Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-11-02
.HUCK' SCAVE RUINED.
SCENES WHERE MARK TwAlN's
HEROES PLAYED ARE
DEsPoILED
Are Destroying "McDousaI's Cave"
Where "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckle-
berry Finn" Spent Their Happiest
Days.

Hannibal, Mo-, Oct. 81. - Hello,
Huck Finn"
'HeHo yourself, Tom Sawyer"
you know them guns and things O.
Injun Joe's that we've hid down thar
in McDougals Cave?"
"'Course know 'enn. Think amt
got any Nsense?"
well, they amt goin' to be no use
to us no more"
Reckon you think you're pretty
smart. Why amt they goin' to be no
use?"
"'Cause there's a gang of men come
that's quarried the top often that cave
an so we can't have no more pirate
orgies in it,"
In this wise today might have COM
muned the shades of the two Missis-
sippi river boys whom Mark Twain
created thirty years ago for all other
boys to love and laugh over. For a
big cement company has in truth at
tackled "McDougal's Cave"
Commerce Raids Fancy.
Three thousand laborers, armed
with the most modern type Of stone
crushing machinery, are threatening
destruction to the historic cavern,
where Tom Sawyer and bonnie little
Becky Thatcher were lost together,
and suffered the pangs of hunger and
the terrors of darkness; where Tom
saw for one shuddering, shivering in
slant the awful hand of Injun Joe,
grasping lighted candle, and where
the murderous half-breed finally met
his death trying to fight his way to
the outer air.
Hannibal is the boyhood home OF
Mark Twain and the est. Petersburg
Of the "The Adventures of Tom Saw
yer" Three miles below the town, on
the banks of the Mississippi, lies the
famous limestone cavern which of late
years has become shrine to which
hundreds of visitors have come every
year.
The local street railway company
made the first attack on the romantic
of the spot by making a formal park
around the entrance, and last week
Hannibal was shocked by the news
| that the cement company had broken
into one of the vaulted chambers where
little Becky was frightened by the inky
darkness and the tlocks of bats.
Feels Destroying Hand.
| Whether the desecrated chamber is
"The Drawing ROOM 1.-THE Cathedral
or "Aladdin's Palace" is not known
but its roof has been taken off by the
quarrymen and the work of destruction
is being continued rapidly.
| The cave stretches for an unknown
distance. through the hills, Tom and
Becky wandering five miles through it,
it will be remembered, before they saw
| the little patch Of blue sky that marked
| the hole through which they, made
their escape. ~.
But the size Of the stone-crushing
plant established by the cement com.
pany and the extent Of it's operations
make it appear that the humiliation OF
the cave is only question of time.
Three years ago Mr.. Clemens visited
Hannibal and inspected the cave and
other haunts Of his boyhood. He went
to the graveyard to find the resting
place of the original Huckleberry Finn,
and of the three boys from whom he
made the composite character of Tom
Sawyer. He found the whole locality
little changed, and was especially
pleased to discover that McDougals
cave still possessed the same charm
of mystery that it did when he was a
youngster.
Seeks "Injun Joe's" Cup.
Near the entrance he searched fo1
"Iniun Joes Cup" where the half
breed during his last imprisonment
gathered the drops of water that
dripped from a stalagmite in the roof
OF this water Mr.. Clemens says In
tom Sawyer"
"That drop was falling when the
pyramids were new; when Troy fell;
when the foundations of Rome were
laid; when Christ was crucified, when
the Conqueror created the British EN-
pire; when Columbus sailed; when the
massacre of Lexington was news 1,
| is falling now; 1t will still be falling
4 when all these things shall have sank
down the afternoon of history and the
twilight of tradition, and been sWai
lowed up in the thick night OF oblly
4 ion"
In making this prophecy Mr. Glenn
ems evidently forgot the American bust
ness man. The cavern which cared
nothing for William the Conqueror, OF
Christopher Columbus, bids fair te
meet a humiliating fate and an unro
mantle end from a ten-horse power
limestone cement crusher.