The leader., 1897-01-20

MONSTER PIT ~ CHICAGO.
0.s whole Bleek Is IT'S Feet Below ths
street Level.
Chicago, the city Of tall buildings and
dizzy flights of architecture, has also
something Of subterrnnean exhibit
Out on the southwest side there Is a
tract Of land, extending over an entire
block, that 10 something more than 17s
feet below the adjoining streets.
This means that were the Ashland
block set down In this huge hole the
highest point of the building would
come scarcely IS feet above the street
Down at the bottom of this pit works q
little army of men, who, when viewed
from the surface. resemble so many
overgrown ants. Above them on all
sides tower limestone cliffs, straight and
rugged, with here and there protrud-
ing ledge or rocky shelf. On one side
runs a steep track, up which the stone
the men are shoveling, picking and
blasting Is carried. But the only way
out for the men is by long, rickety
stairs, for the cable that pulls up the
amid shower of flying rocks, dashes
down the incline to be smashed to frag-
| ments at the bottom.
The quarry, one of the oldest and the
deepest in Chicago. runs along Eight
ecnth street, near Lincoln. just east
of it is another pit, equally expansive,
but not so deep. Thirty-nine years ago
the first bit of excavation was begun.
At that time untenanted prairie
stretched on all sides and the city linn
its were yeta long way off. Now the city
limits are even farther away, but they
are on the other side of the quarry and
around about il are busy thoroughfares,
with their electric cars, huge manu-
featuring plants and dwellings innu-
merable.
The place is surrounded by close
board fence, SO that nothing Of the pit
can be seen from the street, and COM
paratively few Chicagoans know OF the
existence of such place. But during
the year Of the worlds fair visitors
from all parts of the country and people
from many foreign countries visited the
place. A party Of the grandees OF Spain,
who came in the train of the duke of
Veragua, walked down the creaky wood
en- stairway and admired the rugged
grandeur of the dingy masses OF lime
stone above them. Men who had
crossed the Rocky mountains to visit
Chicago said when taken into the pit
that they had never seen the like be-
fore and marveled that such scene,
which is really mountainous in its as
pect when viewed from below, should
be found in busy, bustling city on the
prairie.
During the many years this quarry
has been in operation accidents of a
more or less serious nature have occa-
sionally occurred. Sometimes blast,
stronger than usual, has scattered frag-
ments of rocks among the workmen,
killing some and manning others. A
careless workman hacking away at a
ledge will sometime get caught and
buried beAeath shower of rocks that
he has hacked loose. Once, several
years ago, a cart of stone to which two
horses and two mules were hitched
fell from the surface to ledge of rock
100 feet below. The animals were
hauling the stone away from the edge
of the pit. 1t was up grade and they
stopped for moment to rest. No sooner
had they done so than the cart, with its
heavy load, started backward, pulling
the animals with it, All efforts to stop
it were vain. With increasing speed it
approached the edge and then plunged
over, a flying, struggling mass of stone,
cart and animals. The cart was smashed
in pieces, the two horses and one Of the
mules killed outright. But the remain
ing mule. after recovering the breath
which had been knocked out of it,
picked itself up and started browsing
around among some stray weeds that
were growing there. This animal was
apparently little injured by the tumble
and lived to do several more days work
il the quarry.
One of the most picturesque figures
about the pit is Dick Crosby, the old
quarry foreman. For more than p
years he has worked in this little under
ground patch of Chicago, and he il
come to be looked upon as fixture
Down below ground he is monarch OF
all ne surveys; but his loudest boast is
that though there are IA nationaiitie'
working in the quarry he is the only
Irishman in the lot, and right from
Limerick. at that.-Chicago News.