St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-17

; bored. The old stone houses are too
dead to show any interest whatever, and
the whole town looks as though it had
been suddenly paralyzed thirty years
| ago, after the fashion of towns in the
ARABIAN Nights" The low lands
along the Minnesota river are almost
tropical in the luXuriance of vegetation.
Great fern-like water plants sway above
the reeds and ruShes, with here and there
a lily pad floating i'll the water
! The ferryman sleeps forever His net
hangs drying OH the limb. and fat mos
| quitoeS dress their feathers Oh his front
steps. You begin to sing "Twickeham
Ferry. "Then you say"Hello! the house,"
politely but firmly. Then you have
three-mlnute bout with the leader of
a gang OF mosquitoes who attracts your
attention while his hirelingS suck your
rich, warm, red gore. Then you yodel
a few yOdelS, punctuated with mellow
swear words, aad when you have Gained
down, the ferryman accidentally comes
StrOlling out. He wears chin whiskers
and Brussels carpet slippers with JAG
qulminOt roses on them. He feStOons a
hook over the ferry rope, and, as he
walks toward one shore, the boat goes
toward the other. Golden rod and burn
ing yellow, biacK-eyed SusanS fringe
the edges of the willow copse, with just
bit of some soft purple flower to ac-
centuate the viVidnesS of the yellow.
The red of the turn-bridge below mag
nifleS i'll the water, and the mosquitoes
pump your lifeblood steadily.
You are under the very walls of the
fort. The road is filled with very Jagged
and sharp rocks, and is amazingly steep.
At the left is the white chimney of the
bake shop which was burned years ago.
Above it it lives Fritz. the musician.a
at the left, hidden by grass and weeds,
is the cave. The door is low, and fitted
with a heavy oak shutter. The ell
trance bears evidence of mans handi-
work in its rudely cut sides, but farther
bac the walls roughen and grow more
and Enthusiastically into the Semblance
of natural cave. The air grows damp
and cold, and unless you have lantern
or torch, it is time to 90 back. One of
the earliest stories of the fort tells of
the finding of two skeletons at this
point in the cave. Indian arrows among
the bones left little doubt as to the reason
of their position.
In 1879 a deserter slipped into the
cave and remained for nearly a week
before he was discovered. A cave with
out bOttomlesS pit would be lemonade
without the lemon, and the Fort Smell
ing cave has one. 1t is very narrow,
cleaving downward through the white
sand of the floor, and like most other
Dottomless pits has firm and. substan-
tal bottom. Indian weapons have often
been found here. Beyond the pit the
cave narrowS, till one is forced TO crawl
along. 1t is partially blocked now. and
has been for years, but in earlier times
it led up to one of the rooms in the old
battlement. The stories that hang
about the cave could not be told in a
day. The Uomances told of it would
fill ponderouS volume. The romancer
dreams over it enraptured, and the old
est man at the post, soldier who was
stationed there years and years ago,
says: THAT there cave? 'Tain't a
cave. It's only root cellar the first
commandant of the post had dug"