Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-07
THE EARrHs INTERIOR.
A Visit to the Centre of this Terrestrial
Ball Graphically Described.

4 Visit to the Centre of this Terrestrial |
Ball Graphically Described.
Mr.. R. A. Lasseter tezephoned for one
If the Nashville american reporters to
come out to the warehouse. The reporter
boarded a south Nashville
car and In few minutes was welcomed
BY Mr.. Lasseter and fne-looking old
very plainly but neatly dressed
in dark cashmere suit. He wore large
white Panama hat, Of the finest texture,
and goId-rimmed spectacles, which gave
his large, round, oval-shaped face, which
was very closely shaved, very beneYo-
lent expression.
"Here he is" said Mr.. Lasseter, as he
pointed toward the old gentleman. "The
most celebrated man in the world; the
only man who has been to the centre Of
the earth. The reporter Immediately con-
cluded that Mr.. Lasseter bad played, or
was trying to play, practical Joke on
him, and consequently smiled in very
lugUbriOus way.
Mr.. Lasseter assured the reporters how
ever, that he was by no means joking,
but, on the contrary, took pleasure in pre-
senting to him the only man who had ever
visited the centre of the earth and re-
turned alive TO the outer surface, who was
none other than the celebrated Mr.. Will
liam b. Amsdell, who came through the
great cavern, which appeared in the prai-
RE near Dallas, Texas, in July, 1881, and
concerning whom so much was written
in the Texas papers at the time.
Mr.. Amsdell said since that time he had
been in Zacatecas, a mining town in Mex
leo, where he had made a small fortune
in silver mining, and was on his way to
Cincinnati to have his book published,
which gave full account of his trip to
the North pole, and also to the centre of
the earth. Upon hearing this statement,
the reporter became SO astOnished that
Mr.. Amsdell thought it necessary to call
upon MIR. Lasseter to substantiate his
statement, which that gentleman was
able to do so far as to the sudden appear
ance of MIR. Amsdell upon the prairie in
Texas, and the fact that he had been fire.
quently interviewed afterward by the
most enterprising reporters in that state,
and he had repeated his story so many
times and had always told such a straight
story that it has gained credence wher-
ever Mr.. Amsdell had gone.
Resolving to hear the whole story which
so astonished him, before deciding wheth-
er it was worth publication, the reporter
asked Mr.. Amsden to give him brief
outline of his trip to the centre of the
earth. The gentleman thereupon declared
that nothing but the mereSt outline could
be gotten into the confines of an ordinary
newspaper article, but upon being pressed
by the reporter, made the following state
ment, which, by the way, would not be
worthy of the slightest credence but for
the fact that it is confirmed in some of its
details by Mr.. Lasseter, who lived in Dali
las, Texas, at the time Mr.. Amsdell made
his appearance there through the great
sink-hole in the earth, through which an
immense creek appeared one morning in
March, 1880, on the plains of Texas. Con-
cisely stated, the outline of Mr.. Amsdel's
story is as follows:
81 see that you are incredulOus but you
need not be w0nder-stricken, as my story
by no means argues the existence of an
impossible or unreasonable state of things
on the face of the earth or in the centre
of the earth. In the first place, l want
you to bring your mind down to the n.y.
pothesis that l am neither drunk, a crazy
enthusiast nor living scientist. mean
to say, and can prove by incOntrOvertible
facts, that l was in the centre of the earth
for over twenty years. l simply mean to
say that was in the bowels of the earth
from some time in 1860 until the Both day
OF March, 1880, when l emerged through
an immense sink-hOle in the prairie, where
Mr.. LasSeter first saw me. As 1 told the
people there then, l will tell you now, l
was born in New York State, and my
family removed to the city of New York
when l was quite boy. | always had
fancy to 90 to sea and finally secured a
position as cabin boy on an A clipper
ship carrying grain from New York to
Liverpool. l next became a boy before
the mast, then able seaman, and in 1860,
when l was 40 years old, was as good a
seaman as ever walked a quarter deck.
Being a newspaper man you may be aware
that in 1860 Capt. Charles f. Hall started
from New York on an expedition in search
of the remains of Sir John Franklin.
agreed to go with him and we procured
passage on a whaler commanded by Capt
Jack BuddingtOn. / could 20 into the
details, but you say you have not room
for them on account Of want of space.
The whaling vessel we We're on became
blocked in the ice and Capt. Hall and
went to live with the EsquimauX. We
went on many exploring expeditions with
them and became quite used to the eli
mate and their mode of life and travel.
was lost on one Of these expeditions in
October, 1860, and until the Both of March,
1880, never laid my eyes on an inhabitant
of the outer crust of this earth. The way
l became lost was, in chasing a small
white bear on foe Of ice, which sud-
denly, from great upheaval of the ocean
underneath, became detached and floated
into a strong current, crushing and cut
ting through the young ice which had
been formed on the rushing torrent, along
the course of which the foe l was on was
making its way. Seeing that the longer
the foe fiOated the faster it went, and
knowing l was getting farther and farther
from my friends, became very much dis
turbed in mind, and after the foe had sped
along for some ten or twelve hours l was
going down an inclined plane at the rate
of about sixty miles an hour. l could go
into particulars and tell you how l shot
my bear, built me an ice-hut to live in,
and lived on bears meat for many days,
but that does not interest you. After
few days sliding along at the same rapid
rate, l could see the North Star above me,
and it seemed to me all the stars in the
heavens, but they seemed to be getting
farther and farther from me every second,
and there appeared around me wall OF
water as though / was in an immense
vortex, incalculable in diameter. What
puzzled me most was that the water
seemed to be getting warmer and warmer
all the time, and the ice-aoe kept on melt
ing as it slipped, or rather dropped, down
the immense crater. Finally the speed
of the iceberg grew slower, and as it
rushed under huge waterfall, the spray
from which almost drowned me, it slid
into a river, down which it commenced to
glide, and on the banks of which, by the
aid of great electric light, which seemed
to be evolved from the surrounding at
mosphere, 1 saw the land stretched out in
beauty before me from both banks of the
river, on which the queerest looking herb
age was growing that / had ever seen in
my life. There were some queer-loOking
houses, too, perceptible in the dim dis
lance, and when the ice-foe on which l
was sitting struck the bank l went out
on the land to look around me. l met
some people who said they were from the
outer world, but refused positively to tell
me how they got there. They explained
that there was considerable inhabited
country for me to travel over, and all
these jewellers beneath the earth were
civilized, to some extent, in advance of
the inhabitants dwelling on the outer
crust, though they were bT no means as
intense and energetiT jim Nheir nature as
those upon whom thR~un sbone. Passion
the disposition Of .'se people and they
dwell together in Nc ha2d harmony that
makes their republic aNm : of millennium.
They are governed by VObsir bishops, and
though they have churches, school-hOuses,