The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-04-25

| Inc TnOSl reHarkdDle TOOK OF tnlS klliQ
called Logging or Logan stone, is near the
Lands End, in Cornwall, situated on penin.
sula of granite. The stone is poised on a pyra.
mid Of rock, very near the edge of the preci-
| pice, down which it seems to threaten, every
instant, 10 fall. A very suaIl f,rce, or even a
strong wind, will put this stone,. though com.
puted to weigh upwards Of eighty tons, into a
state of vibration, which continues for some
minutes. The common report is, that, after
the occurrence we are about to relate, it has
never yibrated so well as formerly. The mar.
rative is extracted from lively book called
Rambles beyond Railways"
In the year 1924, a certain lieutenant in
the royal navy, then in command of cutter
stationed off the southern coast of Cornwall,
was told Of an ancient Cornish prophecy, that
no human power should ever succeed in over
turning the Logan stone. No sooner was the
prediction communicated to him than he con-
ceived morbid and mischievous ambition to
fal>ify practically an assertion which the com.
mnnc>t common sense might have informed
him had sprung fiom nothing but popular error
aud popular super>titionS. Accompanied by a
brdy'"t picked lien from his crew, he ascend.
ed to the Logan stone, ordered several levers
to he placed under It at one point, gave the
word To hrave.' aud the next moment had the
miserable satisfaction of seeing one of the
most remarkable natural curioslirs in the world
utterly destroy ed, for aught he could fnres, e to
the contrary, under his own directinns!
"But fortune beiiicnded the Logan stone.
One cdgr OF it rolled over, ahd became fixed
by lucky chance in a crevce in the rocks i'm
medialcl, below the granite >lal' from which it
had been started. Had this not happened, it
rrust have t"ll., e'~~r -TrrUrPrUr, TTiu
been los; into the sea. By another accident,
equally rs f"Itunatr, two labpIing men, Il:
WORK in the "righh"ring place ere led by cn
ri,.>il> secretly t" follow the lieutenant and his
my.nIons UP to Tie stone. Having witnessed
r,,n Il secure EiLny place, all tha, occurred,
the two w"rk,nrr, "i;h great rropr"ty. imnr.
diateIy astericd off to inform the inrd OF tie
lra,lur "f the walton acl of destruction thai
the. had s-H prri'eirat,d.
"'Ihe news WIS soon communicated ihrnrgh
out The district and lheIce through all Cora
wall. The Indignation "f the uh"I. r"u,lrE
was aroused. AutiYtaries who t,r.',vrj lh"
Lnugaa stone to have ueen ba!ai.rvh IA. he
Druid. philosophers VINO hrll that ii Va
produced hy an erccntrcity Of NATURAL Io:nt
ti"n; ignorant people who cared nothing ab u
Druid> or the natural formations, but vino likeI
to climb up and rock Hhe stone whenever they
passed near it; Tribes uf guides who iyed hy
showing it !; inukeepers in the neig ighborhood,
to whom it brought customers by hundreds {;
tourists of every degree, VIII" were on their
way to see it all joined in one general ckImnr
cf execralion against the ovrrthrower of this
rock 4 full report Of the affair was forward.
ed TO the Admiralty and the Admiralty acted
vigorously for the public advantage, and mer-
cifuy spared the public purse.
"The lieutenant was officially informed that
his commission was in danger unless he set up
the Logan stone again in its proper place.
The materials for comprising this achievement
Ewere offered to him gratis from the docky aai> !;
but he WAS lief, to his own rec curses to defray
he expense Of employing workmen to help
him. Being by this time awakened to proper
sense of of the mischief he had done, and a
olrrably strong conviction Of the disagreeable
position in which he was placed with the Ad.
nir;ltv, he addressed himself vigorously to the
ask of repairing his fault Strong beams
kyere planted about the Loggan stone chains
were passed around it, pulIeys were rugged,
.nd capStans were manned. After u week S
hard work and brave perseverance on the part
of every one employed in the labor, the rock
was pulled back in its former postion, but not
into its former perfection Of balance it has
never moved since as freely as it moved before.
"It is only fair to the lieutenant, to add to
Z the narrative of his mischievous lrUIic, the
fact that he, though poor man, betrayed all
the heavy expenses Of replacing the rock. Just
before his death he paid the last remaining
debt, and paid it with interest"
Plato, the Philosopher.