Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-11-28
DOWN IN A SALT MINE.
The Wonderful Things to bs Seen in a Gilt
terins Underground City.

tering Underground City.
Going down in asalt mine is taking .
glimpse at wonderful things, accordin,
to Q London Neus correspondent, whc
writes: "Light few candles" was The
order passed as we were leaving Wins
ford, and am under the impression thai
the hole down below is like any Other
hole, and that the flew candles" will JUS,
give us iight enough for the space o.
some three or four yards. But We shall
SEE. We step into our iron bu ket. The
door thereof is closed upon US. The
steel ropes are made fast The signal is
given. There is hesitating, trembling
motion, and We drive swiftly irto Plu-
tonian night, straight, sheer through a
tunnel $50 feet deep and feet 6 inches
across, the rim of our bucket now and
again grinding, scraping, humping,
screening against the narrow walls,
After the first few seconds have passed
one can not tell, from ones sensations
merely, whether one is going up or down
or is suspended at rest. There is only
the trembling of the invisible steel ropes
and the scraping sound on the walls. In
moment more we touch the floor of
the under world with the lightness of
feather. In the name of all the fairies,
and COLLINS, and spirits of the earth,
what have we there? Oh! Master Rob-
ert, "a few candies. The city is disil-
luminated-this is what meets my aston
ished gaze. Open spaces, endless streets
turning and winding off in all directions.
snd outlined in spots of light, and in the
farthest distance an ornamental group Of
1;uhto ,f y-an
supporting pillar. 1t is as if one looks
from some point OF vantage upon the
lights of town on dark night, without
moon or starr; not town with empty
space over it, but a town under g hori-
zontal ceiling thirty-three feet ABOVE
the paveme mt. On this level pavement
the massed bands of the British army
may play Strauss music, and the whole |
of The London West End spin round on
slight fantastic toe" The first feelings |
ofsurprise over | examine my surround |
ings in leisurely detail. At some dis
lance in front of us looms dark mass
with horizontal line of lights half way |
up it. The three of us-Mr. Verdin, the |
guide, and myself--approacn il, each
carrying lighted candle across the floor,
which appears to be IS level as the floor |
of drawing room, and which is covered
with a thin carpet of salt as fine as pow
der and dry as finder. Wherever the |
light falls upon it the dark object glitters
as if it were incrusted with rubies and |
1t turns out to be a huge
square pillar extending from floor to
ceiling. Each of its four sides measures
twelve yards; it is thirty-three feet high,
and il is nothing but mass Of crystals.
At every twenty-five v rds, north, south,
east, west, stands one of these gigantic
columns, all of them, like this one,
of many tinted salt crystals, and
with the diamond fash darting over
their sides. The plan of this wonderful
colorado is now obvious. Tie miners
have been cutting their way, during all
these many generations, through the
solid rock salt horizontally, clearing a
smooth floor below their feet, leaving
smooth ceiling over their heads, and at
the already named distance those enor-
nous pilasters, whose function is to pre-
vent the roof-that is, the $50 feet of the
crust-from falling in. The cell
ng is too high to respond very literally
% the flicker of the candle lights, but in
| hundred spots it wrinkles like stars
oeering through the clouds of night.
They look es though they had the
strength of doom, those pillars, and were
destined to last to the crack thereof.