The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-07-26

tricities through life have been the sub
Jeet of remark by all who know him,
but his latest enterprise, which he has
carried on without the knowledge of
his nearest nelghbor, rounds out the
career of one of the most peculiar char
acters In this country.
tlVe years ago old man Boutwell,
erected a shaft over a well which had
been sunk to a depth OF about twenty
I'VE 1eet, and announced that he was
going to prospect for coal. AT the same
time he laid the foundation for a ten
room residence, which he intended to
build as soon as the government should
pay his claim of $4,000 for extra haz-
ardous services performed during the
war. The foundation was distant
about 200 feet, Midway between an
other we'll was sunk. This was fol-
lowed by the sinking of another we'll
near the foundation walls. All of
these wells are twenty-five feet deep,
and the water in each stands at a
depth of four feet.
Boutwell's neighbors watched the pro-
gress at the coal shaft with interest,
but soon they decided that the enter
prise was a failure. There were no
indications on the surface that he was
going down into the earth. They
could see no dirt or stone piled about
the shaft, and therefore concluded that
the eccentric old man had given up his
plan. They were mistaken in this.
BoutWelFs plan of operation entirely
nonplussed them. He would work dur
ing the forenoon and in the afternoon
would sleep. Then, when the shades of
night covered the earth he would haul
the dirt and stone he had taken out dur
ing the day to the top and with a wheel
barrow cart it away to ravines and
gulches on his farm, where it was
hidden away from the sight Of passers-
by. This work has been in progress
nearly f1ve years, and Boutwell's neigh
bors are as much in the dark as was
the writer when he was let down into
the we'll and dumped into the dismal
cavern projecting from it.
Constructed above this we'll is an or
binary shaft and hosting apparatus
A tub, rope and pulley with a small
boy twenty feet distant to operate a
| L.
we'll did not need the services of the
boy to aid him In reaching the mouth
or the cavern. Although sixty-tive
years old, he secured the rope at the
top and climbed down with the agility
of q boy of twenty. The others. COM
posing a party Of four, went down at
one time, with the aid Of the boy at
the ''Whim.' The opening from the
we'll into the cavern was barely large
enough to allow one to pass by, slightly
STOPPING. This narrow passageway ex-
tended about six feet, when it opened
out into large room, which Mr.. Bout
we'll had brilliantly lighted with lamps.
Inlprovsed seats about the walls gave
the explorers a chance to rest and med
itate over the strange idea which In
duced old man Boutwell, to penetrate
the bowels Of the earth ana dig out
such a hideous and grim grotto
It Is remarkable that this old man
could conceive and execute such an en-
terprise within four miles Of the city
and no one outside of his family know
anything about it. He communicated
with the writer through a mutual
tIIieHu, AHA Hdiueu lHe ddy ana the
hour when he would explore and ex-
plain the. mysteries Of this wonderful
cavern. Under no condition. however,
would he state for what purpose or
object such an underground hiding
place was made. Another remarkable
feature about this story is the fact that
Boutwell, does not own nor has he any
right to the land other than that Of
occupier and user. In which this sub
terranean den has been exeavated. -
Boston Transcript correspondence.