The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-09-20

Years ago. with lanterns and torches
and a guide, we went down in the Nam
moth cave of Kentucky. You may
walk fourteen miles and see no sunlight.
1t is a stupendous place Some places
the roof of the cave Is a hundred feet
high. The grottoes filed with weird
echoes; cascSdes falling from invisible
height to invisible depth. Stalagmites
rising NJ from the floor of the cave;
salactites descending from the roof of
the cave, joining each other and max
ing pillars of the Almightys sculptur-
ing. There are rosettes of amethyst in
halls of gypsum. AS the guide carries
his lantern ahead of you, the shadows
have an appearance supernatural and
spectral The darkness is fearful.
Two people, getting lost from their
guide only for few hours, years ago,
were demented. and for years sat in
their insanity. You feel like holding
your breath as You walk across the
bridges that seem to span the bottom
less abyss. The guide throws his cal
cium light down into the caverns, and
the light rolls and losses from rock to
rock and from depth TO depth, making
at every plunge a new revelation Of the
awful power that could have made
such a place as that. a sense of suf-
location comes upon you as you think
that you are two hundred and fifty feet
in a straight line from the summit sur
face of the earth.
The guide after awhile takes you into
what is called the ''star chamber and
then he says 30 you, ''Sit here;7 and then
he takes the lantern and goes down I'M
der the rocks, and it gets darker and
darker until the night is 50 thick that
the hand an inch from the eye is unob-
servable- And then, by kindling one Of
the lanterns and placing it i'll a cleft Of
the rock there, is a reflection cast on the
dome Of the cave, and there are stars
coming out IN consultations brilliant
night heavens you involuntarily
exclaim, beautiful! beautifulI7
Then he takes the lantern down in
other depths Of the cavern and wanders
on and wandeCs off until he comes up
from behind the rocks gradually, and it
seems like the dawn of the morning and
it gets brighter and brighter. The guide
is skilled ventriloquist, and he initiates
the voices Of The morning. and soon the
gloom rs all gone and you stand con-
graduating yourself over the wonderful
spectacle.
FROM THR GRAVE TO GLORY.
Well, there are a great many people
who look down into the grave as a great
cavern. They think it is q thousand
miles sub6errE1eous, and all the echoes
seem to be the voices of despair, and the
cascades seem to t-e the falling tears
that always fall. and the gloom of earth
seems coming up in stalagrnite. and the
gloom Of the eternal world seems de-
scending IN the stalactite, making pill
lars of Undesirable horror. The grave
is no such place as that to me, thank
God! Our divine guide takes us down
into the great caverns, and we have the
lamp to our feet and the light to our
path. and all the echoes in the riffs of
the rock are anthems, and all the fall
| ing waters are fountains of salvation,
and after awhile we look up, and be-
hold, the cavern Of the tomb has be-
| come Kings star chamber.
And while we are looking at the pomp
of it an everlasting morning begins to
rise, and all the tears of earth crystal
| lie into staIagInlte, rising up IN a pliisr
on the one side, and all the glories Of
heaven seem to be descending in a sta
| lactite, making pillar on the other side,
and you push against the gate that
swings between the two pillars, and as
that gate flashes open you find it as one
of the twelve gates which are twelve
pearls Blessed be God that through
this Gospel the mammoth cave of the
| sepulcher has become the illumined star
! chamber of the King! Oh, the palaces!
the eternal palaces! the Kings palaces!