New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-11-30
Singular Discovery.


. The Evansville Qa.) Journal states that while
workmen were recently excavating in the streets of
that town, they came to the remains of cabin
eighteen feet below the present surface of the ground
and one hundred feet from the present bank of the
river. The Journal says:
1t had evidently been human habitation and that
Of an European. The cabin was twelve feet or more
in LENGTH formed by upright posts set in the ground
and the sides boarded up with split oak puncheons,
puncheons and pins were but partially decayed and
still adhered together the posts had to be cut off
with an axe to remove them. In the interior were
found the parts old fashioned European spinning
served to split the puncheons that covered the cabin
the frestick, with its charred end, and that had
reused the slnmbering embers of the fire pieces of
cane that had been notched and cut apparently for
blow - and up near where the roof had apparently
rested were found pairs of European made boots and
shoes which had been placed in that position appa-
renty on shelf.
As the grade of the cuvert did not go to the floor
of the cabin by several feet the workmen took out
only those things which had been placed on the
shelves or hung up the walls of the cabin near the
roof. What might have been found on the floor be.
meath we are left to surmise the contractor refused
to disturb the earth below the grade for fear of nju
ing the foundations of the brickwork of the cuvert
though his curiosity strongly prompted him to ex-
plore the matter to the bottom The earth that sur
rounded and filled the cabin was the solid, compact
stratum of the city. There no perceptble differ
ences in the strata around the cabin than in those
that extend the length of the cuvert it is apparently
all one cotemporaneous deposit. The discovery sug-
gests numerous interesting questions 1t does not
appear possible that deposit of 20 OR % feet of
earth can have been made the present site of the
city since the first civilized foot trod upon the banks
OF the Ohio at this point.
The age of some of the trees that formerly stood
upon the present surface would almost preclude such
q supposltion. That the builders aud occupants of
the cabin were civilized men is proven by the auger
holes and pins, by the pegged soles and of the
boots and by the spinning Wheel and the absence of
Indian implements Who were they and when did
they erect their habtaton there?
The date of the first settlement of Vncennes by the
Europeans is in doubt it is known to have been made
before the year 1700-one hundred and sixty years
ago. 1t is possible that the spinning Wheel that now
lies in sanctum, twred to the moving foot of the
busy housewife, and its hum was heard among the
trees before the bees made their first music in the
primeval forests here-and these old boots perhaps
made the first footprints Of civilization along the
levee now busy with the operations OF extensive
commerce.
Entering the precincts of this old cabin is like walk
ing the exhumed streets of Pompe and Herculaneum,
and carries the mind through changes in the history
of the locality greater than those that have interviewed
between the Roman Empire and the dynasty of King
Bomba in Italy.
1t has been suggested that perhaps the cabin was
French " cacet built in an excavation covered over,
as hiding place for grain, to conceal it from the IN
dams, as was frequently done by the early settlers.
But they would not have gone twenty or twenty five
feet below the surface and there was no break in the
strata above it, and the posts of the cabin were too
small and too few to have sustained roof W TIL a
| large body of earth on it, Nor would the builders
of such storehouse have used fire in it, or placed
their worn out boots and shoes in it, or hung up a
| spinnng-whee in it, 1t is one of those discoveries
that opens pleasant field of speculation for the curl
| Gus and lovers of the wonderful
---s>~-
PRENTICIANA.-A writer, who says he is Demo-
GRAFT and was an officer in the Mexican war; has been
| writing in the Nashville Banner the most bitter and
annihiatng articles against Gen. Pillow He charges
and seems to prove that Pillow is not only delibe-
rate falsher, but great many other bad things.
Moreover, he tells the public that his name was sent
to Pillow simultaneously with the appearance of the
first attacking article We understand that duel is
generally expected, but we hope there will be none
A fight could do Pillow good, and might result in
making his body offensive to mems noses as his
| reputation is.
| A contemporary of ours says 'there are two sides
| to every question" If there were four or six OIL
eight that is if every question were quadrangle, a
heXagon or an octagon he would be on all its sides
one after another. Whatever may be said as to his
| fairness, nobody can justly charge him with being
! satisfied to take a one-sided view of things.
Massachusetts, paper on the eve of the late State
election, asked, what is Mr.. Beach?" We presume
it would have difficulty in answering its own ques
ton now, Mr., Beach Is ashore