The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-18


The Muskogan, Mich, Enterprise relates
the following singular adventure
\ When we we're publishing paper in Lewis
burg, West Virginia, several years ago, q
very singular accident befel young man
there, which we narrated briefly at the time
A few days ago we chanced to meet him here
in Muskegan, and he narrated his adventure
at our request. 1t occurred on the farm of
General A. w. G. Davis, in Greenbrier
county, in 1856. We give his story in his
own words, as near rs we can recollect them:
81 was ploughing on General Davis farm
I in 1856" said he, ''unsuspcious of being
on insecure ground, when suddenly the
earth seemed to fall beneath me- 1 saw the
4 horses descending but WAS too frightened
to let go the plough handles. The pitch
|. of the horses with the earth gave my
4 fall an impetus, and somehow / caught
the name of one of them in my fall and SO
4 held on instinctively. What thought when
q falling can hardly tell. At any rate did
I some rapid thinking When landed fell
on the horse whose name had hold of, and
although the horse was instantly killed was
| merely stunned and confused. On recovering
myself l looked up, and the hole through
which had fallen looked so small concluded
/ must have fallen full one hundred and fifty
feet My first thought was to call for aid, but
instantly recalled the fact that was at least
mile from General Davis house, and that
there was not the remotest probability
J that any one had seen my descent into
the earth. 1t was then early morning,
and as l had brought out my dinner with
me, no one would miss me before night
n fall. While going over these facts in
my own mind, / heard the rush of water near
at hand and it occurred to me that must
have fallen upon the bed of Sinking creek,
which, as you know, falls into the earth above
Frankfort, and does not come out but once
= of hri
river. To stay where I was or to attempt to
follow the subterranean passage, was the
next question. / sometimes took the team to
" my own tenant stable, and, therefore, might
not be missed for days; so determined to
follow the stream. waded in it, and, judg-
ing from its depth Of from one to three feet,
concluded it must be the identical Sinking
creek spoken of. Leaving my dead COM
panion behind me, I followed the
Il stream. For the most part 1 had
pretty easy work of it, but sometimes
/ came to deep place, whore was forced
to swim for q considerable distance; again
was often precipitated headlong into deep
water by the precipitous nature of the rocky
! bed of the stream. Talk about the darkness
of the grave! A grave itself could not have
been more impalpably dark than the passage
I was following. The occasional rippling of
the waters was an inexpressibly dear sound to
my ears. Day and night were the same to
me. At last, wearied with my efforts, 1 laid
down ON o comparatively dry rock to rest,
and must have slept for hours. When
awoke again / took to the water, carefully
ascertaining which way it ran, so as not to
lose my labor by retraoing my steps 1t
seemed to me that the further 1 went
the more difficult progress became. Wher
| l had gone perhaps q mile l came to O
place where the archway narrowed sc
much that / had to crawl on my
hands and knees in the water. Here
was dilemma had not looked for. l trie(
either bank of the river, hut found no pas
sage. could swim under water for a con
siderable distance, but the distance before
me was unknown, and l halted long before
making the dangerous venture. At last con
cluded that my fate was equally doubtful il
returning as in proceeding, and plunged
boldly into the current and soon found tina
it was so swift in its confined passage that
only needed to hold my breath to go through
In the course of twenty or thirty feet 1 agail
got my head above water, and took a lon
Breathing SPELL Again the archway abov
seemed to enlarge and the bed of the stream
became moro even. sped along compare
lively rapidly keeping my hands outstretchet
to prevent my running against the jagge
rocks Wearied out, again laid dow
and slept soundly in my wet clothes
On awaking, l pursued my course dow
n the subterranean stream, and at last, i
n the long distance ahead, saw a gimme
that looked very bright in the darkness
was then put in. Nearing this, I found tha
it did not increase in brightness; and whe
I had gone perhaps mile, l came to anothe
place where my path narrowed to the yer
tunnel filled by the water. My case was no
become more desperate. could not poss
bly, retrace my steps, so submitted myself t
the current, and was immeasurably owe
joyed to find myself rapidly swept into da.
light Exhausted and half drowned, crel
out upon the land, and was not long in r
cognizing the objects about me. / he
come out into the Greenbrier river, as
knew from the familiar look of General Davi
mill on the bank. On reaching home four
that had been over forty eight hours
making my perilous journey of six mill
underground The hole where this mt
went through is nowfencsd round. On iste
ing, one can plainly hear the rush of wat
below, and stone thrown down will som
times be heard to splash in the stream.