Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1878-02-06
TEr RonANcE OF ACCIDENT.
How Some Important Discoveries were
Nade...Chanoe Inspirations.

From Chamber JoGsu1s.
MANY of our most important inveh
lions and discoveries W their origin 70
The most trivial circumstances; from b
SIMPLEST causes the most important effects
have ensued. The following are a lew
chilled Mt random for the amusement OF
our readers. A..
The trial of two robbers before the
court of ~assiZes of the Passes yrences
accidentally led to a most interesting
chronological discovery. The accused,
R;vas. a shoemaker, and Beller, a weaver,
hv armed attacks on the highways, and
freouent burglaries, had spread terror
around the neighborhood of Sisteron.
The evidence against them was clear;
Int no traces could be obtained of the
plumber, until one of the men gave a
clue to the mystery. Rivas in his youth
had been a shepherd-boy near that place,
and knew the legend of the Trou a Ar
a cavern on one of the mountains
with sides SO precipitous as to be almost
inaccessible, and which no n was ever
known to have reached. The cOmmissa-
nv of police of Sisteron, after extraordl-
nary labor, succeeded in scaling the
mountain, and penetrated to the mys-
ferrous grotto, where he discovered an
enormous quantity of plumber of every
description. The way having been once
found, the vast cavern was afterwards
explored by saraats, and the researches
brought to light a number OF Roman
medals of the third century. flint hatch
cts, ornamental pottery, and the remains
of ruminants of enormous size. These
interesting discoveries, however, obtained
no indulgence for the accused (inadver-
tent pioneers of science, who were SEN
fenced to twenty years hard labor!
The discovery Of gold in Nevada was
made by some Mormon immigrants In
1850. Adventures crossed the Sierras
and set up their sluice-boxes in canons;
but it was gold they were after, and
they never suspected the existence OF
silver, nor knew it when they saw 1t.
The BLUSH stuff which was so abundant
and which was silver one, interfered
with their operations and gave them the
greatest annoyance. Two brothers named
Gro,ch possessed more intelligence than
their feilow-workers, and were the real
discoveries of the Comstock lode; but
one Of them died from a pickaxe wound
in the foot, and the other was frozen to
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, theywere for the
gold they contained, and the silver was
thrown out as being worthless. Yet this
lode since 1860 has yielded a large pro-
portion of all the silver produced
throughout the world. The silver
mines of Potosi were discovered through
the trivial circumstance of an Indian &C.
cidentally pulling up a shrub, to the
roots of which were attached some par
ticles of the precious metal.
During the thirty years war in Ger
many, the village of Coserow in the
island of Usedom, on the Prussian Dor
der of the Baltic, was sacked by the con
tending armies, the villagers escaping to
the hills to save their lives. Among
them was a simple pastor named Schwerd'
Ter, and his pretty daughter Mary
When the danger was over, the villagers
found themselves without houses, fooe
or money. One day, We are told. Mar.
went up the Steckelberg to gather black
berries; but soon afterwards she raj
back Joyous and breathless to her fathe
with, two shining pieces of amber eacl
of very great size. She told her fathe
that near the shore the wind had blow.
away the sand from a vein of amber
that she straightway broke off thes
pieces with a stick; that there was a
ample store Of the precious substance
and that she had covered it over to col
ceal her secret. The amber brough
money, food, clothing and comfort; bu
those were superstitious times, and
legend goes that poor Mary was burne
for witchcraft. At the village
Stumen, amber was first accidental
found by a rustic who was ~fortuna'
enough to turn some up with bis pillow.
Accidents have prevented as we'll
caused the working of mines. At IL
moment that workmen were about
commence operations on a rich gold mil
in the Japanese province of Tskungo,
violent storm of thunder and ligbtnir
burst over them, and the miners We
obliged to seek shelter elsewhere. The
} superstitious people, imagining that Il
tutelar god and protector OF the spc
? unwilling to have the bowels of Il
earth thus rihed, had raised the storm
1 make them sensible of his ~displeasul
l desisted from all further attempts
work the mine.
A cooper in Carniola having III eve
ing placed a new tub under a droppil
e spring in order to try if it would no
water, when he came in the morning
Y found it 80 heavy that he could hard
move it. At the first superstitious 4
tions that are apt to possess the mind
e the ignorant made him suspect that
tub was bewitched; but at last perez
ing a shining fluid at the bottom, he VT
to Laubach, and showed it to an apotl
cary, who Immediately dismissed h
n with a small gratuity, and bid him bri
|. some more of the same stuff whenever
could meet with it. This the "COPPER"
u quently did, being highly pleased "
h his good fortune; till at length the aff
a being made public, several perst
lie formed themselves into a society
Of order to search farther into the quiz
r, silver deposits, thus 50 unexpecte,
OF discovered, and which were destined
become the richest of the kind in
rope.
Curious discoveries by plowmen, gu
a rymen and others, of caves, coins, u
" and other interesting things, would
volumes. Many valuable literary rel
ne have been preserved by curiousaccider
~ often turning up just in time to $.
he them from crumb!'ng to pieces. \
I'd only mineral but literally treasures h.
se been brought to light when excavati
I'd mother earth. For instance, in
M foundations Of an old house, Lutht
es. Table Tux was discovered "lying il
,e, deep. obscure hole, wrapped in strt
ca linen cloth, which was waxed all o
nd with beeswax within and withou
,rs There it had remained hidden ever sill
re- its suppression by Pope Gregory XI
or The poems of Propertius, a Roman pc
". long laid unsupported in the darkness
'as a wine cellar, from whence they were
his length unearthed by accident, just
Ter time to preserve them from destruct
,se by rats and mildew. Not only from
IN. meath orr foot Init from above our he