The Jasper news., 1908-07-02

which year by year has drawn thou
sands of visitors to It's rocky sides.
* AS If in keeping with It's treacherous
fame the guide who shows you the
place is full-fledged brigand, who,
when work is slow" ekes out a SUBJ
sistence by playing at guide. Ten d
one he has a little dog at his heels,
and thereby hangs q tale. While you
listen to the guide the puppy looks at
you with blinking eyes and grin of
confidence, the while his busy tail
seems to say, II know you'll never put
me in that poisonous hole, will your"
And you can't keep your eyes off his
silly little face, until you find yourself
wondering IL he's like your little dog
at home, your far-away Buster"
whose friendly face and welcome bark
YOU have missed more than you would
care to say. Certainly this idiotic little
pup bears no outward resemblance to
your far-away Buster; but inwardly-
how about that? There lies a story.
shall you tell it to the guide? No,
he's brigand and might demand a
ransom for permitting you to live:
for no doubt he'd rather kill you out.
right than have you live to tell an
other story. Hurrah! now you've got
it-happy thought! You'll try 1t on
the dog. Fixing him with your eye
you begin: 9.
1.-THE feas bothered my dog SO, ]
concluded I'd teach 'em lesson.
learned long ago, but never put in prac-
tice. sent and got a piece of liver
and put 1t near the dog. The fleas all
hoped onto 1t and stuck. Just as
was getting ready to throw it in the
fire turned my back a moment and
the dog ate the liver, fleas and all.
Now, he's fleas lined"
But about the Dog Grotto. Well, it's
filled with carbonic acid gas, and for
generations guides have made money
out of tourists by showing some poor
little canine into the cave and keep
ing him there until his legs began to
totter and his head to whirl, when
him in the nearby lake until he re-
vived; and revive he must, for was
there not another tourists carriage
coming down the hill? But sometimes
doggie didn't revive. Well, he was
only a dog, and there had been in
stances where men had persisted in the
foul-smelling cave. But that was ages
ago. There was a French king who
brought donkey to the grotto and
tried the effect of the gas on him. The
animal died. But why the king tried 1t
on donkey don't know, unless that
fellow-feeling makes, us-but, mol
won't. Then there was an early Span
ish vfceroy who wanted to decide
whether the gas was in prime condi-
ton or not, 80 he put two of his slaves
| In the cave and they were brought out
dead. Spoke we'll for the gas, at any
rate.
Nowadays the question as to the
virtue of the gas is more humanely
| settled. The guide takes burning
torch and plunges 1t into the cave.
Instantly it goes out. But If the act is
| repeated several times the gas, inn
| pregnated with smoke, assumes the
| appearance of silver sea, flowing in
ripping waves against the black wall
OF the cavern" A good story is told
of the guides of that region. AS mat
ter of fact they are wholly unreliable
with their high-sounding names OF
this broken wall or that defaced in
| scription.
1t is said that they keep little dog
| which they offer up as sacrifice on
the altar of the tourists curiosity.
/ IT, ,tIl
ask the visitor; and if he be of a hu-
name disposition he will quickly re-
ply, Certainly not! What d. you thin,
I amp"
And the guide will say-making a
shrewd guess-'I teenk you are Ameri-
can. Englees he say, 'Yaas, bah
Jove, t'row leetle beggar een!"
But once there came along an
American, whom the guide took to be
English, and when he asked, shall I
t'row leetle beggar een?" the Ameri-
can replied:
''If you do, I'll throw your id car
cass in after him!"
The thing to do while at Naples is
to go to the pink coral grotto, so to
the pink coral grotto we went. 1t lies
between the Bay of Pozzuoli and that
special little bay where Pliny kept his
navy. We went out in boat with
four rowers, the chief of whom gave
us large punches of taffy about our
country-"beeyuteeful America" fine
New York." etc.-he had travelled, oh,
yes! he had been to Jib.later (Gibral.
tar) and to America-"beeyuteeful
cOuntryi" etc until N came time I'm