Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-09-02
SIGHTS TAKE
LITTLE EFFORT,
LOTS OF COIN
Plenty of Guides and Rubber.
necks' Help You See
Them.
IMAGINATION BIG HELP
Bv FREDERIC J. HAskIN.

most spectacular Of the scenery, but now
adays the strain falls the pocket
book, the imagination and the eardrum.
All Of these pressures are applied by
the highly organized and opulent gentle
men who conduct you in automobiles over
the wilderness that gave so much of toll
and danger to our fOrebears.
These conductors of sightseeing parties
charge you good, steep price, and in
order to give you a moneys worth, they
literally throw in an unbrOken stream
of conversation.
You pet the Rocky mountains now in
the same way you see Chinatown or
Coney island. But the mountains call
for more imagination than the city.
In the Garden of the Gods, for exam
pie which looks to the uninstructed be-
holder like a sort of celestial stone quar-
~, strewn with huge red monOliths, you
are called upon to see camels, porcuptnes,
mushrooms, Indians and oriental archi-
lecture.
The Cave of the Winds has its own
special guides and its own special ad-
mittance charge, adding another dollar
to your trip ticket.
Here the sightseers are collected and
separated into small groups, each guide
taking about a dozen persons through.
Although the system is efficient, occa-
sionalIy two or three guides and their
parties get crowded into the same part
OF the cave at once, so that it is diff
cult to tell which part of the spiel you
are supposed to be listening to.
Is the particular formation you are
looking at battleship, or is it the ele-
plant the other guide is talking about
LITTLE
LURAY.
The Cave of the Winds is merely an
other Luray on a much smaller scale. It
contains the same sort of stalactite and
stalagmitic ornamentation in the same
beautiful rainbow color combinations. =
It lacks the small lakes, creeks and
springs of Luray. but there is an opon-
ing through which drippings from the
nearby cliff are supposed to how-sO
slowly that they barely dampen the
rocks.
1t is the slow flowing of this water
over the iron, sulphur and copper de-
posits in the rocks that causes the form
ing of the stalagmites, according to the
guide, who declared that it required 100
Years of this tedious process to form
one inch of stalagmite.
So the great days of the Cave Of the
Winds will be in the future.
As in the Virginia cave, desperate ef-
forts have been made to find appropriate
names for ali the conspicuous forma-
TONS
There is an inverted frying pan. a pigs
head, miniature battleship and a large
slice of breakfast bacon.
These are lighted up with electric
lights, carefully placed about the walls
in containers resembling ordinary dust
pans, If You are going in for the in
depreciation business
The floor of the cave is carpeted with
a rubber covering, designed to keep
the visitors from slipping. but every
once in a while some careless person dis
regards this protection and skIds rap
idly over the rocks.
Bridges have also been built at Ger
tain places to facilitate climbing, so
that old ladies and babies can make the
trip In safety and comfort.
"Our first visitors used to make the
trip by ladders and torches" said the
guide, in explaining the various preclu-
tons, but now you folk get 1t easy
with electricity and stairs
"This room we're in now Is called Re
ceptfon Hall, because the early visitors
used to leave their visiting cards here
LOVERS LANE
is RIGHT THERE.
This" he announced, leading the
way through a tall, wide portion OF the
rave, sis Lovers Lane. Notice how easy
it is to travel. On the right is the larg-
est stalagmite In the cave, thirty-six
inches long.
I'VE have to put it in a wire cage, not
because it's dangerous, but to keep It
from being broken off by tourists Pass
ing through this opening we come to
Diamond Hall. The diamonds are prin-
cipally on the ceiling.
This is the original home Of the
shredded wheat biscuit, which YOU will
see on the left. Also a group of chest
nut burrs
Next we come to Fndley hall, named
for a Colorado geoIogist. II you wifi
stoop down You can get view of our
baby elephant.
Near it is a Shriners' temple and the
Yelled Madonna on the ceiling as we
30 out you viii see the Irishman's clay
pipe.
Here is the bridal CHAMBERS there
a minister in the party2 This may
almost be said to be running marriages
into the ground.
Several marriages have actually been
performed here. Over there is Lots
wife, who turned to rubber and then
10 salt. And next Is Dante's Inferno,
although why II should be so close TO
the bridal chamber l never coould see
Here at the end Of our trip Is a
collection of hairpins-not stalagmitie
but real wire ones-for the benefit Of
old maids. Any old maid in the party
is asked to leave a hairpin.
''This generosity will bring her luck
in getting married. Ii any members OF
the party are already married and want
a divorce, leave a hairpin not on the
WALL but on the ceiling. Don't be en-
barrassed by the lack of precedent.
There aren't any on the ceiling yet.
but this is good time to start the
collection"
The trip being completed. several
members OF the party desired to take
photographs of the cave and its speci-
mems, and the guide obliglngly pro-
s-dueed a tripod for the benefit of tina
tourists
One couple who had a small baby
with them placed the youngster on
large. cold, stalagmitic rock, but he TO-
fused to enter the spirit Of the thing
and had to be hurried from the cave,
loudly protesting.
CAVE DISCOVERED
BY SMALL BOYS.
According to the last words of the
guide the Cave OF the Winds was dis
covered by two small boys in 1886. The
parents Of the boys are said to have
been greatly disappointed that the cave
did not contain a gold mine, which,
fguratively speaking, it does today.
1t is estimated that 1000 persons visit
it every day, which attendance at S11O
head constitutes a very satisfactory
revenue.
bN nF