The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-14
MRS sHERwooD's LETTERS.
VII.


should ask me what l considered the
most interesting thing ever saw, my
reply would be "a hole in the ground
known as Luray Cave in the State of
Virginia" 1t is one of those things
which makes fairy tales seem quite pos
sible to person Of imagination. l have
kept this place as my last "Outing' for
this year, SO as to make good ending.
There is no denying the charms of the
seashore, or the uplift of soul one OK
periences on the top of mountain, but
to have another set of emotions stirred,
let US go down into the bowels of the
earth and see what wonders are hidden
away from the sight of men, more de-
lightful and novel than either the noun
tains or the sea have to show us.
Luray is in the Shenandoah Valley,
and was discovered by one of our "boys"
who during the late war, with true YAM
kee shrewdness, saw he had made won.
derful find" and he bargained for it with
the owner, who did not see anything
wonderful in hole in the ground going
nobody knew where, or who wanted to
know.
There was just enough crispness in
the air the morning 1 decided to go to
the cave to make it a pleasure to be alive
and keenly sensitive to the charms of
the world around. The route was over
the Baltimore and Ohio r. r. to the
picturesque town of Harper's Ferry,
which John Browns Raid has made
famous forever. 1t is here the Sheuan-
doah and the lordly Potomac join hands
and go singing on forever between the
Cumberland heights, around Jefferson's
Rock, and on through the gaps in the
mountains until it comes to the Great
Falls Of the Potomac, where it frets and
tumbles over boulders gray, down past
Washington, old Alexandria and to the
sea, which it reaches through the Bay.
Every foot Of the way is series of his
torical and geological pictures, which he
who will may read to beguile the tedium
of travel.
The Shenandoah Valley.
The Shenandoah valley is entered soon
after leaving the Ferry. One with the
most vivid imagination can hardly con-
jure up the desolation which ruined these
smiling fields and homes as our men in
"blue" or gray" tramped over them
thirty years ago.
Lying between the Cumberland and
Allegheny mountains. they present
series of views which home artists are
beginning to appreciate.
Having left Washington at o'clock,
and made run of 140 miles without
other stop than at Harper's Ferry, we
arrive at the Relay Inn about IL A. NJ.
Here we have appetite enough to dine
before going into the cave, where we are
to spend four hours studying Mother
Natures sculptures wrought without
mallet or a chisel.
You put on rubbers and water proof,
and the guide without so much as
lighted torch, opens door which seems
to lead down cellar. In a moment you
find it is only in seeming, for you at once
find you are in strange place lit up
with electricity. You advance under
shelving rock of immense size, turn a
corner and are face to face with some of
the most cunningly- devised limitations
lsor fOf he
as for instance fish-stall with all kinds
of finny tribes hung up by the tail. Co.
ing little farther you find the tabled
river Styx, or, rather it is said to flow in
the depths below. into which you vainly
peer trying to see the bottom. You can
only hear the onward rush of waters as
you cling in awe and wonder to the rail
which keeps the unwary from slipping
into it's unknown depths.
Inside the Cave.
/ will not pretend to chronicle the
sights seen in the order in which they
were met. for l was too much absorbed
to take any notes. There are 'fat mems
miseries" to creep through. which were
the gate ways of magnificent halls where
the ceiling 80 feet above our heads was
by columns of fiuted alabaster
with ceilings groined and cut into gothic
ribs. Corinthian caps and all the grand.
ure of imposing ornament of classic ar
chitecture. Some of these splendid col
umns were hollow from base to capitol,
and adventurous souls who are never con-
tent with an outside view, have climbed
up through them to scramble out of an
opening at the top which let them out
in cham ber above.
In passing through one of these fine
halls or passageways, one comes upon
a draped figure OF woman of colossal
size; of her too it was no poetical figure
to say she was Of alabaster whiteness.
Her garments were draped from the
shoulders in Grecian folds. Close be
side her was tent with conical top and
curtains parted each side, the folds be
ing most beautifully draped. This, as
we're all these strange devices,was of ala
baster. The electric light lit up its
transparent beauty on every side as
though one were looking through
gauze.