Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-06-09
OOKING IErO A HOLE.
How a man will Peer fato a hole "a
h Ground for Any Length OF

- !. 80 = AAN0 = ~
the Ground for Any Length OF
Time and Vet See Nothing.
Humanity is a queer thing at last
Its curiosity is unlimited. It. desire to
discover something new is weakness
probably %pardenable, yet amusing to the
philosopher who. like DiOgenes with his
tub, or who with his candle went about
the streets of his Greek city in the day.
time looking for an honest man, and
when the great monarch asked him what
he could do for him, replied: Get out
Of my sunlight" Humanity has q
weakness for looking into holes; that is,
man has such a weakness. The weak
nesses of Oma are too we'll known to
need any notice in this article. The ami
NAL man is the chap we are after in this
investigation. Curiosity is a natural gift,
not confined exclusively to mapkind; all
other animals have it to a greater or
lesser degree. Mans ~progenitor, the
monkey according to the Darwinian
philosophy, has the gift or weakness to
an excessive degree. You can take your
stand on the street and gaze upward to.
ward heaven for a half an hour and ex.
claim aloud, Il see it" but you cannot
do it alone. In a few minutes crowds oil
men will leave their stores and other
places OF either business or no business
and gather round you, aud they will gaze
upward also, and imagination is SO vivid
that many Of them will also exclaim u
see it," when, in fact, nothing a be
seen. The peculiar weakness for man is
a hole 10 the ground. A caving-iu pave
ment with a board stuck up in it as warn.
iGg to drivers of vehicles catches man
every time. He leaves the sidewalk, neg
lec,s his bushes and follows bis irresisti.
Bile desire to 20 over aud look into that
hole in the ground. A caving pave.
ment in front Of the LEDGER office and
over a created quite q sensation
on Madison street to-day. A hole 10 the
ground appeared, and our reporter, who
is somewhat of an arithmetician, KEEP
count Of the number Of men whose curl
osity compelled them to walk out into
the street and look into that hole from {
o'clock this morning to 10 at noon. Tn,
number was exactly I'll. Not a woman
did this, her curiosity leading her il
quite a different direction. Bankers, in
surance men, cotton men, merchant
generally, professional men, men with
out any business, gray-headed men, bald
headed men-young men and boys die
all this, and yet they we're not happy
They were in bad humor because no on,
was on hand to explain what was tn
matter with that hole 10 the ground
Men climb up Moant Vesuyius, neal
Naples, in order to look into the crater
they will put themselves to unnecessarl
trouble in order to gaze into wells O.
mining shafts; they will peer into els
terms with a curiosity worthy of a bette
cause. In fact, a hole in the ground i
the weak spot in man. The inquir,
comes up, what is a hole2 Webster, il
his unabridged work on words and thei
meanings, defses it to be: "a hollow
place or cavity in any solid body, Of an,
shape or dimensions, natural or artif
cial. 1t may differ from a rut or assure
being wider. A hole may be a cell,
cave, or avern in the earth, an excava
ton in a rock or tree, a p~erforation, al
aperture, an opening in aud through
solid body left in the work or made b,
any instrument"