The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-03-08
The Romance of Accident.

Inc AAOlltltCt OI AGclNlGnIs
Many. of our most important inven- /
tions and discoveries owe their origin to /
the most trivial circumstances. The /
trial OF two robbers before the court of /
Assizes of the Bases Pyrenees acct |
dentally led TO a most interesting arch |
biological discovery. The accused, /
Rivas shoemaker, and Bellier weaver,
by armed attacks on the highways
and frequent buTglaries, had spread
terror around the neighborhood of Sis
teron. The evidence against them was
clear but no trace could be obtained
Of the plumber until one of the men gave
a clew to the mystery. Rivas in his
youth had been a shepherd boy, near that
place, and knew the legend Of the Trou
d'Argent, q cavern on one of the noun.
tains with sides so precipitous as to be
almost inaccessible, and which no one
was ever known TO have reached. The
commissary of police of Sisteron, after
extraordinary labor, succeeded in scaling
F the mountain, and penetrated TO the
mysterious grotto, where he discovered
an enormous quantity ofplunder of every
description. The way having been once
found, the vast cavern was afterward
xploIed by sarGnfs; and their researches
brought to light a number of Roman
medals of the third century, flint,
hatchets, ornamented pottery, and the
remains Of ruminants of enormous size.
These interesting discoveries, however,
obtained no indulgence for the accused
/ (inadvertent) pioneers Of science, who
were sentenced to twenty years hard
labor.
The d discovery of gold in Nevada was
made by some Mormon immigrants in
1850. Adventures crossed the Sierras
and set up their sluice- boxes in the
canyons; but it was gold they were after,
and they never suspected the existence Of
silver, nor knew it when. they saw it. The
blush stuff which was 70 abundant, and
which was'silver ore, iuterlered with their
operations and gave them the greatest
annoyance. Two brothers named Grosch
possessed more intelligence than their
tellew-workers, and were the real dis
coverers of the Comstock lode but one
of them died from a pickax wound in
the foot, and the other was frozen
{ 70 death in the mountains. Their
secret died with them. When at
LAST, in the early part OF 1859, the surface
groupings of the lode were found, they
were worked for the gold they contained,
and the silver was thrown out IS being
worthless. Yet this lode since 1860 has
! yielded large proportion of all the silver
p produced throughout the world. The sill
yer mines of Potosi were discovered
, through the trivial circumstance of an
Indian accidentally pulling up a shrub
TO the roots of which were attached some
particles of the precious metal.
During the Thirty Years War in Ger
8 many, the little village of Coserew, in
i the island of Usedom; on the Prussisn
e border of the Baltic, was sacked by the
contending armies, the villagers escap-
ing to the hills to save their lives.
Amsng them was a simple pastor named
., Schwerdler, and his pretty daughter
t Mary. When the danger was over, the
villagers found themselves without
houses. food or money. One day, we
, are told, Mary went up the Streckelberg
t to gather blackberries; but soon after
ward she ran back joyous and breathless
to her father, with two shining pieces of
t amber each of very great size. She told
} her father that near the shore the wind
, had blown away the sand from a Vein Of
! amber; that she straightway broke of
these pieces with stick; that
r there was an ample store OF the
precious substance; and that she
; had covered it over to conceal the secret.
The amber brought money, food, cloth
2 ing, and comfort; but those were super
stitious times, and a legend goes that
: poor Mary was burned for witchcratt.
At the village of Staumen amber was
2 first accidentally found by g rustic who
l was fortunate enough to turn some up
with his plew.
a cooper IN Uarn1oIa having one even
ing placed new tub under a cropping
, spring, in order TO try if it would hold
water, when he came in the morning
{ found it go heavy that he could hardly
I move it. At first the superstitious no
, tions that are apt to possess the minds
of the ignorant made him suspect that
, his tub was bewilched but at last, per.
, ceiving a shining fluid at the bottom,
he went to Laubach, and showed it to an
apothecary, who Immediately dismissed
, him with small gratuity and babe him
bring some more of the same stuff when
ever he could meet with it. This the
poor cooper frequently did, being highly
pleased with his good fortune; till at
length, the affair being made public,
several persons formed themselves into a
society in order to search further into
the quicksilver deposits, thus so unex-
pectedly discovered, and which were
destined to become the richest OF their
kind in Europe.
How DADS Dollar viii Look.
The three minis of the United States,