OF THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. — A VISIT TO THE GREAT PYRAMID AND ITS DESCRIPTION. — DIFFICULTIES OF CLIMBING. — THE TOMBS OF THEBES. — A FAT AMERICAN'S ADVENTURE. — ENTERING THE TOMB OF ASSASSEEF. — RECITING POETRY UNDER DISADVANTAGES. — SWALLOWING A BAT. — JACK'S DISGUST. — FATE OF A FAT MAN. — STUCK IN A PASSAGE-WAY. — HOW THE ARABS REMOVED HIM. There is little or no reason to doubt that, the earliest excavations ever made by human hands were for purposes of sepulture. The burial of the dead, or rather the disposition of their bodies, has been a necessity in all countries and all ages since the days of the Garden of Eden. Some nations ^| have practised cremation, and there are many arguments in its favor ; but with most of these nations it was the custom to gather the ashes of the dead into urns, which were buried with much formality. Among some of our western tribes of Indians the bodies of the dead are placed on scaffoldings of poles several feet high, and there left to the action of the ele- ments. This practice had its origin in the absence of all tools suitable for digging in the earth, and possibly from a vague theory that the body of the deceased should be raised towards the home of the Great Spirit beyond the skies. Some of the ancient nations had a theory concerning cremation, which was, that the flame, rising towards heaven, carried the spirit of the deceased and enabled it to reach the mansions of the blest. On the same theory the Chinese write or print their prayers on paper, and then burn the paper ; the flame carries the prayer upward, and as light and heat come from (277) .1 i u 278 EARLIEST FORM OF SEPULTURE. the Controller of the universe, they are considered the proper vehicles for the transmission of appeals to his mercy, his pity, and his infinite love. The earliest form of sepulture was in the grave, a simple trench a few feet in depth. With the dawn of civilization came the tomb, rudely constructed of stones piled together, or cut out of the solid rock. The most elaborate specimens of the latter kind of tomb are in Egypt ; thousands of years ago they were constructed, and to this day they remain, and are regarded with wonder by travellers from all the nations of the globe. The most extensive tombs of modern times bear no comparison to those which are found in the lands bor- dering on the Nile. The pyramids of Ghizeh, immense mounds of stone, and constructed with the greatest care and engi- neering skill, are the tombs of the rulers of Egypt in the days of her greatness and prosperity. The pyramid of Cheops rises to a height of nearly five hundred feet, and is of pro- portional width at its base. Down deep in its centre is the coffin of the man whose name has been given to the pyramid ; thousands of years have passed since this huge tomb was constructed, and it will doubtless remain for thousands of years to come. No tomb of modem times approaches it in grandeur, or gives promise of outlasting it. Though the opposite of underground in their character, and erected rather in the interest of death than in that of life, the great pyramids deserve a description here. Excavations were made for their foundations, and the interior chambers, where rest the coffins of those for whom they were erected, are, for all practical purposes, as much underground as they would be in the deepest coal mine of England or America. The pyramids are mostly on the west bank of the Nile, not far from Cairo ; tourists designing to visit them make Cairo their starting-point, and from that city several groups are in full view. Altogether about seventy pyramids have been counted in this region, and the remains of many others are visible. Decay's effacing fingers are constantly at work ; forty centuries have passed since the pyramids were erected, -.,-,-^ 'A « ,-*• CONSTRUCTION OF THE PYRAMIDS. 281 and their durable character can be readily inferred when we remember how long they have stood. A sepulchral chamber was first excavated in the rock, and during the life of the king who was to repose within it, the work of building the pyramid was pressed forward. It was generally completed before he died, and therefore he had the consolation of knowing that he would not be kept waiting around for his tomb to be constructed. The structure was made over this chamber, an elegant coflSu of stone being first placed within it. A passage-way about four feet high and three feet wide was kept open, so that the body of the king could be carried to the sepulchral chamber when the proper time arrived for depositing it in its coffin. The pyramid was practically solid, as the chamber and passages leading to it were the only hollow spaces. The sides of the pyramids were directed to the four cardinal points of the compass, and their exactness in this particular leads to the supposition that the ancients were acquainted with the prin- ciples of surveying as practised by modern engineers. The pyramids were constructed of red granite from quar- ries at Assouan, and other points of the Nile, and of a hard limestone from quarries at Makotam and Tourah. The blocks were very large, and it must have required a vast amount of mechanical power and engineering skill to quarry them and move them to the places where they are now found. Many engineers think that the Egyptians must have possessed some mechanical power which has been lost and become un- known to the people of the present century. Especially is this the case with the huge stones at the top of the pyramids, where the number of persons who could work must have been very small for want of room. Other engineers say that the ordinary derrick on a large scale would have been suffi- cient for the purpose, and it is pretty certain that this instru- ment was used, as holes have been found in the stones, -where it is supposed the feet of the derricks were placed. Others think that the blocks were moved by human power, of which the kings had an unlimited quantity at their command. One "*'. 282 THE PYRAMID OP CHEOPS. theory is, that as fast as the courses of stone in a pyramid were laid, the earth was piled around it so as to form an in- cline, where the blocks could be slowly rolled. When the last course, at the top, was laid, the pyramid would have the appearance of a hill with gradually sloping sides. The earth could then be removed, and when it was all carried away the pyramid would stand as it was intended to stand. It is true that this mode of work would require an immense force of men ; but what did the kings of Egypt care for the toil of their subjects ? The kings owned the land and the people, and could do as they pleased with either. The pyramid of Cheops, known as the Great Pyramid, was twenty years in building, and it is said by Herodotus to have required the labor of a hundred thousand men during that time. Cheops stopped all other works connected with reli- gious rites until the pyramid was completed. To facilitate the transportation of stone from the Tourah quarries, a causeway was built three thousand feet long, sixty feet \vide, and fifty feet high, which is said to have required ten years for its completion. A railway engineer of the present day would have finished this causeway in a month, provided he could have the unlimited supply of laborers possessed by the Egyptian kings. The Great Pyramid covers an area of between twelve and thirteen acres ; the side of its square measures seven hundred and forty-six feet, and its height is four hundred and fifty feet. It was originally seven hundred and sixty feet square and four hundred and eighty feet high ; its outer portions have been removed to furnish stone for building purposes in Cairo. Originally, it was a perfect pyramid ; the builders began at the top and filled in, with small stone and cement, the angles formed by the recession of each layer beyond the one below it. Each side was thus left with an even surface sloping at an angle of 51° 50'. The outer casing being removed has left the courses of stone in the form of steps nearly four feet high, so that the ascent is not an easy one. There are always plenty of Arabs hanging around the pyramid ready to " > ' "."* ^^ '-'^■f^<'~'^'. ^ - ^^ ll,i I < 1^M,I !.#) .• PJl^ ^ ? A % THE king's chamber. 283 assist a traveller who wishes to ascend to the summit. By pulling and pushing him over the steps, they get him up at a reasonably rapid rate ; but the exercise is of such a nature, that it frequently leaves him feeling very much as if he had been passed through a patent clothes wringer. The pyramid contains about eighty-two millions of cubic feet of masonry, and the total weight of the stone used in its construction is estimated at more than six million tons. The entrance is on the north face, fifty feet above the base, and about twenty-four feet from the central line. The passage-way is low and narrow, and extends, in a downward slope of twenty-six degrees, three hundred and twenty feet to the i sepulchral chamber. The chamber is forty-six feet long, I twenty-seven feet wide, and eleven feet high. There is a branch passage-way leading from the main one, which termi- nates in a smaller room, called the Queen's Chamber ; it is ^ supposed that this room was intended for the resting-place ? of the queen's body, but it contains no sarcophagus. '^ In the apartment known as the King's Chamber, the walls and roof are of a highly polished granite, in slabs of great size. The only article of furniture in it is a sarcophagus of red granite, seven and a half feet long, three feet wide, and nearly four feet high. It is too large to be moved through the pas- sage, and must have been placed in the room before the roof was covered. It is supposed that it contained a wooden coflSn with the mummy of the king, and that these were taken away when the pyramid was first opened and plundered. In s the construction of the pyramids, arrangements were made* '; for closing the passages with blocks of granite, which have greatly retarded all attempts at exploration. It is supposed that there are other apartments yet undiscovered in the Great i Pyramid ; and at some future day an enterprising and patient 5 explorer may be rewarded with important revelations. j Nearly a thousand years ago, the Great Pyramid was visited, A and plundered, and the work of destruction has been renewed 1 at various intervals since that time. But notwithstanding the centuries that have passed since the first visit, new apart- 'li ■: 284 PREPARING A MUMMY. ments and passages have been discovered within the past thirty years, and several important facts in the history of the pyramids have been obtained from the hieroglyphics on the stones of the interior. Another pyramid near the great one was explored in 1837; a sarcophagus was found, and with it was a mummy case of King Menkur^, but the mummy was gone where the woodbine twineth, or somewhere else. Near the pyramids there is a great number of tombs, some built above the surface, and some excavated in the rock. The Arabs have opened nearly all the tombs and plundered them of their contents. They have no respect for dead Egyp- tians, and whenever they find the entrance to a tomb beneath the sands that have been blown from the desert, they quickly open the receptacle and search it for articles of value. The Egyptians used to embalm the bodies of their dead with the greatest care. Professors of the art of embalming were numerous ; and judging by the extent of their work, they must Iiave been in constant practice. The first step in the Egyptian method was to put the body in a sort of spicy pickle, where it was kept for two or three months. The vis- cera and all internal organs were removed to give a better chance to the pickle ; and when the work was sufficiently advanced, the body was dried, filled with preserving gums und spices, and properly bandaged. The bandaging of a mummy was one of the fine arts, and sometimes a hundred yards of cloth would be required for a single subject. Every toe and finger had its separate bandage, and the preserving articles were so soaked into the bandages and plastered over them, that there was sometimes more gum and bandage than body. A close-fitting case or coffin was put outside the mummy, and he was then ready to be packed away for any number of centuries. He kept well, for the work was thoroughly done ; and mummies are constantly found in good preservation. after a rest of four or five thousand years. The Arabs rob the tombs, and break up the mummies for the gold and silver which were concealed about them ; and many a mummy has .. "♦T"^-vr-;3?^ .•'-V- V MUMMIES BUBKED FOB FUEL. 285 come to grief in consequence of attempting to take his money along with him. After the mummy is broken up he makes very good fuel ; the Arabs occasionally burn him; and in the early days of the Cairo and Suez Railway, the firemen on the locomotives found that mummies, cut into proper lengths, made a very good substitute for wood and coal. The gums and rags that preserved the mummy are combustible, and thus facilitate his destruction. Arabs and railway stokers are, like the law, no respecters of persons, especially if the persons have been dead forty or fifty centuries. It amuses and benefits these modern Vandals to burn mummies ; and it is proper to say, that the mummies don^t appear to mind it. The subterranean tombs and other excavations on the Nile are numerous, and sometimes of great extent. Several of them are so large, that travellers who ventured into them without proper guides have been lost, and have perished for want of food and light. A modern visitor says that after going through several tombs, he felt very much as if he had been rolled in an iron mill. The passages leading into the tombs are long and dark ; sometimes they extend hundreds *of feet in an indefi- nite sort of way, and not by a straight course, as a respectable tomb ought to have its entrance. A slender man can get along much more easily than a fat one ; the latter gets stuck some- times, and can easily fancy himself a number ten gun-wad forced into a number eight barrel. An acquaintance of mine once vowed that not for the whole of Egypt would he ven- ture into a tomb again, and that he had done with explorations. " Ask him about the tomb of Assasseef at Thebes,'' said a mutual acquaintance, who was sitting between us. We were in a cafe at Rome, and whiling away an evening after a visit to the Coliseum, and the ruins in its vicinity. " Hang Thebes and all it contains," was the curt reply. " Well, if you insist upon it, you shall have it on condition that you won't speak of it again." We made the required promise ; and after taking an extra sip of brandy and water, he began. " There were two of us, and we were making the journey 286 DAHABIEHS AND DONKEYS. of the Nile in a dababieh. You know what beastly things those dahabiehs are generally, though sometimes you find one that is quite comfortable. Why the beggarly Egyptians don't call them boats, and be done with it, I never could understand. We landed at Luxor; and after looking at the ruins there, we rode to the tombs of the kings, seven or eight miles away. They mounted me on a donkey so small, that my feet dragged on the ground, and I had to take a reef in my legs to keep from wearing away my boot soles. Jack, my companion, said, that if I wore spurs, I would have to buckle them on just below my knee, as I could not raise my heels without having them so far aft, that they would not reach the animal. There was no necessity for spurs, as we had a boy to run astern of the donkey, and give him an occasional turn in the tail to help him along. The boy kept a firm hold of the tail most of the time, and was helped along by it more than the donkey was. At one time, when we were on the edge of a little ridge, the donkey watched his chance, and let his heels fly into the stomach of the urchin. A prize-fighter couldn't have made a better blow. The boy went rolling down the ridge, and I thought we should have to pay for him, or buy a new one. " He scrambled up again, and wasn't hurt at all. Evidently he was used to that sort of thing, but I don't believe he liked it, for he made some remarks that sounded very much like swearing. I gave him half a franc, and he appeared satisfied, and ready to be kicked again. He went around behind the donkey, and got into position ; but the beast wouldn't respond for an encore, and so the thing was dropped. But you can believe the boy gave that tail fits for the rest of the ride ; and by the time we were through, it looked like a piece of old rope with half the strands gone. " Jack was poetic, and began to blow and recite verses ; but I couldn't think of anything except Old Hundred, and the Last Rose of Summer. They wouldn't do for the occasion, and so I amused myself with looking around at the sand and rubbish, and wondering why people came there to see ASSASSEEP AND fflS TOMB, 289 them. Thebes must have been a nice sort of a city, but it is very much out of repair now. It is very good as a ruin, but wouldn't be worth much for anything else. All around us there were the remains of temples and palaces that must have cost a great deal of money when they were built. Our guide kept talking about tombs and other cheerful subjects, and by and by he took us to the tomb of Assasseef. I didn't care much about going in, as it was nothing but a hole in the ground, anyhow. Jack insisted, and so we tried it. " Assasseef wasn't a king, but only a wealthy old priest, who had made money by speculation in stocks or some other way, and wanted to make a permanent investment. So he went into the tomb business, and built a very comfortable one, and larger than any of his neighbors. It has an outer court a hundred feet long, and two thirds wide, and the underground passages run nearly a thousand feet into the mountain. It was all well enough as long as we were above ground, but when we went below it wasn't so comfortable. The walls were black and dirty ; .the passages were narrow and dusty, and sometimes they were so low that we had to crawl.. The bats had a pre-emption claim to the place, and didn't like to be disturbed. They flapped their wings in our faces, and flew around in a way that wasn't pleasant. Jack opened his mouth once to spout a verse of poetry, and got a number three bat between his teeth before he finished the first line. I used to chaff him about it afterwards, and he threatened to bat Tne in the mouth if I didn't stop. " There were so many bats that the noise they made in the empty vaults and passages seemed like distant thunder, and I began to think the mountain would tumble in. The guide went ahead ; and whenever we began to talk of giving it up, he would tell about some wonderful thing a little farther on. " A good many of the passages were so low and narrow that I had to be pulled in and out by the heels, and it didn't take long to disgust me. I was as dusty as if I had made the campaign of Virginia without being brushed, and the dust I had picked up wasn't of the best kind either. It consisted of pulverized 290 STUCK IN AN UNDERGROUND PASSAGE ■^^ ■ mummy and other relics of ancient Egypt; and I think I should have made a very good show-piece if I had come home in just the condition in which I emerged from that tomb. " The joke kept growing worse, till they got me in a place where 1 had to expel all my breath to crawl through. We got into a sort of room where an Egyptian named something or other had spent thirty-five or forty centuries of his mummy existence ; but the place was about as attractive as a bath tub. The mummy had gone, and taken his baggage with him, all but the bats, which kept flying around and making them- selves uncomfortable. But when we went to get out, the job was serious. The passage-way, as we came into this tomb, was a descending one, and I got into it by going stern fore- most, as a ship drops down a current to pick up a new anchor- ing spot. But in going out I had to climb up, and that wasu^t so easy. The space wasn^t large enough for a man of my size to crawl well, as you have to raise your body a little every time you push yourself forward with your hands. For the same reason I couldn't get a purchase with my feet, and I hadn't gone five yards before I stopped. The guide and one of our water-carriers were ahead, while Jack was behind me, and had an Arab to bring up the rear. I yelled out that I couldn't get farther, and the train came to a stop. " I was frightened, and that made me swell up like your finger when you have a ring on that is a size or so too small. I filled that passage-way as a cork fills the neck of a bottle, and I couldn't stir any more than if I had been anchored. The guide got hold of my arms and pulled, but he couldn't do anything, especially as the place wasn't adapted to towing purposes. What was to be done I couldn't tell ; and I began to think I should have to stay there, and be converted into a mummy for the amusement of future visitors. " Jack and the Arab finally pulled me back by the heels, and the Arab went for a rope. When he brought it we arranged for a new departure. They wanted to put the rope around my neck and pull me along; but I objected to this, as it inight result in stretching my neck a little longer than I wanted ^i ^vi'^'-'-^^y^x^m^^^ ,r i CONDITION OP THE MUMMY MARKET* 291 7^ '•a it. I looped the thing around me just below the arms ; and ' I then the guide and the water-carrier went ahead, and towed J me along. It was no easy work, but they got me out at last *t into the larger passages, where I could get along com para- j tively easy. The guide said something about a fine tomb ; farther in the mountain, but I had had all the tombs I wanted j for that day, and made as straight a course as I could for the J outside. And you don^t catch me in a tomb of that sort again \r 5 if you give mo all the kings in Egypt. ^ " When we got outside, we found a crowd of Arabs with frag- ments of mummy for sale. They had legs, and arms, and heads in abundance, but the market was rather too high to suit me. In fact I didn^t want any mummy, and told the guide to set the fellows adrift. Jack bought a dried arm, and took it back to the boat, but I believe he threw it overboard a few days later. After that adventure, I visited a good many ruins, but only went where I had daylight to guide me. Whenever they told me of a beautiful tomb, and the wonders that it contained, I admitted that it must be very nice, aiid took everything they said in good faith. I was wilhng to see the tombs by proxy ; and when Jack went inside, I staid where I could look at the Arabs, and study the columns of the ruined temples.'' ■H 1 i ■ 1 { 1 XXL EXPERIENCES IN WILD LIFE. NECESSITIES OF TRAVELLERS IN WILD COUNTRIES. — CONCEALING DOG FOOD. — DEFENCES AGAINST WILD ANIMALS. — HONESTY OF CERTAIN NATIVES. — THE ACTHOR*S EXPERIENCE WITH SIBERIAN KORAKS. — CONCEALING FOOD IN ICE- BERGS. — BARON WRANGELL AND DR. KANE. — STORY OF BLANKETS AND BLANKET STRAPS. — A CACHE. — WHAT IT IS. — AUTHOR'S FIRST ACQUAINT- ANCE WITH ONE. — A FRAUDULENT GRAVE. — CACHE OF A WHISKEY KEG, AND HOW IT WAS MADE. — " TWO-BOTTLE CAMP." — CONSOLATION OF A HARD DRINKER. — AN EXTENSIVE CACHE. — HOW THE INDIANS FOUND IT, AND WHAT BECAME OF THEM. — JIM FOSTER AND HIS TENDER HEART. In all sparsely settled or wild countries, travellers when on journeys are frequently obliged to carry provisions for their entire trip. If they are to go back over the same route they follow in their outward course, they do not carry their provis- ions the whole distance, but leave them at different points, where they can find them on their return. Especially is this the case where food for the draught or riding animals must be provided. In Northern America and Asia, and in Green- land, Spitzbergen, and other arctic countries, dogs are used for draught purposes : and where a party is travelling it is always necessary to carry a supply of dog food. The favorite article for feeding dogs in winter is dried fish, and great quantities are prepared in the summer months, and stored away where they can be safely kept. An expedition starting in winter for a journey of ten days will carry ten days' supply of food for dogs and men. If the journey exceeds that time, the allowance must be reduced ; and sometimes the party will be on the point of starvation. At the end of each day's journey, it is customary, if the party is to return by the same route, to conceal a day's supply of food, and thus lighten the load as much as possible. There (292) . J ■i {I 7 •J CONCEALING FOOD IK ICE. 293 are several ways of making these deposits. The first requisite is generally to protect the food against wild animals. Poles eight or ten feet high are set upright, and a rude box is made at the top, where the food can be placed. Wolves and foxes are the principal four-footed thieves ; they cannot climb, and therefore anything protected in this way is safe from their depredations. Sometimes a hole is made in the ground, and ^. the deposit is placed within it. This can only be safely done i in winter, as the soft earth in summer can be dug up by the . % enterprising and keen-scented animals with very little trouble. i A hole in winter can be made secure by pouring water over ^\ the replaced earth, and allowing it to freeze. Wolves and \ foxes can do many things, but they have not yet invented any way to dig through frozen ground. They are wise enough not to attempt it, as they would need a new set of paws every half hour if they followed digging in frozen earth as a means of livelihood. Baron Wrangell, Dr. Kane, and other arctic explorers, when travelling on the ice of the Polar Sea, used to make holes in the bergs and hummocks, and sometimes in the level ice, which frequently gets a thickness of eight or ten feet. After they had made the deposit in a hole of this sort, they would fit a block of ice as nearly as possible to the opening. After inserting the block they poured water into the interstices, and allowed it to freeze, so as to make the place as solid and even as ever. This was a suiBcient protection against small animals, but not always against polar bears. These huge ^^ beasts would scent out the food, and with their powerful claws they managed to dig into the ice, and help themselves. Even \ if the food had been put into strong boxes before it was deposited, the beasts did not seem to be hindered in getting at it, as they would break the boxes as easily as a rat would open an egg-shell. Dr. Kane once tried the plan of. sealing the food in sheet iron cans pointed at the ends. Sometimes the bears tossed these cans a while, and then abandoned them ; but they generally managed to throw them about with sufficient violence to break the shell and reach the contents. -1 16 • * 1 J ^ 294 HONEST ABORIGINALS. A healthy and lull-grown polar bear is a powerful beast, and has no respect for the laws affecting the ownership of property. In the extreme north deposits of food are in much greater danger from four-footed beasts than from men. In the first place, the beasts Sire much more numerous than men, and consequently want more to eat. Men are not very likely, in those wild countries, to come near the deposits, especially in arctic explorations; and even when they find them they are not generally in the habit of stealing. The Esquimaux of the region where Dr. Kane made his explorations are somewhat thievish when they have the opportunity, but the natives of Northern Asia have a high reputation for honesty. There are some tribes that have never learned to steal ; they have had very little intercourse with white men, and are thoroughly uncivilized. As an illustration of this barbarous honesty, I will give my own experience among the Koraks of North- eastern Siberia. My first acquaintance with them was on the shores of the Okhotsk Sea, where they had assembled with their herds of reindeer. When we went ashore we managed somehow to wet our blankets, and I hung mine up to dry. I expressed my fears that the blankets would be stolen by some of the Koraks, but was told that everything would be safe. When we camped at night, my blankets were dry, and I slept in them. But I forgot the blanket-straps, and there they hung in the open air all night, and all the next day. Now, it is a moral or an immoral certainty that a pair of leather straps, now, and in good condition, in almost any other country would have been taken in hand by somebody who couldn^t bear to see them unused. But when I finally thought of my straps, I found them hanging where I had left them thirty hours before, in full view of a dozen -or more natives, who were dressed in skins, and didn't know anything more about civilization and the customs of fashionable society than a horse knows about running a sewing-machine. On our western plains the custom of concealing articles in - ■ \' EXPERIENCE WITH A CACHE. 295 the ground prevails over any other mode. The Indiana have long practised it, and they manage it so skilfully that it is next to impossible to detect them. The early French settlers and explorers learned the practice from the Indians, and the name they gave to a place of concealment — " caclie,^^ from cocker y to conceal — has been adopted into the language of all plainsmen, of whatever nationality. So well is this word known that many frontier Americans use it in preference to words in their own language having the same meaning. A frontiers-man will speak of finding a place where a squirrel had cached a peck of nuts, or will tell you that he cached his bowie knife in his boot-leg rather than carry it at his waist-belt. My first acquaintance with a cache on the plains was in the vicinity of Fort Kearney. Our party was camped near a half dozen men who were returning from Salt Lake City, and had lost three of their oxen. We struck up an acquaint- ance, and in the evening invited them to sit around our fire, where we exchanged news and stories, they telling us of Utah, and we telling them about the States or *' God^s Country,^' as one of them called it. " Stranger,'^ said he, " if ever I get back to God^s Country, and you catch me again on these yere plains, you may just shoot me for a prairie dog. Tve seen all I want of this yere living, and don't hanker for no more of it. I'm a going back where I can have a square meal at a table, and drink whiskey that wouldn't burn a hoi© through an old boot in five minutes." We were not bountifully supplied with the necessaries of life, but we felt liberal, and ventured to offer a drink of whiskey to each of the strangers. They took it as unhes* itatingly as a kitten would take a saucer of new milk, and we * \ became friends in a short time. When we separated, one of the eastward-bound travellers said , — " May be you'll run short of flour before you get \o the mountains, and a little would help you along. Now, we had to lighten up just this side of the Platte crossing, where we lost two of our oxen. We couldn't find anybody to sell to, \ and as we didn't like to throw things away altogether, W0 \ i -. 296 HOW TO CONCEAL FLOUR. cached some of them. Next day we met a man one of ns knew, and we sold him all the caches but one, and told him where to find them. But there was one bag of flour in a cache away from the rest, and he didn't want no flour ; so we didn't tell him where it was." Wo offered to buy the flour, but the men would not listen to the proposition. " It*s Utah flour," said one of them, " and isn't very good. The sack is smjjll, and the whole lot wouldn't be worth a great deal ; but you can't buy it. YouVe treated us hand- some, and we're not going to be rattlesnakes. We want you to take that flour, and you shan't pay for it." We thanked them heartily, and proff'ered another drink, which was accepted and swallowed. "About five miles this side of the old crossing of the Platte," one of the strangers continued, after wiping the drops of whiskey from his lips, "you will come to a dry creek. There's a small clump of willows on your right hand, and mighty small willows they are too ; and on the left side, a dozen yards off* the road, there are three buffalo heads piled up, with a sage bush sticking in the top one. Now, you go up the creek past these yere buffalo heads about fifty yards, and you'll see a grave with a little board at one end. On the board are some words which we cut, that says, 'J. means, SALT LAKE, 34: YEARS.' Now, there ain't no J. Means there, but there is a sack of flour, and you'll find it by digging." We made a memorandum ©f the direction, and soon after retired to sleep. In the morning we broke camp, and con- tinued our journey, keeping the cache constantly in mind. When we reached the spot indicated, we opened the grave, and found the sack of flour, as our friends of a night had told us we should find it. The soil where it lay was quite dry, and the flour might have been left there for months without serious injury, beyond growing a little musty. A grave is regarded with respect by nearly all white men and by most savages. Consequently a cache is frequently made in the form of a grave. A head-board bearing the i DFXEIVIKG A DRUKKARD. 297 1 -J name, residence, and age of a fictitious dead man, serves to complete the deception, and is likewise useful in describing the cache so that it can be found. All sorts of articles can be placed in the grave, provided they are not of a character to ; attract wild animals and cause them to dig. In certain local- ji ities, the animals, when hungry, will dig into a real grave, and > exhume the body to devour it. Thus it happens that the fact J that a mound has not been disturbed by beasts sometimes 1 reveals its character to a keen-eyed observer, and tells him ;^ that it is a cache, containing something else than the remains ^ of a luckless traveller. \^ In a journey from Denver to New Mexico, in the autumn ^ of I860; our party contained one man whose appetite for 1 whiskey was of the keenest and most insatiable. In making J up our outfit, we had left a portion of the purchases to him, \ and he had bought about six times as much fire-water as we ] really needed. On the first and second day he managed to get as i drunk as a Tammany repeater at election time, and was neither - ornamental nor useful. On the second night, while he was r sleeping, and possibly dreaming of a paradise where there \i were rivers of pure Bourbon, and no charge to bathers and | drinkers, we arranged a plan to bring him to grief. We took ] a keg of whiskey from our wagon, and cached it a little way ^ from camp. We threw the dirt into the creek, and built a '^ fire over the place of concealment, so that there was no trace of what we had done. In the morning we kept him away ■ from the wagon until we were several miles on the road, and j as he Ind a bottle at his command he did not discover the • loss until night. ' But when he did discover it, there was trouble in the camp. We dared not tell the truth, for fear he would insist upon returning to recover the treasure. So we feigned igno- • ' ranee, thought it must have been lost on the road, or left in Denver, or, possibly, the driver had stolen it. We were all certain that it had not been left at the camp, as we had fol- lowed the universal custom of emigrants on the plains, and -i carefully examined the ground after the wagon had started. 298 TWO-BOTTLE CAMP. To console himself, he went into a condition of blind drunk- enness, and remained in it till morning. At this camp we cached a couple of bottles of whiskey, and then solemnly averred, next morning, that he had swallowed them. To all his denials we wei-e incredulous, and we narrated, with great minuteness, how he drank one bottle after another, filling a pint cup at a time, and draining it at a gulp. He finally began to believe that we were right, and for the rest of the journey he kept comparatively sober. On our return, two weeks later, we had a long day's journey before us to reach " Two-Bottle Camp," as we had named it. In the morning we made a general confession to the old fellow, and owned up to the theft and concealment of the bottles. His rage at the deception practised upon him was great, but it was not equal to his joy at knowing there was happiness ahead. Never on the whole journey did he exert himself more than on that day to keep the wagon in motion, and enable us to reach the whiskey-hunting ground by sun- set. To him the camp of the Two Bottles was like a harbor for which the storm-tossed mariner hopes and prays when the gale is upon him, and his ship is lying at the mercy of the wind ; and as soon as we reached it, he made a rapid break for the cache, and opened it before the wagon was fairly halted. He forgave us everything, and for that evening we had a millennium on a small scale. We compelled him to retain one bottle for the festivities of the next evening, as we wanted him to go to town sober, and consequently determined to ex- hume the keg, and put it in the wagon without his knowledge. Everything was lovely ; the keg was secured, and when we reached Denver, we pretended to discover it in the office whence we had started. In the days of the great emigration overland in 1849 and '50, the emigrants frequently found their wagons too heavily burdened, and were obliged to throw away or cache a large part of their loads. When they cached their goods, the In- dians generally found them, as the work was almost always k -T" • 1 1 t .i ^ i H 1 AN EXTENSIVE CACHE. 299 done carelessly and in haste, so that traces of it could be plainly seen. One old plainsman once described to me a cache which was made by a party to which he belonged. " We found," said he, " that we must lighten up our wagons ; and so we concluded to stop a day or two, make a cache, and give our animals a chance to rest. We were near the Wind River Mountains, and Indians were not abundant. We had seen none for several days, and thought we could rely upon doing our work without their seeing us. We were in camp when we decided to make the cache, and at daylight next morning two of us started out to find a good place. " About three miles off the trail we found a bluff that was quite steep towards a small river that we named Lost Ox River, because one of our oxen afterwards got into the quick- sand and was drowned. We thought this bluff would be a good place for a cache, as we could throw the dirt into the river and have it washed away. The bluff was hard and dry, and would keep things from spoiling. " We drove the train into the valley, at the foot of the bluff, and then went to work. We made a hole about three feet square, and as many deep, and then we hollowed out a space as large as a good-sized room. We did not drop an ounce of 1 dirt around the opening, but threw it all into the river. We '] spread blankets and sacks all around the opening, and laid a ■ row of them from the hole to our camp, so that the ground wouldn't be trodden up. ^ "Then we lightened our wagons of everything we could •] spare. There were bundles of goods, extra clothing, saddles, chains, boots, and everything we thought it possible to do '■ without. When the hole was full, we put the stump of a tree -■ into the opening, and scattered leaves and rubbish around it, so that nobody could possibly see that the earth had ever been disturbed. " It took us three days to make the cache. Our mules and j oxen had gathered strength, and we moved on, with a good i prospect of getting through to California. " But things grew worse instead of better. When we got i 300 CAPTURING A SQUAW. into the alkali plains our oxen died oflF fast, and we had to throw away something every day. With so much bad luck it was quite natural that we should get into rows among our- selves, and the upshot of it was, that we separated. Some of us were discouraged, and wanted to go back ; and we did go back. " Four of us took our rifles, and each picked out a riding [ mule to carry us to the Missouri River. We had two pack mules, and thought we could somehow manage to get through. We had a hard time of it, stranger, and didn't get farther than Laramie, where we broke up, and concluded to try our luck at anything that turned up. " When we got to where we left the trail to make our cache, I told the boys we had better go and see if it was all right. Three of us went there, and left the other to take care of the animals. " Somehow the Indians had found out the whole thing. We don't know how they did it, but it was most likely that the wolves and foxes went to digging there for the leather in the boots and saddles, and the Indians saw where they dug, and knew something was hid. All around there were tracks of Indians, and they had taken out more than half of what wo had put there. " While we were talking about the business, and cursing the redskins, we saw five of them coming up the valley. There were four bucks and one squaw, and they hadn't seen us. So we just laid low and waited for them. They stopped at the foot of the bluff, and the bucks made for the hole, leav- ing the squaw to take care of their ponies and keep watch. ^' The squaw sat down, with her back against a tree, about fifty feet from where wo were. She was evidently tired, for she dropped her head forward, and didn't keep much of a watch. Jim Foster, one of the fellows with me, was an old Indian hunter, and knew how to work. He crept up behind her, slipped the belt from his waist, and before she knew what she was about, he had the belt around her neck, and fastened }ier to the tree. As soon as he had her fast, the other fellow i A CARELESS PLAINSMAN. 301 3 ■ ? and I ran to the cache, picked up the stump that had been in the hole originally, and put it where it belonged. Then we piled logs and rubbish on top, and stopped up the crevices, and waited a couple of hours, until we thought they had breathed all the air up and were good Indians/' " What do you mean by good Indians?" 1 asked. " Why, don't you know," said he, ** that all good Indians are dead Indians ?" 1 I saw his point, and after he had terminated the smile with : which his axiom was delivered, he went on with the story. i " We made sure that they would never do any more st^al- ^ ing. We didn't want to kill them, of course, but we thought ^ it would be no more than right to cache them along with the j property that was left. There never was a better use made ! of an Indian than to cache him. As soon as we were satisfied j that they couldn't get out, we took the ponies and went to 1 where our fourth man was waiting with the mules. Wo dis- '" tributed our loads on the mules, took the ponies to ride on, and you may believe that we travelled our level best out of that region." ** And the squaw," I asked ; " did she go with you ? " '* 0, I forgot about her. Jim was a careless sort of a fellow, and he pulled that strap so close around her neck that she , - never recovered. Come to think of it, she didn't live long, V not more than five minutes, and Jim was very sorry. He ;■ said he would do the best he could for her, and seeing she 1 was dead, he wouldn't refuse to bury her. So he carried her ^ to the river, where there was a good bed of quicksand, and " dropped her in. She sunk easy, and I reckon she's some- ^ where about there now. She had a lot of silver ornaments I about her, and Jim felt so bad that he kept them to remember her by. He said it would be a shame to waste them, as silver was scarce in that country. He wanted to go back, and see if the bucks had something valuable about them; but I thought we had done a fair morning's work in hiving the po- nies, and it was best to be getting away from there before any more Indians came around. And we up and travelled lively." 1 h XXII. THE GREEN VAULTS OF DRESDEN. THE IvICHEST TREASURY IN TOE WORLD. — HOW THE SAXON PRINCES ACQUIRED IT. -^ THE DIFFERENT CABINETS, AND WHAT THEY CONTAIN. — WONDERUL CARVINGS, MOSAICS, AND CURIOSITIES. — SPLENDID GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. — MAGNIFICENT ROYAL REGALIA. — A LUXURIOUS AND GALLANT MONARCH. — HIS ROMANTIC ADVENTURES. — A MARVELLOUS TOY. — DAZZLING EMER- ALDS, PEARLS, RUBIES, AND DIAMONDS. — THE LARGEST AND MOST PRECIOUS GEMS ON THE GLOBE. — INGENIOUS AND DESPERATE ATTEMPTS TO ROB THE VAULTS. •— A THIEF WALLED UP ALIVE. — EFFECT OF EXPOSING HIS SKELE- TON. — ARE THE PRICELESS JEWELS FALSE? — WHAT AN ENTERPRISING SCOUNDREL MIGHT ACCOMPLISH. The Green Vaults (Grune Gewdibe) of Dresden, as they are called from the hue of the hangings which once covered them, are in the Zwinger, a group of buildings erected by Augustus II. as a vestibule to a new palace. They are not under ground as raight be supposed from their name, and from the fact that they contain the treasures of the King of Sax- ony. They are vaulted apartments, eight in number, stored with rare carving, mosaics, gold and silver plate, precious stones, and an endless variety of curious and invaluable arti- cles. The collection is the richest possessed by any European monarch, and altogether beyond what so small a power would be thought able to collect or keep. The Saxon princes, it must be remembered, however, were of far more consequence and influence in the past than they are in the present. The Freiberg silver mines alone were a source of immense rev- enue before the discovery of America, and Saxony had vari- ous means of acquiring wealth of which she is now wholly deprived. I have examined nearly all the royal treasuries abroad, and none of them are at all equal to the collection in Dresden, (302) ^.^. WONDERFUL WORKS OP ART. 803 which is likely to create an agreeable surprise even after one has heard its variety and value extolled. I have known po- litical economists to regret that what might be converted into so much money should be allowed to lie idle, and I have met others, again, who regarded the treasures of art and the price- less jewels gathered there as so many baubles unworthy of serious consideration. Persons of cultivated taste and lovers of beauty, however, can hardly be so narrow in their opinions, for they will find in the Green Vaults something more than capital uninvested, or glittering toys. The princes deserve commendation for the liberal manner in which they expended their wealth for the aesthetic benefit of those to come after them. The apartments are so arranged that each one you enter surpasses the last in interest and the variety of its contents. A great deal of space would be required to enumerate all the articles, though the principal may be easily set down. The first apartment is devoted to bronzes of the nicest and most curious workmanship. There are copies in miniature of some of the famous statues, that cannot be fully appreciated without close attention to detail and a liberal understanding of art. A crucifix by John of Bologna, and a small dog, stretching itself, by Peter Visscher, are masterpieces of their kind. In the second apartment are ivory carvings of remarkable excellence ; among them a number of beautiful vases, some quite large, cut out of a single piece. There are, also, a bat- tle scene by Albrecht Dnrer, a crucifix by Michael Angelo, and a marvellous group of some ninety figures carved in one piece sixteen inches high, representing the fall of Lucifer and his wicked angels. Nothing could be finer or more exact than these figures. Small as they are, they are perfect, and plainly show what extraordinary patience and skill the artist must have had. A goblet, of stag's horn, cut like a cameo, in figures portraying the chase, is admirably wrought, as is also a cup on which the story of the Foolish Virgins is deline- ated. r k. 804 CUPS OP GREAT VALUE. The third apartment has Florentine mosaics, engraved shells, ostrich eggs carved and ornamented, a singular chimney- piece of Dresden china set with precious stones, paintings in enamel, and a number of portraits of historic characters, the most noticeable of which are Peter the Great and Augustus IL, surnamed the Strong. The fourth apartment is filled with the gold and silver plate formerly used at the banquets of the Saxon princes, a portion of which was wont to be carried to Frankfort on the occasion of the coronation of the German emperors by the electors of Saxony, who held the hereditary office of arch-marshal at those imposing ceremonies. Beyond the mere value, this plate is not desirable. If it were mine, I should melt it at once into the coin of the realm, since it has neither grace nor beauty of form. It may seem very grand to eat and drink out of such vessels, but they would be found extremely in- convenient for practical purposes. The china of our day is altogether superior to all tlie gold and silver plate that has ever been heaped on royal tables. The fifth apartment is taken up with agates, crystals, chal- cedony, lapis lazuli, and other varieties of semi-precious stones. Some cups of moss agates are particularly beautiful, and two goblets, composed entirely of cut gems, have a value of ten thousand dollars each. An equestrian statue of Charles II. of England, made from a solid piece of cast iron, represents liim in the character of St. George, and is skilfully done. The eminent sculptor, Colin of Mechlin, has shown the cun- ning of his art by two spirited combats of knights, though they are only wooden heads ; wood being the material of which the carvings are made. The largest enamel painting known, a Magdalen by Dinglinger, is also shown there. The sixth apartment abounds in figures carved in ivory and wood, many of them caricatures of men and animals, which express the grotesqueness of the German mind. Single pearls of extraordinary size, nearly all found in the River El- Bter, are cut into odd shapes, some of them representing rus- tics, jesters, and elves. A pearl, large as a hen's egg, is r^'T*^' ROMANTIC STORIES OP A KING. 305 .] I J intended to portray a Spanish court dwarf, and is superbly ; done. Trinket as it is, it could not be purchased for twenty- H five thousand dollars. There is, besides, any number of ] costly trifles, on which a vast deal of ingenuity and money ' must have been expended, and which are interesting from -i their artistic merit. 1 The seventh apartment is radiant with the splendid regalia i used at the coronation of Augustus 11. ^ Augustus is inseparably associated with the history of ,3 Saxony, and the antecedents of Dresden. He succeeded his ] father, John George III,, as Elector of Saxony, though not until after his elder brother's death, in 1694, and was elected ■] to the throne of Poland, made vacant, two years later, by the decease of John Sobieski. The Polish nobles were unwilling to be ruled over by anybody but a Roman Catholic, and Au- gustus, whose theology was of a very accommodating quality, J, abandoned Protestantism for the sake of the crown. j Between his wars, his intrigues, and his parades, his sixty- :^ three years of life were superlatively busy. He was highly educated for his time, and so much interested in art that he began the collection of pictures in the Dresden Gallery, and purchased many of the valuable curiosities now in the Green I Vaults. His reign was marked by luxury and splendor, and . ^ his court was the constant resort of artists, alchemists, and J adventurers of both sexes, on whom he lavished countless : favors. The celebrated Countess of Konigsmark was one of j his many mistresses, and bore him a son, who subsequently ' j figured so prominently in French history as Maurice, Count de Saxe. Augustus was such a prodigal that he loaded Saxony with debt, and inspired the magnates of Poland to imitate his im- provident example in Warsaw. Elegant, accomplished, dar- ing, and unscrupulous, he made war on men and love to wo- men to the end of his days. If all the accounts be true, he was as charming as Apollo and as strong as Hercules. The archives of Dresden attest his wonderful muscle to such a i •\ 306 ROYAL PASTIMES. degree that Samson would have been no match for him. One of his pastimes was to become enamoured of some distin- guished lady he had never seen ; go in search of her ; throw her husband, father, or brother, just as it happened, over high walls, and then carry her oflf in his arms as if she had been a feather weight. These tales are interesting, but there are too many of them to be credible. I cannot tell how large the Saxon or Polish women were a century and a half ago, but I will lay a large wager that Augustus could not carry very far many of them 1 have seen recently. If he had the taste ascribed to him, I am sure he would not make the attempt, unless it should hap- pen to be in the night, when darkness reduces beauties and beldames to the same level. Persons going to Dresden, or indeed to any part of Saxony, will spare themselves questions by presuming that Augustus has done nearly everything worth doing in the entire king- dom. He is to Saxony what St. Patrick is to the south of Ire- land, King David to Scotland, or Charles V. to Belgium. The eighth and last apartment entirely eclipses all the others in the richness and magnificence of its contents. One of the wonders of this cabinet, called the Court of the Great Mogul, was made by Dinglinger, an artist justly considered the Ben- venuto Cellini of Saxony. The Court represents the Emper- or Aurengzebe on his throne, surrounded by courtiers and soldiers, — about one hundred and forty figures, — in pure gold enamelled, attired in costumes appropriate to the country and the time. Each figure has its individual expression and char- acter, as will be perceived by close observation. This marvellous toy, which is really a work of the highest art, employed Dinglinger (he was the court jeweller during the early part of the eighteenth century) for nearly ten years, and cost one hundred thousand dollars. Another carving of a similar character portrays different artisans with a fineness and finish which no one would expect, considering its diminu- tive proportions. There- are also other specimens of his •m^m^' A RARE COLLECTION OP JEWELS. 307 exceeding skill that fully entitle him to the fame he has achieved. A specimen of uncut Peruvian emeralds, bestowed hy the Emperor Charles V. on the Elector of Saxony, is one of the finest in the world, and a mass of solid native silver from the Himmelfiist mine of Freiberg so well illustrates its richness as to enable me to believe that in fifty years nearly twenty- two hundred tons of silver were obtained from that single mine. The Saxon regalia there exhibited includes the sword of the elector, carried by the princes at the imperial corona- ations ; the decorations of a miner^s uniform made for the Elector John George ; a great number of chains, collars, and orders of the Garter, Golden Flee(-*e, and Polish Eagle ; and a curious antique portrait (a caineo of onyx) of Augustus the Strong, A sardonyx six and a half inches long, and four and a half broad, reputed to be the largest extant, at- tracts much attention from its oval shape and beautiful regu^. larity. Two rings once worn by Martin Luther appeal not a lit- tle to earnest Protestants. One of these, an enamelled seal ring, cut with a death^s head, and the motto *' Mori scepe c^ gita " (Reflect often on death), is sufficiently mournful in suggestion to satisfy the most dismal of theologians. The other ring is a carnelian bearing a rose, and in its centre a cross. Then comes a glass case of the rarest and costliest jewels, the first division containing superb sapphires, the largest of them uncut, the gift of Peter the Great. The second division is full of splendid emeralds; the third of magnificent rubies (the two largest weighing forty-eight and sixty carats) ; the fourth abounding in beautiful pearls, one native set being lit- tle inferior to the Oriental ; while the fifth division is radiant with diamonds. Such another collection does not exist anywhere in the world. If these diamonds were sold for the sura they would very readily bring, they would more than pay oflf, it is said, the 308 DIAMONDS IN ABUNDANCE. entire national debt of Saxony. The diamond decorations for the gala dress of the elector consists of buttons, collar, sword and scabbard, all incrusted with the largest and most valuable stones, some of them weighing fifty carats each. The most remarkable of the stones is a green brilliant, weighing one hundred and sixty carats, and said to be worth two millions of dollars. There are also various orders studded with dia- monds and many single gems, yellow, rose, and green in color, as well as pure white. Admirers of diamonds can have an ocular banquet there ; for the collection is magnificent beyond description. I have seen women hang over them until their eyes fairly watered (I wonder if this is the reason they are called gems of the first water), and I have noticed men regard them with a pas- sion for possession that savored of wildness. As mere objects of beauty, they are deserving of all admiration. Those price- less gems are constant miracle-workers. The smallest ray of light that falls upon them is converted into a glorious sheen. They make the very atmosphere brilliant, emitting from every point a radiance which is dazzling. Hardly any conjuration of magic can be greater. The blaze of jewels, when the sun- light touches them, is almost overpowering. The mines of Golconda, as they were in their palmiest days, appear to be open, and all their glorious treasures to be flashing, scintil- lating, coruscating at once. One might imagine that the diamonds and many of the other valuables of the Green Vaults would be in danger from the admission of strangers. The naturalness of this opinion has doubtless given rise to the story that unseen soldiers have their muskets levelled through invisible loopholes in the walls at the head or breast of everybody entering the royal treas- ury. This is a mere romance, never having had the smallest foundation in fact. Such precautions are not at all necessary ; for nobody could steal anything, and get away with it, even if he should try. The costliest objects are covered with strong iron or steel wires, not sufficient to obstruct the view, but enough to prevent their seizure by any designing or dis- PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THEFT. 809 honest person. Moreover, the custodian, who conducts you through the cabinets, locks and bolts ea^^h door after him, so that the thief could not easily make his escape ; and if he did succeed in getting beyond the walls, an alarm would be immediately given, which would almost necessarily insure his capture. The value of the entire collection at Dresden it is almost impossible to give. I have heard it estimated at from twenty millions to twenty-five millions of dollars, and even as high as fifty millions. Most of the works of art, as well as the jewels, are actually beyond price ; for they could not be replaced. They could not be purchased any more than the Raffaelles, Correggios, and Titians, in the famous Picture Gallery in the same city. It is said that numerous efforts have been made during the past hundred years to rob the Green Vaults. One of these was by two Poles, who had had a wide experi- ence in forgery, burglary, and crimes of all sorts, in the early part of the present century. They had at first designed to secure a number of confederates, but afterwards abandoned the idea, fearing that their secret would be unsafe when so many persons shared it. After revolving various plans in their mind, they concluded to depend upon themselves alone, and accordingly entered the vaults, pretending to be Protes- tant clergymen from Geneva, in company with a large party of visitors, composed mostly of Englishmen and Americans. When they had reaclJId the last cabinet, and while one of them was making particular inquiries of the custodian, and attracting the attention of the party by his large fund of infor- mation (he spoke English with remarkable facility), his com- panion contrived to hide himself in something closely resem- bling a bale, the material for which he had concealed upon his person. A quarter of an hour after, one of the supposed- to-be clergymen was missed, and his disappearance was explained by the positive statement of his confederate that he had returned to his hotel while they were in the third apartment, having an engagement that demanded his pres^ 17 810 CAUGHT IN THE VAULTS. ence. A number of the visitors thought they had seen him a few minutes before ; but the disguised Pole was so posi- tive in his declaration, that they naturally fancied themselves mistaken. The party at last went out, and late that night the concealed villain, who was prepared with matches and a dark lantern, crept out of his spurious bale, and, with instruments provided beforehand, got into the cases, cut the wires, and secured many of the most precious diamonds. He then attempted to get out of the vaults, but, to his astonishment and consterna- tion, they were too strong for him. The partner of his guilt was at his appointed post on the outside, and waited in vain until daylight for the robber who was to come forth at a stated hour with his treasures. The other Pole had secured his great wealth; but, by a strange shortsightedness not uncommon to villains of his class, he had not calculated closely enough upon the means of getting away with it. Finding that the vaults were his prison, he tried to put the jewels back in such a shape that their displacement would not be noticed, and then crept once more into his bale. The cus- todian entered with a number of sight-seers about noon the day following. His quick eye discovered at once that the diamonds had been tampered with, and this fact, taken in con- nection with the mysterious disappearance of the previous day, confirmed him in the belief that a robbery had been attempted, and that the robber must be hidden in that particu- lar apartment. Consequently he ordered a guard, and a thorough, search having been made, the thief was soon exposed. The scoundrel, knowing it would be useless to deny his design, made a full confession in respect to himself, and was tried and sentenced to prison for twenty-five years, equivalent to life, for he was at the time of his capture more than fifty- five. After serving ten years of his sentence, he made his escape by bribing, as it was supposed, some of the oflScials, and not long after was killed in Palermo while attempting to break into the house of an English resident of the Sicilian city. -'^ '-,"• - -r J «.*^^JW%vl* ■!,**- MAN ENCLOSED IN A WALL. 311 About 1798 some twenty Viennese rogues went to Dresden for the express purpose of robbing the Green Vaults of their most valuable jewels. Their plan was to undermine the treasury, enter it by night, and make their egress by the same channel. Their scheme was bold, and might have pros- pered, beset as it was with obstacles. Any and all re- sult was frustrated, however, by the betrayal of the gang by one of its number, tempted by the hope of a liberal re- ward for his treachery. He was, it is asserted, handsomely paid, and the information which he furnished caused the arrest of three of the conspirators ; the rest leaving the city suddenly, and placing themselves beyond the reach of the law. Two of the miscreants were sent to prison, and the third, who was a native Greek, and reported to have been for some years a brigand, cheated justice by poisoning himself in his cell. About fifty years ago, as the story is told in Dresden, cer- tain changes were made in the Green Vaults, involving the laying of a new interior wall of brick. This intended addition having become generally known, an enterprising rogue in the city conceived a plan of robbing the treasury by concealing himself *in a part of the wall then unfinished ; designing to get out at night, after the workmen had gone away, and carry oiBF whatever was lightest and of most value. He did succeed in concealing himself, as he had wished ; but unfortunately for him, the masons worked more rapidly than he had supposed they would, and enclosed him completely. Whether he knew at the time what would happen, and was afraid of revealing his presence, or whether he was totally ignorant of the peril of his situation, will forever renvaiu unknown. As may be imagined, the thief, being, like other mortals, unable to live without air, soon succumbed to his peculiar surroundings, though his fate was a secret for years after. New improvements, then making, caused the removal of the brick wall, and within it the perfect skeleton of a man was discovered. Great and exciting was the mystery at first ; • but diligent inquiry, and vivid recalling of the date when the 312 THE GRiaSN VAULTS A TEMPTATION. work was done, solved the enigma hy establisbing a connec- tion between the finding of the skeleton and the disappear- ance of a certain notorious criminal. The skeleton of the thief was put together, and for some time occupied a conspicu- ous position in the vaults, as a warning to all inclined to follow his example. But it served as an example instead, as was shown by the fact that several attempts at robbery were made there within six months after the grim exposure. The skeleton was then removed from the vaults, and as is popu- larly supposed, has been transferred in a multiplied form to the private closets of the Dresdeners. Not a great while ago, a story was started to the effect that the principal diamonds in the Green Vaults had been stolen by some of the oflScials of the court, and replaced with counterfeit stones. This report obtained wide currency, and was generally believed among the common people. It may be inferred that there was no basis whatever for the tale, as any one who is a judge of jewels may easily determine for himself If it were possible to make such excellent counter- feits of diamonds as are those now at Dresden, genuine gems would certainly lose much of their value, since there would be no method of distinguishing between the real and spurious. The contents of the Green Vaults have for generations been a source of anxiety to the Saxon princes. Again and again, during the troublous times in Germany, they have been compelled to carry their treasures to the mountains in the region along the Elbe, known as the Saxon Switzerland, and to keep them there for security until the peril of plunder had passed. This sudden transportation of the royal valuables was very frequent during the Seven Years' War, and it is re- ported that many of them were lost in the haste and excite, ment attending their removal. The Green Vaults offer a constant temptation to the rogues of the old world, and it would not be at all surprising if some man or men, possessed of a rare genius for pilfering, should yet accomplish what has so frequently failed. Robbery and " ''-«Ay^^>»f ?(?v«i CHANCE FOB A BURGLAB, 313 burglary are so much a profession nowadays, and so much real talent is employed in their behalf, that those who have been 'j graduated in the calling will be inconsiderate of their own interest if they do not some time perfect a scheme which will result in plundering the greatest and richest treasury on the globe. A rich reward awaits any one who will enter the Green ] Vaults of Dresden and carry away their treasures, or so much- of them as could be easily carried by one man. Possibly an American or English burglar will yet be found who can suc- ceed in this daring enterprise. | 1 ■ i J i 1 4 i -\^ i i i r XXIIL THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS. THE FAIR CAPITAL UNDERMINED. — HISTORY OF THE VAST GRAVEYARD. SIX MILLIONS OF SKELETONS. — A JOURNEY THROUGH THE CITY OP THE DEAD. — HORRIBLE SENSATIONS OF BEING LOST THERE. — GHASTLY DISPLAY OP SKULLS AND BONES. — TRAGIC AND COMIC INCIDENTS. — TERRIBLE EXPE- RIENCE IN THE MIGHTY CHARNEL-HOUSE. — SCENES NEVER TO BE FOR- GOTTEN. Few persons think, while strolling through the fashionable streets of Paris, and seeking pleasure in its charming pre- cincts, that they are wandering over a vast graveyard, and that only a thin crust of earth separates them from the burial- place of six millions of human beings. Down there lie the remains of a third as many people as the entire French capi- tal contains. A large part of the beautiful city is under- mined by vaults, and these vaults, which are the famous Catacombs of Paris, contain the dead of centuries. The Catacombs of Paris are not used, like the Catacombs of ancient Thebes, Rome, and Naples, as places of original sepulture ; for they were once quarries from which the stone employed in building the city was taken. The quarries were beneath the southern part of the town, directly below the Observatory, the Luxembourg, the Od^on, the Pantheon, and many of the well-known streets, such as St. Jacques, La Harpe, Tournou, Vaugirard, and others. Their extent is estimated to be about three millions of square yards ; and long before they were cemeteries, they served as refuge and shelter for thieves, incendiaries, assassins, and all the desperate criminals who for many centuries abounded in the city. It is only a little more than a hundred years since Paris has been orderly, or in any sense secure. During the middle ages, and down to (314) RESORTS OP THIEVES. 315 the latter half of the past century, property and life were extremely unsafe. EuflSans stalked abroad by day as well as by night, and bade defiance to law and its guardians. In those times the quarries shielded many of the greatest villains in the capital. After committing robbery, arson, or murder, they fled into those excavations, and the men whose duty it was to arrest them were afraid to follow where they would certainly have been massacred. Many are the stories told of policemen and soldiers meeting their death in the subterranean vaults at the hands of the malefactors they were pursuing. These were so familiar with all the recesses and windings of the quarries that they could not only escape, but they could lie in ambush, and fall upon the officers of the law with terrible vengeance. So numerous were the murders committed in the quarries by ruffians of the olden time, that finally none of the king's minions could be found bold enough to venture into those abodes of mystery, darkness, and crime. In 1784 some part of the quarries was broken through from above, and as there was imminent danger of the houses in the streets falling into ruin from similar accidents, a num- ber of the most skilful engineers were ordered by the gov- ernment to descend into the quarries, make a careful investi- gation, and render them in future altogether secure. While so engaged, M. Lenoir, lieutenant general of the police, con- ceived the idea of removing to the vaults the remains that had been buried in the cemetery of the Innocents, then standing on the present site of the Hallos Centrales, th« principal market of the city. Other graveyards within the municipal limits need(3d to be emptied, and it was determined that the contents of these graves should also be transferred to the subterranean region ; so, on the 7th of April, 1786, a formal consecration of the Catacombs as a place of burial took place with imposing religious rites and ceremonies. The human bones were borne from the graves at night in funeral cars, accompanied by priests decked in their sacerdotal robes, carrying torches, swinging censers, and chanting the Roman I .^ •a.'. 816 A BONY CONFUSION. Catholic service for the dead, and on arriving at the deposi- tory were hurled down a shaft in magnificently miscellaneous confusion. Such a democratic mixture, osseously speaking, of saints and sinners, princes and peasants, reformers and robbers, bishops and beggars, poets and pickpockets, grand ladies and grisettes, coquettes and cocottes, was never before made on the banks of the Seine. This superb disorder remains to the present day, so far as rank and caste are con- cerned. The skull of a pious prelate rests upon the ribs of a desperate cutthroat, and the thigh-bone of a once renowned beauty of the Faubourg St. Germain touches tlie grinning teeth of a vulgar conscript shot for desertion. The skeleton arms of a dainty poet are interlocked with those of a hideous hag who poisoned her father and mother in the Rue de la Croix Rouge. If the opinion be well founded, that on the day of judg- ment the dead will arise in their proper persons, the unfortu- nates buried in the Catacombs of Paris will find it an extremely arduous task to collect themselves together. One might imagine, in such a universal resumption of long-cast- off and worn-out fleshly garments, that some nondescript individual might appear on the awful scene with the head of a marquis on the trunk of a rag-picker, borne along by the legs of a ballet dancer, and a cripple gesticulating to the angelic host with the right arm of a cardinal and the left arm of a lorette. It has long been a theological problem whether, on that solemn occasion, the dead will recognize each other; but it will be a matter of even more serious moment to them whether many of the Parisians will be able, so strangely will they be made up, to recognize themselves. That there will.be a rattling among the dry bones no one who has entered the Catacombs can doubt, and that much of the rattling will arise from Monsieur Bonjour*s effort to make a complete conjunc- tion with his remains, and from Madame Beaujoli's endeavor to hunt herself up, must be plain to everybody. Some of these anticipated troubles may be partially obviated, however, by the fact that the bones from one cemetery have been kept L. —--•-* ■" ^-^ -^ ^^B^ fcfc"* ■ I ^ ibAb * fi ■ ^ ♦> ENTERING THE CATACOMBS. 317 apart from the bones of another ; and as this predicted resur- rection is not likely to occur for some time, we need not con- cern ourselves in regard to the hypothetical awkwardness and inconveniences of so distant a future. Until within a few years, admission to the Catacombs could be readily obtained; but their insecurity, resulting in a number of accidents, has recently prevented the authorities from opening these gloomy recesses to the public more than once annually, — usually about the first of October, — when a few persons are permitted, after obtaining tickets from the inspector general, to accompany him in his subterranean tour. The first time I visited Paris I was extremely anxious to wander through the Catacombs ; but finding many obstacles in my way, and being much occupied otherwise, I quitted the city without gratifying my curiosity. I returned, however, ere long, and was so diligent in prosecuting my purpose that one pleasant autumn morning, in company with a dozen stran- gers, I descended from the garden of the city custom-house at the Barriere d^Enfer to explore the stony chambers of the dead. We had provided ourselves with wax tapers, which we lighted, each of us carrying one, before we went down a circular flight of some one hundred steps leading to the dis- mal galleries running in every direction, and containing the ghastly remains of millions of our fellow-creatures, once aa merry and ambitious, as fond and foolish, as hopeful and as vain, as any of us are to-day. At the bottom of the staircase a guide placed himself at our head, and, observing that our tapers were all in good order, took the lead, after exhorting us to keep together, and on no account, if we valued our lives, to attempt to explore any other than the main avenues through which we were to pass. The Catacombs hold the victims of the different revolu- tions so frequent in Paris ; and now, moreover, the common graves {les fosses communes) in the three principal cemeteries of Montmartre, Mont Parnasse and Pdre la Chaise, are emptied every five years, and the plebeian relics consigned to the f ^ 318 THE FIRST OP THE PASSAGES. Catacombs, to make room for more bodies in those populous burying-grounds. Thus are the great vaults steadily and rapidly increasing their lifeless hosts, and adding to the horrors of a region necessarily horrible from the first. Several hundred yards from the base of tlie steps which we had descended is an octagonal vestibule, and over it an inscrip- tion in Latin to this effect : " Beyond these boundaries repose those who await a blessed immortality/' We passed through a door leading into a long gallery lined with bones from the floor to the roof; the arm, leg, and thigh-bones being closely and regularly piled together in front, their uniformity relieved by three rows of skulls at equal distances, while behind these the smaller bones are thrown, regardless of arrangement of any kind. The gallery conducts to several apartments resem- bling chapels, called Tombs of the Revolutions, and Tombs of the Victims, because they hold the relics of those who had perished in popular insurrections against existing authority. I had noticed, before reaching the vestibule, and what may be considered the Catacombs proper, that the passage was very narrow, — only two persons being able to walk abreast therein, — and little more than six feet in height. This passage soon made a sharp turn, and at the corner- the names of the streets directly above were cut into the stone, and two black arrows painted upon it, one pointing to the entrance of the vaults, and the other to the great charnel-house we were about to explore. We were in chambers of hewn-out rock. Rock was above us, below us, and on every side. The walls were very damp, the water in many places dripping through what might be termed the ceiling, in which were so many cracks and crevices that it seemed as if the walls might tumble and bury us at any moment. Two or three of my companions grew yery nervous as they perceived about them such alarming signs of insecurity, and expressed the wish that they had not undertaken what they declared to be a foolhardy enterprise. As I walked along, I saw at different turnings of the passage what appeared to be deep, yawning pits ; and feeling a curios- ity to examine them, I stopped and stretched my taper over ,?SKiTt• been almost happy ; and yet, a few seconds before, I had re- garded myself as the most miserable of mortals. My brain i seemed to be absolutely bursting, and my heart forcing itself ^1 into my throat. I was conscious of a sense of suffocation, ^ and I was not sure that the rocky walls were not pressing to- ; gether to crush me. I remember having an anxious longing ^ that they might do so, and end the agony I was enduring. I frankly admit I had never known before what human suffer- ing can be. I had not supposed myself capable of such men- tal anguish ; it was ten thousand times more, and worse, than death — an indefinable and overwhelming dread of something which might not be named, but that could be pictured with miraculous power. I had confronted death often, in sickness, in catastrophe, in battle, on land and water, by falling, and by \ fire, and the so-called King of Terrors had not shown himself ; half so terrible as I had anticipated. But then and there, in j those silent and rayless Catacombs, I was unnerved, over- '' •i powered, and horrified, by a crushing dread of the unknown. I Every moment was a month. Every feeling was a minister of horror. Exactly what I did I shall never know, though I . • seem to have a misty recollection that I strove to kill myself I by dashing my head against the rocks. For some time I was ^ incapable of determining my conduct ; and then, with all my exquisite sense of mental pain, I was aware of hurrying rapidly through the thick darkness. How long this continued I know not ; but of a sudden I J saw beyond me a flash of light like the aurora in the far J northern sky. Was I really mad ? Was I dreaming ? Was I dead, and waking from the sleep of death ? I rubbed my eyes, I pinched myself, I tried to scream, but I could not make a sound. Burning as my throat was, and all on fire as I seemed from head to foot, my voice froze as I sought to ' "J give it utterance. Still, I was not deceived. There was a light before me, and as I dashed on involuntarily, I saw that it proceeded from the tapers of my companions, whom I had nearly over- taken. The reaction of my feelings almost prostrated me. **nf*. 322 ADVICE TO EXPLORERS. My heart beat like a tilt hammer, my breath was well nigh spent, my pulses leaped with fever, and yet 1 felt that my face must be blanched, and I should not have been surprised if my hair had turned gray. In a few seconds I had joined my party and relighted my taper. Nobody knew through what a crisis I had passed, nor did I say anything about it except to remark, casually, that I had extinguished my candle by letting it fall. From inquiries I learned that from the moment I had missed my companions until I had rejoined them, not more than two minutes had elapsed ; and still, by the measure of my mind, I had lived through months of pain. If I had not already known it, I should have been con- vinced then that time can be reckoned only by feeling ; that no clock can keep the record of the heart ; and that the soul strikes hours every moment of its existence. I would advise those who may feel inclined to go through the Catacombs to take a box of wax matches in their pocket, and a little luncheon besides, so that if their taper be blown out, or they be lost, they may at least be relieved from the terror of absolute darkness and immediate starvation. When persons are missed down there, a search is immediately made for them, and nobody would feel half so uncomfortable while he had light and food as he would in the midst of gloom, and haunted by the necessity of dining on himself. The moist and grave-like odor which fills the Catacombs, added to the images of death on every side, intensifies their sepulchral aspect, and makes those wandering in the ghastly haunts seem to themselves only half alive. The faces of those with me did not appear any more natural than their voices, and all of us had a certain taint of the tomb. Even the tapers flickered and sank in the unwholesome atmosphere, as though even fire, which rages in the centre of the earth, could not support itself in that dusky Golgotha. In some places the skulls have been arranged in the form of crosses and set into the wall — probably by the priests of Paris, who, like all their tribe, delight in symbols and devices . .^. Liii ' - -^•■'^ - - - FONDNESS FOR SOUVENIRS. 323 coupling death and religion ; forgetting that the creed they preach declares there is no death, that true religion leads to eternal life. Monks of all ages — and there are many monks who have never taken orders — have been little more than sacerdotal sextons, revelling in disease and decay, lamentation and funerals, as if Nature had set their spirits to the music of bereavement and woe. Bones, bones, bones ! Skulls, skulls, skulls ! I can well believe six millions of mortal remains have been deposited in the Catacombs, which look as if they might have been the graveyard of the globe since the dawn of creation. They furnish the most extensive bone-yard I have ever visited. They do not contain nearly so many dead, in all probability, as the Catacombs of Rome ; but on the Seine the dead are exhibited to much more advantage than on the Tiber. The French make the most of everything, and their osseous arrange- ment and display are not equalled anywhere. Americans have often been laughed at for their fondness for relics, and very deservedly too ; for they seek mementos in all places, and under every variety of circumstances. I should never have suspected any of my countrymen of a dis- position to deprive the Catacombs of any of their horrors ; and yet several of them actually carried off shin and thigh bones in order to recall the pleasure they had experienced in Paris. One fellow — I think he was a medical student from Boston — tried to secure a whole skull ; but as he could not very conveniently get it into his pocket, he was reluctantly forced to leave it behind. Possibly he was an admirer of the first Napoleon, and anxious to obtain a souvenir of Bonaparte. I presume I have met men who, if they were given time and opportunity, would despoil that horrid vault of a very large proportion of its revolting treasures. During our ramble we encountered a well of pure water- enclosed by a wall. In it are a number of gold-fish that man- age to live by some mysterious means, though the guide in- formed us that they did not spawn. The well comes from a spring which some of the workmen discovered while making 324 MAXIMS FOR VISITORS. repairs many years ago, and gave it the name of the Spring of Forgetfulness, afterwards changed to the Fountain of the Good Samaritan. The water is declared to be sweet ; but I should need to be extremely thirsty before drinking what would seem infected with death. The Roman church, always on the alert to point morals and preach sermons, has filled the Catacombs at convenient intervals with inscriptions designed to be impressive. Some of these are, — '^ Happy is he whose hour of death is ever before his eyes ! " " Be not proud or boastful, mortal ; for this is the end of the loftiest ambition and the highest glory I " "Death recognizes not rank — in his eyes the prince and the peasant are the same ! " " Come, all ye busy worldlings into this silent retreat, and listen to the solemn voice that rises from the tomb I " " Remember, O man, the mercies of thy God, and remember He will call thee when thou least expectest to hear His voice ! " " The grave is dark ; but the paths that lead from it are, to the righteous, strewn with eternal flowers ! ^' " Mock not the lowly, for in the courts of Heaven the lowly may stand before thee, shorn of thy worldly pride 1 '' No doubt there is a great deal of truth in these maxims ; but in spite of them, and many more like them, death has never been rendered very attractive to persons enjoying good health and a fair degree of prosperity. Death bears about the same relation to life that the Catacombs do to Paris ; and I have never yet known any man or woman who would willingly quit the gay Boulevards or the delightful Champs Elys^es to walk in the bone-lined and noisome vaults of the subterranean city. . We passed only through the main avenues of the Cata- combs, — there is very little variety in them, — and after spending nearly three hours underground, having supped full of material horrors, we reached another staircase, and once more ascended to the light of day, and the blessed sunshine. 5 '^ *j»- 0i- ■ 3 AN englishman's OPINIONS. 325 j .'I I had no idea where we were, and I was somewhat surprised ■^ to find that we came out nearly a mile and a half from where '?\ we had gone down. The charming capital never, I think, :^ appeared quite so charming as it did on that delicious after- I noon when I returned from death and decay to the living and the loving, to the comforts and the joys, of the upper world. While we were in that vast subterranean graveyard, I was struck by the different effect it produced upon different persons in our party. An Englishman, who was extremely anxious to " do the thing, you know," was superlatively disgusted after he had passed the vestibule, and declared the Catacombs the " beastliest place" he had ever seen. He grumbled like Ve- suvius before eruption, and swore that the French authorities .^ ought to l)e exposed for permitting the subjects of Her Maj- J esty to thrust themselves into such a " bloody " hole. He j even suggested that it was a French trick to get rid of certain . true and noble Britons, and, of course, threatened to write to the Timds on the subject. He was constantly predicting that the rock overhead would tumble down and bury us all, and really seemed uncomfortable because something horrible did not happen. After he had gone half way through, he wanted i to go back, and when he had reached the end of the route, he was much dissatisfied that we hadn't done a great deal more. He fretted and fumed every minute of the three hours, and did his best to render every one as nervous and discontented as himself. Several Americans ran all sorts of e-aws on the Englishman, and prophesied some terrible calami.y at every step, saying they never would have tliought of coming into the gloomy region unless they had expected that a fair proportion of the excursionists would be killed. Two of my countrymen I insisted that they had made their wills before they had left their hotel, and a third averred that he had a vial of prussic acid and a revolver in his pocket for the express purpose of committing suicide, if he should be lost in the cavernous windings. He asked the Briton if he had not taken the same 18 ^'ti Nq 1 '* ■ . r - 326 INCONVENIENCES OP A TISIT. precaution, and pronounced him superlatively reckless be- cause he had not, explaining the advantage of self-destruction over a lingering and horrible death. John Bull, remarkable to relate, had not the slightest suspicion that the " Yankees" Avere poking fun at him. On the contrary, he regarded all their jests as solemnly sincere, and asserted that it was ex- actly like our nation never to enjoy anything that was not accompanied by a bloody murder of some sort. A young Italian, who was quite good-looking, and far more conscious of the fact than anybody else, endured martyrdom in the Catacombs from quite another cause. He was very carefully and daintily dressed, and appeared to consider dust or soil upon his clothes as a sovereign evil. He was the dan- diest of dandies, and the most fastidious of fools. He looked rather blank, as I had noticed, when we first began the de- scent of the circular staircase in the Custom House garden. He was in advance, and before we had gone down a dozen steps, I observed a number of large drops falling from the blazing tapers above him upon his new hat and coal;. Some kind friend pointed these out to him, and he actually turned pale with wrath and chagrin. " Who could have done this? Such conduct is disgraceful ! I did not come here to have my clothes ruined. I wish the Catacombs were in the bottomless pit." These and other phrases he ejaculated in choice Tuscan, which very few understood, but which those who did understand enjoyed not a little. After the marring of his wardrobe, there could be no pleasure for him. If he had been shown all the wonders of the world, he could not have forgotten his tarnished gar- ments. His misfortunes followed him. The water dropped through the crevices upon his august person, and as he was unusually tall, he crushed his hat every few minutes against the overhanging rock, which struck oaths out of him as steel strikes fire out of flint. I fancied sometimes that he envied the skeletons he passed, because they bad no clothes to spoil. Long before he had finished his underground journey, his beauty of person and raiment was sadly injured, and I am '.•^_"f • "timr^'.w^'^t,'^^*