The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-03-09
Munders of Stature.
Correspondence Of tie New York 0bserrer.
THE MAMMOTH CAVE.


on bright August morning, our part,
consisting of five as merry souls as eve
had the good fortune TO travel together
We were mounted in and upon an old
fashioned stage-eoach and off we started
Our four horses were duly admonisheC
that the spirit on the drivers box had nj
time to waste, by telling and resonant
blows from a ten-foOt whip-lash. Oui
driver was a specimen of che Kentucky
horsemen; he stood fully six feet two il
his stockings, and had fiercely bristlins
beard, which covered almost all Of his face
When he spoke We were reminded of the
jargon of the deck hands of Mississippi
steamboat, and his unaction was BY nc
means improved by huge quid Of tobacco
which distended his cheek.
From the moment we drew away from
Cave City, where we had exchanged the
ears for the stage, we began to go up hill
and were on the ascent all the way to the
cave. The scenery wsa the widest and
most beautiful imaginable. The forests
stand as vast and untouched as when Dan
lei Boone first penetrated their solitude
the home of the bear, the dear and the
wild cat. Huge trees line the road and
stretch back to the horizon, and from
their branches hung great vines and par
asites, with here and there a glimpse of
the long hairy moss of the South.
Suddenly We stopped. just in the
middle of steep pitch, one of our pole
horses refused to advance. In vain Jehu
swore and whipped, the animal only
squealed and kicked.
"That horse wants KILN" said our
man and springing down, he fastened a
rope around its under jaw, and hitehed it
to the whiffietrees of the leaders. Again
we started, but the vicious beast allowed
himself to be dragged by the jaw many
feet before he gave in.
We passed no houses, save one or two
negro log huts, out of which dozen little
dusky imps would throng at our approach,
eager to sell US peaches and melons.
Stopping to rest where nan was working
on the road, we asked him if he had ever
been in the cave
"No," he said, 81 have never seen the
mouth of it.
"How long have you lived here ~
Twenty years" o.
Think Of it! T1enty years within five
miles of Mammoth Cave aud never even
seen the mouth of it 1t reminded us of
the traveller who, entranced by the view
from hilltop in the White Mountains,
said to q rustic:
"lsn't this glorious view p
"Waal, they say so" he replied.
The views from the hilltops were beau
tifal. As far as the eye could reach was
the unbroken forest, and, in the distance,
the rounded appearance of the Limestone
Hills made them seem to blend and be lost
in the back ground Of gray cloud and haze,
the bright green of the nearer valleys
gradually fading into dreamy, neutral
tint.
We reached the Cave Hotel in three
hours and sat down to a splendid dinner,
to which the mountain air made us do
justice. The hotel is long, low building,
one story high, to which is added three
story wing, the ground floor Of the latter
containing the dining-room, ballroom and
Office, with sleeping-rOOHs above. Short
halls cross the building, into which the
rooms open. The grounds are pretty, and
well-shaded by huge old trees.
Our first question Of the waiter was,
"Where is the Cave?"
La, massa 1t am all under heah. 1t
am only sixty foot from dis heah dinin'-
room to de top OBJ Gorum's Dome. Do
you see dat hole out da? 1t was dug fur
well, aud dey went too fur, and de bot
tom fell out.
1t being too late to enter tie Cave that
day, we rested and strolled around the
grounds. The "Mammoth Cave band'
was source of amusement. 1t consisted
of three negroes and one white man, and
and the venerable darby who presided at
the bass-viol sang to all the tunes, beating
time with his foot No matter what the
music-waltz galop, or march,-all we're
chanted by this aged minstrel
Rambling about, we found our Jehu of
the morning and succeeded in inducing him
to point out to us the path to the Cave;
and after tea, not having the power to
stay our curiosity, we walked down to it..
The path led into a valley full of large trees
aud innumerable flowers, and in the bot
tom of this valley, by an abrupt turn in
the path, We found ourselves face to face
with the entrance to that region of so
much previous conjecture and imagina-
ton. My first impression viii never be
efaced from my memory. The full moon
shone brightly and lighted up the scene.
In the ee.4tre of the valley stood great
black arch, twenty-five feet in height.
Over the crown of this arch hung deli
cate, waving vine, and tiny cascade fell
over and through its tendrals, making a
tinkling music on the rocks beneath. A
mist, like a gossamer veil, hung partly
over the cavern and showed a beautiful
rainbow CLEAN and play of colors, as It
bent and swayed in the moonlight. The
wind rushed by from out the black arch
way, making low, varying music,-now
as weirdly plaintive and tender, and now
as loud and wild, as if from the strings of
an Holian harp hung somewhere within
the impenetrable darkness Now and
then bat would fit by on noiseless wing
and disappear in the gloom, as if returning
from some GRAND of sorrow to the genii
of the unexplOred darkness within.
Long We stood, impressed by the
strange, weird scene, and then, silently
aud reluctantly Withdrawing, went to
dream of the morrow and what it would
reveal of the lower parts Of the earth.
Nine o'clock found us dressed in old
clothes and overalls, assembled at the en-
trance to the cave, waiting for our guide
who had gone for our lamps. We then
had time to examine the properties of this
wind which, as the night before, still
rushed steadily by us from out the cave,
with considerable force. Ii was a hot,
sultry morning, and the thermometer on
the hotel piazza marked nearly 100 de-
grees, but it fell to 60 in this current of
air from the bowels Of the earth, and we
could step from one temperature into the
other with the sensation of alternating be-
tween hot and cold showerbath. The
Cave bredthes once year. Its tempera-
ture is always 80 degrees. In summer
when the outer world is at a higher tenn
perature the cave erpires; in winter it
inL0ies- and only whom thu ottS;dn air -