The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-02-23
The Romance of Accident.

Assizes of the Basses-Pyrenees acct
dentally led to a most interesting arch
geological discovery. The accused,
Rivas shoemaker, and Bellier weav-
er, by armed attacks on the highways
and frequent burglaries, had spread
terror around the neighborhood of Sis
teron. The evidence against them was
clear; but no traces could be obtained
of the plumber until one of the men gave
clew to the mystery. Rivas in his
youth had been shepherd-boy near that
place, and knew the legend of the Trou
d. Argent, cavern on one of the mount
aims 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 seal
ing the mountain, and penetrated to the
mysterious grotto, where he discovered
an enormous quantity of plumber of
evry description. The way having
been once found, the vast cavern was
afterward explored by SaUants; and
their researches brought to light num-
Der of Roman medals of the third centu-
ry, flint hatchets, ornamented pottery
and the remains of ruminants of enor-
nous size. These interesting discov-
cries, however, obtained no indulgence
for the accused GnadvertenD pioneers
of science, who were sentenced 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 the
canons; 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 so abundant,
and which was silver ore, interfered
with their operations and gave them
the greatest annoyance. Two brothers
named Grosch possessed more intelli-
gence than their fellow-workers, and
were the real discoveries of the Com
stock lode; but one of them died from a
pickaX 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 sur
face groupings of the lode were found,
they were worked for the gold they con-
tanned, and the silver was thrown out
as being worthless. Yet this lode since
1860 has yielded large proportion of
all the silver produced throughout the
world. The silver mines of Potosi were
discovered through the trivial circum-
stance 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
many, the little village of Coserow, in
the island of Usedom, on the Prussian
border of the Baltic, was sacked by the
contending armies, the villagers escap-
ing to the hills to save their lives.
Among them was simple pastor
named Schwerdler, and his pretty
daughter 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 to gather blackberries; but
soon afterward she ran back joyous
and breathless to her father, with two
shining pieces of 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 off these pieces with
a stick; that there was an ample store
of the precious substance; and that she
had covered it over to conceal her secret.
The amber brought money, food, cloth
ing, and comfort; but those were super
stitious times, and legend goes that
poor Mary was burned for witchcraft.
At the village of Stumen amber was
first accidentally found by a rustic who
was fortunate enough to turn some up
with his pillow.
A cooper in Carniola having one even
ing placed new tub under dropping
spring, in order to try if it would hold
water, when he came in the morning
found it so heavy that he could hardly
move it. At first the superstitious no.
tons that are apt to possess the minds
of the ignorant made him suspect that
his tub was bewitched; 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 a 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 high
ly pleased with his good fortune; till
at length, the affair being made public,
several persons formed themselves into
a society in order to search farther into
the quicksilver deposits, thus so unex-
pectedly discovered, and which were
destined to become the richest of their
kind in Europe.
Curious discoveries by plowmen,
quarrymen and others of caves, coins,
urns, and other interesting things would
fill volumes. Many valuable literary
relics have been preserved by curious
accidents, often turning up just in time
to save them from crumbling to pieces.
Not only mineral but literary treasures
have been brought to light when exca,
waiting Mother Earth. For instance, in
the foundations of an old house Luth-
er's Table Talk" was discovered ely
ing in deep obscure hole, wrapped in
strong linen cloth, which was waXed all
over with beeswax within and without -
There it had remained hidden ever
since its suppression by Pope Gregory
XIII. The poems of Propertius, a Ro-
man poet, long lurked unsupported in
the darkness of a wine-cellar, from
whence they were at length unearthed
by accident, just in time to preserve
them from destruction by rats and mil