The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-05-03
TIL EVANSVILLE JOURNAL, THURSDAY

THE LEAvENwoRTH CAVE Hoax.
The indianapolis Herald, while evi-
IDENTIFY feeling high degree of com
plaeence in view of the spacious hoax
perpetrated some weeks ago relative
to the loss of DR.. HAwN, in the we'll
known cave near Leavenworth, at
tempts in Mondays issue to offer an
apology for the monster falsehood. 1t
boasts how extensively the hoax has
been copied and believed. We did
not reproduce it, though we believe
our First Street neighbor did. IF the
Herald sold anybody we presume it
was It's own friends, as they are ex-
ceeding credulous in these latter days.
This is the Herald's apology:
The remarkable cave story, pub
lished in the Herald some weeks since,
is having fine run. Itwas not writ
ten with the expectation of making it
a successful hoax, nor with that inten-
ton, but simply as a rig upon DR.
Hawn. While the writer was en-
gagged on the New Orleans Times, in
the spring of 1864, DR. Hawn, who
was then surgeon of the Forty ninth,
stationed M Mataesorda Island, came
over to New Orleans, and imposed up
on him cock and bull story about a
storm, in the course of which tree
was blown down in the camp of the
Forty ninth, killing in its fall six or
eight men. The account was pub
lished in the Times, and the local fell
citated himself .on getting ahead of
his cotemporaries but at lastit Leaked
out that he had been sold very cheap,
as there had been no storm, and that
if there had been a storm, there was
not sprig of timber so large as a two
year Old apple tree on the entire is
land. The cave story was written for
the purpose of getting even with the
iollyadoctor The writer has succeed
ed past his most sanguine expectations,
and DR.. sHawn is famous from the Pas
samaquaddy to the Rio Grande
UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS OF THE
ENGLISH TO LAUNCH THE IRON-CLAD
NORTHUMBERLAND The Britishers
have built an immense iron war yes
sci, weighing, as it now stands, eight
thousand tons. 1t is the largest vessel
of the description ever launched, or
rather attempted to be launched, for,
by all accounts, it has a great repug-
nance for the water, so much so that
all the machinery and skill that can
be brought to bear upon it cannot
make lit take to the oelement. The
London Times, referring to the last
attempt to LAUGH the vessel on the Sd
ult., says
Every kind of power known to
science was brought into play-steam
power, water power, horse power, me-
chanical power Hydraulic rams were
constructed on each side of the yes
sci, teams of horseswere harnessed to
chains and pulleys, while at the bows
two great engines, borrowed from
ancient fashions, were pressed into
Service Immense battering rams, ex-
actly like those used by Titus in the
siege of Jerusalem, were swung by
eI1C -lOICc VI "a uuuuTcU uu6u dgdlQSG
the ship, for.the chance of loosening
her by the jar, so that with floating,
and lifting, and dragging, and driving,
it was hoped that the mass must at.
length be moved. But our ship, like
Robinson Crusoe's, was too heavy to |
be moved by any spoWer whatever,
When the bugle sounded, the horses
tugged, the presses worked, and the
sailors at the capstans cheered, and
the, immense.rams Numbered against
the'vessel's stem, but all to no pur-
pose. If you epull hard enough, as
the old proyerb says, something must
give way, but it is not always the thing
you want, Something did give way
on Monday, but it was not the North |
cumberland. The cables snapped un-
der the strain Of the lighters; the
chains broke under the strain of the
horses, and the huge timber beams
were; crushed to powder under the
strain. of the presses, but the great
ship never budged an inch. Where