The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1884-04-30

dress and culture. The following Il
the history of the affair as given to
day.
THE ADVENTURE IN LOOKOUT NOUN
m TAIN GAVE. .55s.fs.Is
We entered the cave at Q O'Clock
a. M, March 10Th, to satisfy a curl
osity. When say we, / mean my.
self and Mr.. Chris. Schmitzen. We
had a glass lantern and a bottle ol
oil, with which to replenish. When
we had advanced about three and a
half miles we came to a erevice
about foot wide, and my compan-
ion, who was carrying the lantern,
In holding it over the crevice to ex-
anime the depth, accidentally let it
fall, and it went about fifty feet and
struck water. We were in total
darkness then, III cave we had
never visited before. We knew that
to return we would have to pass
pits of great and unknown depth
that lay Immediately along the
path. We knew there were many
byways that would lead us off, but
where we did not know. We knew
that to stay was death, and any eff
fort to return was hazardous. In
this dilemma we thought of the bot
tie of oil. We instantly set to work
and prepared wick by twisting a
handkerchief and inserting it in the
bottle. Our minds were filled with
anxiety. Both life and death hung
on an uncertainty. The match was
struck and applied, the blaze flash
ed up and shout resOunded from
the walls of the cavern. We could
not wait; our anxiety was to get
out before the oil was consumed.
We started and in our hurry took
the wrong course and wandered
around for some time and found
ourselves at the place where we
started. This but added to our con-
fusion. Our oil was nearly gone,
the bottle was getting hot. We
started again but had not proceeded
far when it exploded. We were al
most in despair, for we had but two
matches lett, and nothing TO burn.
To add to our miseries we were
thirsty, and knew no place but the
one where we had lost our lantern
to get water. We lay down on our
faces and crawled along till we
reached that point. We tore the
lining from our coats and made a
rope, and cut holes IN the brim of
my hat and let it down and drew
up water and quenched our thirst /;
but in drawing it up one time the
string broke, the hat was lost. My
companions would not hold water
We knew we had to make an effort
to escape. We knew the direction
we had to 90, but were fearful that
we might fall into one of the by
ways, and get into part of the
cave that had never been visited.
We still had a hope that some one
might enter the cave, and we would
be rescued. We commenced our
dark and hazardous journey by
crawling and feeling our way along.
Sometimes we would cast stones in
frent of us to determine when we
were nearing pit. Sometimes they
would fall to a great depth, and We
would know there was a pit Very
often we would find a splinter from
a torch that would tell us that we
were right. AT last my companion
fell several feet and was caught by
a projecting shelf, which prevented
his falling to a great depth. He
was considerably hurt, and after
this it was very difficult to get him
to proceed. We slept, perhaps, one
half of the time we were in the cave
which very much refreshed us. We
took nothing to eat with us into the
cave, but as strange as it may seem,
we did not suffer much with hun
ger. Our anxiety was probably too
great for that; all our time while
awake was spent in trying to get
out. At last we heard volccs and
tried to make ourselves heard. The
party came to our rescue and we
were taken out and found we had
been in the cave over fifteen days.