The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-19
LOST IN DEAD MANS CAVE
CAPTAIN JOHNSON WANDERS FOR
 FOUR DAYS

re, Too Deep to Ford, Between Htm
 and the Entramce-Boat He Crossed
 In swept Awsy-safeiy Found at Last
 Four Miles Away.
 Red Bud, IL, April S.-After wander
 ing for four days and four nights un-
 derground half of the time in the dark
 through winding gorgeH, crawling on
 hands and knees through slimy pass
 ages between jagged rocks, halting at
 times on the brink of precipices, faint
 from hunger and the hardships he was
 forced to endure Captain Caleb John
 son, a Mississippi River pilot, has come
 out alive after an attempt to explore
 the mysteries of Dead Mans Cave at
 Ste. Genevieve, just across the river
 from this point.
 But with all of Captain Johnsons eX-
 periences the cave remains as much of a mystery as ever, for he was without
 light for most of his journey and had
 no idea how far or where he wandered, He only knows that he entered the cave
 in Simm's Hollow, on the bank of the river, on Monday morning, and that on Thursday afternoon a farmer found him
 in sinkhole on his farm, four miles
 from the cave entrance.
 Nothing was accomplished therefore, save to take away the superstition that no one could go far into the cave ana come out alive. That has always been the reputa ton of Smm's or Dead Mans Cave and it has been borne out by the disappearance of no less than four Ven- turesome explorers who have previously gone in to explore and failed to re- turn.
 Ste. Genevieve is the oldest town in Missouri It stands on the bank Of the Mississippi River or rather, back or big sand bar, some eighty miles below St. Louis It is an old French settle ment and century ago was one or the leading towns of the West. North and south of it, along the river side, are enormous limestone cliffs, cut and scanned by ravines and hollows, covered with forests or with fine wheat lands and settled by thriving French and German population.
 Tn the hills are countless caves. Some are so Sllldll dS lt Dt iilcIt ilOiipNH PA sir,s holes but others are of huge pro- portions Dead Mans Cave is one Of these
 simms Hollow is four miles north of the town by winding road. 1t is a deep ravine running back from the wa ters edge a quarter of mile into the hills, where it ends abruptly in the bed of steep run There is the caves en- trance. The hills on either side of the hollow are nearly five hundred feet high. So effectually do they exclude the sun that the ravine is always i gloomy, adding to the sinister aspect gf | the cave.
 At the end of the ravine is an abrupt | wall of rough stone about fifty feet | high, surrounded by a level plateau. This plateau, itself remarkable, is a | stone floor semi circular in shape, hav- ing it's fiat side forward, and for it's | back having another precipice shaped | like the inside of half cylinder The 1 walls of this precipice are about two feet high.
 Well up from the plate in the cen ter of the cliff is the cave entrance. It is dark hole in the stone, and is reached by a series of ladders from be- tow. The entrance is about eight feet high and as wide as Q double door.
 Why any one would wish to enter such a dark wet place as the cave proves to be is question which can be only answered ty a reference to the endless curiosity of the inha bitants of the world to knd W what is happening below them. Mines, wells and caves the most disagreeable places man can get into, prove always fascinating. So the hole in the cliff in Simm's Hollow has since it's discovery drawn the in habitants of the neighborhood to enter and explore.
 A party of two first went in several years ago. The two men entered the hole at early morning carrying candles. They soon came back for torches or lan- terns, ropes and chalk. They had gone In so far that they found it dangerous Q go further without blszing their way They went back into the cave next morning and never since have they been heard of.
 The rescue parties which searched Or them were stopped by an under ground river which none could sound and none could cross. Whether the wo men fell into it. whether they cross d it and died on the other side were I questions never answered. There the rail ended and there the search was given up.
 Not for two or three years was an- ,ther attempt made to investigate the ave Then another two men, more that the townspaople 1 ,trayed into Ste. Genevieve from ,hanty boat and learning the tradition, : let out to solve the mystery. They $ made several trips and at first had no ( rouble. $
 They discovered spring of water, { Ind wonderful room full of stalactites uch as every limestone cave possesse, l md they discovered rooms that have l ,een visited hundred times since by i very romantic couple in Ste. Gen. { vieve Then they went further, not by l he river but by another route, and s rowing familiar With the cave failed to ( ,laze their way Whither they wan l cred no man knows Neither appeared g gain in Ste Genevieve. { After these happenings the cave soon ' armed the name of Dead Mans Cave t nd into it no person would willingly go ' or long time. Then the more easily ( cached rooms became popular among f +o f1r mir iF