Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-08-20
FOLKS THAT LIVE
UNDERGROUND.
BY S. Barring GOULD.

IL is matter pretty Celldihiy ue
termined that our ancestors lived III
caves at period before the discovery
of pottery and the domestication OF the
OK, the sheep and the hog.
Doubtless through periods long supse-
Quent, men and women in Europe nave
been cave-dwellers, where there were
suitable grottoes, dry and warm 10
receive them and save them from the
expense and trouble of building. IN
England there are still such rock-hewn
dwellings used in Staffordsbire and IN
Nottinghamshire, but not to any large
extent; in France, on the contrary, III
The sandstone and chalk and limestone
d;srricts a large portion of the pop
ulation live under the surface; ana the
sandstone and chalk and lime cover
very large area in Central France.
In the department of Maine de Loire,
ana in a portion of Vienne whole VII
lagos are underground.
There is often very valuable VINE
yard land that has TO be walled ROUND
and every portion economical. Wnat
is d..le is this: the owner digs quar-
nv in the surface; this forms sort Oh
nit accessible on one side, the sand
stone taken from this being employed
to wall round his property. Tnen, for
his own dwelling he cuts out cham
looking through windows and door
into the quarry hole. For chimney
he bores upwards, and then builds round
the opening a square block OF mason
nv. out of which the smoke escapes.
A whole village, or rather hamlet,
NAV therefore consist of, as far as one
can see, nothing but a series OF CHM
news standing on the ground among the
vines. If one desires to discover the
inhabitants of the village or hamlet
one must descend into the pits or
ouarries into which doors and windows
look.
In some villages the people live half
above ground, and half below AT ot.
Leger, near Loudun, is fine medieval
castle, with fosse round it cut out
of the rock; and this fosse is alive
with people who have grubped out
houses for themselves in the rock
through which the moat (Which is dry)
has been excavated.
A very singular settlement is that OF
Ezy in the valley of Eure. at the ex-
IRENE limit of the department OF tnat
name. About a kilometre from the vii
lage, along one side of the railway, are
numerous subterranean habltauons III
three stories, with platforms before
them which are horizontal. These were
the dwellings of the owners OF the
vines which at one time covered the
hill overhead. But these vineyards
failed and the dwellings, were aban-
doned. However, after their abandon
ment it was customary at times for the
villagers to resort to them for drinking
and dancing bouts. This tradition con-
tinues still in force. and on Easter
Tuesday these cave dwellings are VS.
lied, and there is merrymaking IN
them. Between the caves at one time
some little taverns had been erected,
but these also fell into ruin some forty
or fifty years ago.
Since then these caverns have become
n oil nODu1atjOn of
social and moral outcasts. There they
lived in the utmost misery. The popu-
lation consists of about 80 persons,
male and female and children.
The history of the adults will hardly
bear looking into. None of these people
have any fixed occupation, and it is dill
fcult to discover how they subsist. In
fact, the life of every one of them is
a problem. One might have supposed
that they maintained precarious ex-
istence by theiving or begging; but
they are far below the ordinary tramp,
for. with the exception of perhaps two
or three of them, these cave dwellers
nossess absolutely nothing, and know no
trade whatever. They sleep on dry
leaves kept together by four pieces OF
wood. and their sole covering consists
of scraps of packing cloth. Sometimes
they have not even the framework for
their beds, which they manufacture for
the most part out of old broken chairs
discarded from the churches. A visitor
says: I'm one of the caverns | entered
there was but one of these squalid and
rude beds to accommodate five persons,
of whom one was a girl of IL and two
boys of IA and Is. Their kitchen bat
terry consists exclusively of old metal
cases of preserved fruit or meats that
they have picked up from the ashpits.
The majority, but by no means ALL have
got hold, somehow, of some old stove,
or the scraps of stove that they have
put together as best they could. They
have we'll in common at the bottom
of the hill, whence they draw water in
such utensils as they have, and which
they let down into the water on wood
en- crook Every one has his crook as
his own property, and preserves it near
him in the cavern. The majority Of