The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-25
CLIFF DWELLER
OF MODERN TIMES
An Arkansas Man Makes Real
Home in Ozark Cave
A QUEER HABITATION
Is Nicely Fitted Up With Piano, Library
and Household Furniture and
the Owners Family Lives
In Comfort
From the st. Louis Post-Dispatch.


From the st. Louis Post Dispatch
Cliff dwellings are by no means a new
discovery in the southwest They are
older than the Union depot at Kansas
city. People were aware of their exist
ence long before the inhabitants of st.
Louis awakened to the fact of the bridge
arbitrary. But a cliff dwelling, with
family of real live cliff jewellers therein,
Is quite different matter.
Going directly south two miles from
Prairie Grove. Ark, you enter a narrow
valley and, travelling westward a few
miles, yot. come to the picturesque cliff
of conglomerate and sandstone, with
wall of boards at the base, which forms
the only inhabited cliff dwelling in Amer
lea.
You enter and find yourself in a room
Y by 40 feet, with a ceiling of wave
marked with white sandstone rising as it
recedes, from 10 feet at the entrance TO
10 feet at the rear wall Here Elder H
5. Mobley, president of the Boys Corr
Club of Arkansas, and valued attache of
the department of agriculture, has lived
the past three years with his cultured
family, and his books and music, In con-
tentment happiness and health.
Three years ago Elder Mobley was
cripple from rheumatism. He then
owned the land on which his cliff dwell
ing now is, and knew that under the pro-
jecting rock where he lives it was al
ways dry. There was a seep of chalyb
cate water east of the cliff and a bub-
bling spring of clear water west and so
he boarded up the south of the cliff and
there was roof and floor and two sides
of bor har of on fro
insects. always dry, and of nearly uni
form temperature. Into it, for health
and novelty. he moved.
Health Is Restored
His health is restored and he is a
vigorous traveller and worker for agri-
CULTURAL interests Three years have
dulled the edge of novelty, but the COM
fort of this unique home holds him and
his family to 1t yet.
The single stove seen furnishes suf-
ficient heat on the coolest day of win
ter, and, in fact, it is not often that
the smoke curls from the cliff side
where the pipe projects through the
stone. Atavism nowhere shows in the
house. Piano, library and all the access
sories of modern life are there. and the
news of the busy, throbbng world finds
daily pulsing response in this home
Elder Mobley has made a stable in
the bluff side a few hundred yards west
of his dwelling, where he keeps his
horses, and near by are his thorough
bred hogs and poultry. for he is an up
to-date farmer. The soil about this ledge
of rocks is subirrigated and from the
disappearance of frost In the early spring
till the first frost of autumn fresh vege-
tables come from the garden every day.
The smooth, dry sandstone stratum
forming tho floor of the dwelling extends
out beyond the roof several feet, hard
and white. and then the ground slopes
sharply. but evenly. for one hundred feet
to the fertile valley.
Too Dry for Insects
The dryness of these cliffs is Won
derful, and accounts for the fact that
toads, lizards, snakes and insects do not
infest them. Back of the table are ma
tural shelves sufficient for all the food
and for Mrs. Mobleys culinary utensils,
There is water at the door.
Storms, not even the cyclone that
sometimes dsports over that region, new
err disturb the jewellers of this Twentieth
Century cliffhouse. Nature Is lavish in
sculpture and painting in and around
it, and. hence, Elder Mobley does not
object to his neighbours fence on his
roof for il does not disturb him nor de-
tract him from the unique beauty of his
picturesque home.
Contrary to what might be expected,
the cave home Is nicely lighted by the
windows In the front, because the cell
ing and walls are white. And not only
are ordinary insects not found in this
home. but that universay pest, the house
fly, does not annoy.
such a case, the exact amount required
from him for the upkeep of the state.
But not a penny will be got out of him,
except by compulsion, for the mainten-
ance of the city Of Paris. so long as the
representatives OF the latter illegally al
low salaries to themselves NJ. L'Her-
Mite therefore, pays his taos on the
nail, minus the sum apportioned for the
city of Paris.
The tax collector naturally does not see
eye to eye with him, hence litigation;
but NJ. LHermitte is dab himself at lit
lgation. Actions are parted with counter
actions as quick as lightning, and in
every devious method of the law the tax
payer process match for the tax collect
or. The latter obtained powers to levy
a distraint upon the formers furniture.
NJ L'Hermitte instantly lodged COM
plant against the project of the Seine for
peculation and embezzlement because he
draws salary The examining magis-
trate declined to settle the complaint, a
grand officer of the Legion OF Honour not
being within his jurisdiction. The tax
collector then scored by taking every step
to put the bailffs into M. L'Hermitte's
fiat, and the active resister was to be
sold up today.
But he was by no means at the end of
his tetner. He instantly brought pro-
ceedings against the tax collector on the
ground that, firstly the use to be made of
part of the money claimed from plaintiff
being consequently illegal. II follows that
the levyng of distraint upon plaintiff
is not only illegal, but malicious. and
of a nature to cause him serious injury,