The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-07-10
An American Girls Adventure In the
CatacOmba OF Parls.

n Miss Bessie Darling, an American &C
) tress, has had "A serious and almost fata
fadventure in the catacombs of Paris
These catacombs contain, in numberless
galleries, extending under nearly half ol
the city, the bones of nearly 5000, 900 ol
people. On ach side of these weird ave
nues, from the floor to the ceiling, are piled
bones and skulls. The bones of the arms
legs and thighs are piled in tiers along
the walls, their uniformity being relieved
by three rows of skulls and Gro bones
arrayed in fantastic patterns, and at inter
walls, cut out of the gypsum of the caverns
underlying Paris, are little chapels or al
tars. At 10 O'Clock one morning few
weeks ago Miss Darling, who was one of
staircase of ninety steps leading
to the catacombs, and preceded by
guides entered the galleries, whose
dangerous and tortuous windings and
ramification have all the perplexities OF a
labyrinth. Miss Darling, with the indie
pendence of an American girl, quilted her
party and set out to explore underground
horrors alone. Among SO many she was
not missed. A little OF this sightseeing
satisfied her companions, and they return
ed to the light and to their dinners. In
the meantime Miss Darling was hurrying
through one gallery after another. Unfor-
tunately she had not provided herself with
a supply OF candles, s..d when the one
| she carried was burned out she was left in
utter darkness, and she began to realize
the horrors of her situation. 1t was then,
SO the story runs, that ''she did what every
other woman has done in similar circum-
stances-she tainted away" How long
she remained insensible she does not
know but when she come to herself she
made throughout the remainder of the
day and through the night the galleries
echo with her shrieks for help. Forum
ately, at 10 o'clock the next
morning workman, while passing
along a neighboring gallery, heard
her cries and hurried TO the rescue. He
found her in one of those galleries that
have no thoroughfare and are simply side
passages, and two yards from the spot
of an exhausting shaft, down which she
had only escaped falling by the sudden
ness with which she had tainted, and the
pertinacity with which she remained on
the spot where she fell When at the end
of eighteen hours she was brought to the
light she tainted again. But "all's we'll
that ends WE'LL" although for a shor. time
her situation appeared to be critical.
There is a moral in this true story, which
it behooves adventurous young women to
heed. In foreign travel whether among
tuC alps VI u1c hOLudu VI rTeuCu Cdtd-
combs, or in strange cities where the more
dangerous classes abound, too much indie
pendence Of companionship is perilous,
apart from the conventionalism abroad,
which looks askance at a young woman
wandering about alone.
Singular stories Told by Sea Captains
A New York paper says pouring oil on
troubled waters generally is regarded by
sea captains more as fine sentiment than
as practical hint to be observed in time
of danger, but as far back as ITO Dutch
East India trader claimed to haye been
savedfrom shipwreck on a treacherous reef,
by pouring on the sea a jar of olive oil.
Later, another instance is recorded in
which q vessel having been wrecked in a
hurricane, a cask OF lamp oil. which was
kept in a small boat, became broken, and
so quieted the sea in the immediate vicin-
.ty, that most of the crew succeeded in
getting to an island near by.
Captain Jarman, of the four -masted ship
Romsdal, now in this port, stated to a re-
porter, recently, that, although he had
long known of the wonderful effects of oil
poured upon a rough sea- yet he never
had put his knowledge into practice until
his last voyage. The subject having been
recalled to his mind lately by little arti-
ele in one of the seamen's tracts, he decid-
ed to test the receipt. He caused to be
made two canvass sacks, shaped like bot
gallons of oil. These he filed with COM
mon lamp oil. Soon after in the
middle of the Atlantic he encountered
violent hurricane with terrible seas,
which lasted about twenty hours. The
waves broke over The stern and threatened
to swamp the vessel. Remembering his
oil, he punctured the canvas ags, and
caused one to be towed over each quarter.
The effect, he SAID, was magical. The
waves, although remaining at the same
height, no longer broke over the stern; but
for several yards round, where the oil had
spread upon the water, there was apparent
ly a calm. The ship was thus relieved from
the tremendous shocks of heavy seas break
ing over her, and the danger was consider
ably lessened. Captain Jarman thinks
that the use of oil in the case of ship
hoveto in a storm, would be a very good
thing. He says that although this was the
first time he had ever tried the experiment,
1t was not novel by any means. He had
known cases in which crews had escaped
from vessels when it would have been i'm
possible to lower a boat without its being
swampet, except that oil was thrown over
the ships side and the sea thus sufficiently
Gained to allow the boats TO be lowered
without danger. He had also seen whal-
ing vessels lying quietly while near by
them while other vessels were violently
tossed about. The whaling vessels were SO
thoroughly saturated with oil that the
water renamed calm all about them. He
SAYS that the method is SO simple and so
inexpensive that he intends to have oil
bags always ready for use hereafter. 81
What EriEhtens Zulus.