The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-11

of a fiotilla had gone off at once The
noise was so loud and piercing that it
made the entire party deaf for several
hours, and large fragments were dislodg-
ed from the roof and walls of the cave,
and came dangerously near crushing them
as they fell close to them. One piece of
stone which fell from the roof must have
weighed at least ton. The bats in thou
sands swarmed out, disturbed by the ex-
plosion, and eXtinguished several of the
torches.
Another interesting cave, but one which
can only be explored in midwinter, is the
rattlesnakes' cave near the head of the
San Antonio river. 1t is smaller than
the others and has but single chamber.
1t is reached after traversing a narrow
passage to a depth of about sixty feet,
and the chamber of this cave is about iif-
teen feet wide and fifty feet long the
hight ranging from ten to thirty feet. In
it are many crevices, whose interstices
are the favorite resorts of rattlers. N
winter these reptiles are torpid, and they
crawl as far out of sight as possible. In
summer however, it is rash folly to at
tempt to explore this cave, because then
these serpents can be seen and the dread
sound of their warning rattles heard not
only in the cave itself, but in the declivity
leading to it, and in which there is no
room to combat and kill the deadly things.
There is no doubt that many other
caves abound in and around the city
which have never yet been discovered or
explored, but will be revealed during the
progress of the opening Of the sewer
trenches in thesnorthern part of the city.
Among the most famous caves here
abouts is the Robbers cave" which was
the retreat of the famous Pitts gang of
highwaymen, who used it not only as their
rendezvous, but as a storehouse for the
plumber that they acquired in their many
marauding expeditions. This cave, which
is located in the neighborhood of Leon
Springs, about seventeen miles from The
city. has also a chamber of horrors that
renders it comparable to the mythical
cave of Ali Bada and the forty thieves
In it was found the body of Harris, one
of their many victims. Nothing was left
of this tall, stalwart adventurer except
the skeleton. The finding of this and the
subsequent arrest and trial of relatives IF
the Pitts gang are still fresh in the men,
cries of most of the residents of this city
This cave was so spacious and one of
the entrances to ii so commodious that
for a long time a church organ which had
been stolen by these desperadoes was
concealed within ii. Whether the strains
of the organ awakened the echoes of the
cave and the chords were touched by the
deft fingers of any of the fair sex who
may have been indicted into the mysteries
of this uncanny cavern is merely a mat
ter of conjecture, blu. Il Is a fact that the
instrument reposed in this cave for many
moons, and when il was found and taken
out was in an excellent state of preserva-
ton, and is in use now in one of the neigh
borhood churches in the vicinity of the
cave.
Another cave also made famous by crime
Is the one discovered at Van Raub sta
ton by Wynne Andrews and explored by
him and members Of the Express staff. In
this cave was concealed the body Of a
man who was murdered by his rival. rhe
rival brought the girl who was the cause
Of the murder and ignorant OF his hav-
ing been murdered. TO this city, and was
about 10 marry her when the body was
found by party Of adventu Gus explor-
ers. The culprit was captured and Is now
serving a life sentence. and the innocent
cause of the wicked tragedy, after wear
ing weeds for the victim, has long ago dis
carded them for bridal robes and Is now
the mother Of several sprightly and ro-
bust offspring The Justice OF the peace
who. acting as the coroner, held the in
quest like the murderer, Is also going
time in the penitentiary. but for no CORY
deed Ike that which stains the hand OF
the slayer.