Decatur Eagle, Volume 2, Number 42, Decatur, Adams County, 26 November 1858 — Page 1

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VOL. 2.

THE I-lAGLE. FtTBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING, BY PHILLIPS & SPENCER, Offlcs, on Main Street, in the old School House, one Square North of J. & P Crabs’ Store. Terms of Subscription : For one year, $1 50, in advance; $1 75, within year, and S 2 00 after the year lias expiied. <E7"No paper will he discontinued umilall arrera?es are paid, except at the option of the Publishers. Terms of Advertising: One square, (ten lines) three insertions, §1 00 Each subsequent insertion, 25 O'No advertisement will he considered less than one square: over one square will be counted and charged as two; over two, as three, etc. JOB PRINTING: We are prepared to do all kinds of job work, o a neat and workmanlike manner, on the most reasonable terms. Our material for the completion of Job-Work, being new and of the latest styles, and we feel confidet t that satisfaction can be given. FEVER. It follows, burns, consumes me, Nor leaves a moment’s rest; Parches my lip, my palate dries. Scorches my very breast. My weary frame can bear no more. Death only brings repose; Thefuu’ral pall and silent stone, My bueylife must close. Ah, what is life, thus to be whirl’d Through laughter, giief, and joy? How vain those visions false, the world Brings now but to annoy! With beauteous beams the d ays come on. With beauteous beams depart; But wakeful nights attend on me, Sad days, a breaking heart. THE SAILOR’S FALL. An Adventure at Valparaiso. BY AN OLD ‘SALT.’ Few Americans have visited Valparaiso who lia u e not heard of u remarkbk fall, from one of the heights of that town made some years ago by one of our sailors I had been told of it, at different tiroes. by several of my fi.'- ds, and afterwards ttcci ienlallv learned the particulars from an eye-witness, who, it so happ ned, was shipmate shore companion of the unfortunate sailor, the hero of the story. liis accounts of the adventure was given in substance as follows: After our ship had lain some time nt anchor in the harber of Valparaiso, I got leave to go ashore one day with some of my shipmates, and we landed in the boat with the prospect of a pleasant time. We had agreed to ramble about the town, and take a walk into the country beyond it, as we felt much curiosity to explore so singular a place as it appeared tube. There is a line of storehouses near the water, but the main part of the buildings of the town lie in several ravines between the hills, which rise very steep from the shore while a few private residences of wealthy merchants and others are seen above.— The ground presents a very irregular and broken appearance from whatever side it is seen, and the view from the shipping is remakably fine, as the range of the Andes is distinctly in sight far behind, extending to the right and left as far as tbeeveenn reach, and rising, like an unbroken wall, up to the clouds. We passed up one of the ravines by a street which rises gradually towards the heights, one of which is called by sailors the Maintop and walked about for several hours, looking out upon the Pacific ocean, upon the extensive, country inland nearly destitute of habitations, cultivation and trees, sometimes admiring the immense chain of distant mountains and sometimes wondering why the people should have chosen so rough a piece of ground for their town, where they had been obliged to build their houses and run their streets in the most inconvenient places possible. Before we turned again towards the shore, my companions complained of being thirsty, and stopped a while at a little shop to drink chicha. — One of them, soon afterwards, began to show some effects of that spirituous liquor by a somewhat irregular gait. We went on, and nothing remarkable occurred beyond the common appearance of sailor jollity, until we reached a part of the road which we had observed in going up as very remarkable. It was one of those

places where the ground was most steep, i and there it was quite perpendicular, while nothing was to be seen like a wall or fence to prevent a passenger from falling. Just below were several of the poor houses, or rather hovels, of the poorer people, which are built of very light materials, and covered with a loose thatch.— I should be afraid to give a guess at the height of the path above them, lest it should seem incredible. I will only say that it was much greater than I should be willing to descend without greafcaution. We pushed along, talking and laughing until one inquired,’ ‘What has become of Jack?’ Then looking about, 1 discovered that our jolliest companion was missing. But I must stop a moment, to give a few particulars necessary to be known I before one can well understand what had I become of him. Among the houses standing at the foot I of the bill was one of the poorest, perhaps I in Valparaiso It was very small and low, covered with a coarse thatch, which was supported, I believe, by a few slender sticks, or timber branches of trees.— The inhabitants were the family of a poor laborer, who at that tune of the day always took their afternoon meal. They were then seated at table, with an enormous dish, placed before them, containing theii customary food, which is a kind of stew or broth, eaten every day by all the lower classes of people. At the moment when they were ready to begin, a strange sound was heard over their heads: the roof of their humble dwelling was violently shaken, and instantly burst through. Their first impression was one of supersticious fear, for the belief in evil spirits is universal among that people, and they would have risen from their seats and fled wilh horror, if they had Lad time to escape, especially as the roof seemed likely to come down upon their heads. But in a ■ moment a large body fell through the opening in the thatch, directly on the middle of the table, with a tremendous shock, into the great dish of broth, which was scattered about in all directions, and, being hot from the fire, stung their faces and hands wherever it touched.

But to return to our shore-party. On missing our companion, we had concluded that he must have fallen from the hill and immediately ran down as fast as we conld. There we arrived in time to witness a laughable scene. The poor family were in the street, witli the appearance of people almost dead with fright, their neighbors running up to inquire what was the matter, and, to crown all Jack, hobbling out of the but, half stunned wilh i the liot brotli, making strange gesticulations. and exclamations, and looking be- ■ wildered, first at the strange people around , him, some of whom seemed to threaten his life and then at his shipmates, who I were so overcome wilh laughter that they could not speak. The natives soon be- ! gan to demand the payment of damages, and crowded round us in a menacing manner; but when we drew up, and showed a readiness for resistance, they made no attack, and we proceeded unmolested to our boat, and back to the vessel. A Good Scriptural Name. The Richmond Times, of a recent date relates the following: A gentleman traveling in a section of country which shall be nameless, stopped at tlie house of a pious old woman, and I observing her fondness for a pet dog, venj tured to ask the name of the animal. The good woman answered by saying that she .called him ‘Moreover.’ •That’s the querest name for a dog that I ever beard,’ exclaimed the gentleman. ‘Yes,’said the pious old lady, ‘but 1 thought it must be a good one, as I found I it in the Bible. ; ‘Found it in the Bible!’ quoth the gentleman. ‘Pray in what part of the Bible did you find it?’ The old ladv took down her Bible with the utmost reverence, and turning to the text, read as follows: —‘ Moreover the dog : came and licked his sores.’ There,’ said she, triumphantly, ‘have ; I not the highest authority for the name?

“Our Country’s Good shall ever be our Aim —Willing to Praise and not afraid to Blame."

DECATUR, ADAMS COUNTY, INDIANA, NOV. 26, 185:

A FEARFUL ADVENTURE, The following thrilling narrative is giv-1 en in the Louisville Journal of September! 11. The hero of the exploit is said to be William C. Prentice, son of George D Prentice, editor of the Journal. At the supposed end of what has always been considered the longest avenue of the Mammoth Cave, nine miles from its entrance, there is a pit, dark, deep and terrible, known as the Maelstrom. Tens of thousands have gazed into it with awe, while bengal lights were thrown down it, 1 to make its fearful steps visible, but none | ever had the daring to explore it, The! celebrated guide Stephen who was deem-! ed insensible to fear, was offered six hun-1 dred dollars by the proprietor of the cave I if he would descend to the bottom of it, ! but he shrank from the peril. A few I years ago a Tennessee professor, a learn- ! ed and bold man, resolved to do what no one before him had dared to do, and ma-1 king his arrangements with great care ' and precaution, he had lowered down by a hundred feet, but at th it point his courage failed him, and he call-id aloud to be : drawn out again. No human power could ever have induced hitn to repeat the appalling experiment. A couple of weeks ago, however, a young gentleman of Louisville, whose nerves never trembled at mortal peril, be- ; ing at the Mammoth Cave with piofessor ’ Wright of our city, and others, no matter what the dangers and difficulties might be, to explore the depths of the Maelstrom Mr, Proctor the enterprising proprietor of the cave, sent to Nashville and procu- ! red a long rope of great strength, express-1 ly for the purpose. The ropes and some! necessary timbers were borne by the I guides and others to the point of proposed ’ exploration. The arrangements being Iso m completed, the rope, with a heavy ; fragment of rock affixed to it, was let [down and swung to and fro, to dislodge I any loose rocks that would be likely to fall at the touch. Several were thus dislodged, and the long continued reverbations, rising up like distant thunder from below proclaimed the depth of the horrid chasm. Then the young hero of the occasion, with several hats drawn over bis head to protect it as far as possible against the many masses falling from above, and with a light in his hand and the rope fastened around his body, took his place over the awful pit, and directed the hall dozen men who held the end of the rope | to let him down into the Cimmerian gloom.

We have heard from his own lips an account of his discent. Occasionally masses of earth rnd rock went whizzing by, i but none struck him. Tliirty or forty feet from tlie top, lie saw a ledge, from which he judged by appearances, two or three avenues led off in different directions.— About a hundred feet from tlie top, a cat- ■ aract from tlie side of tlie pit went rushI ing down the abyss, and as he descended ; by tlie side of the falling water and in the midst of the spray, he felt some apprehension that his light would be extinguished, : but his care prevented this. He was landed at the bottom of the pit, a hundred and ninety feel from the top. He found it almost perfectly circular, about eighteen feet in diameter, with a small opening at one point, leading to a tine cham- ; ber of great extent. He found on the floor beautiful specimens of black silex of immense size, vastly larger than were evI discoved in any part of tlie Mammoth cave, and also a multitude of exquisite formations, as pure and white. Making himself heard with a great effort, by his friends, lie at length asked them to pull I him partly up, intending to stop on tlie way, and explore a cave he had observed ■ opening about foity feet from tlie bottom !of the pit. Reaching the mouth of the : Cave, he swung himself with much exer- : lion into it, and holding the end of the rope in his hand, he incautiously let it go and it swung out apparatitly beyond his reach. The situation was a fearful one, and his friends above could do nothing for him. Soon, however, he made a hook of ! the end of his lamp, and by extending ■ himself as far over the verge as possible, ' without fal'ing, he succeeded in securing

the end of the rope. Fastening it to a roeK, tie followed the avenue one hundred and lifty or two hundred yards, to a point where he found it blockaded by an impassible barrier of rock and earth. Returning to the mouth of the avenue he beheld an almost exactly similar mouth on the other side o( the pit, but, not being able to swing himself iuto it, he re-fast-ened the rope around his body, suspended himself again oVc-f the abyss, and shouted to his friends to raise him to the top. — The pull was an exceedingly severe one, and the rope being illy adjusted round his b ‘y, gave him the most excrutiating pain. But soon his pain was forgotten in a new and dreadful peril. When he wa» ninety feet from the mouth of the pit, and oae hundred from the bottom, swaying and swinging in mid air, he heard rapid and exciting words of horror and alarm above, and soon learned that the rope by which he was upheld had taken fire from the friction of the timber over which it passed. Several moments of awful suspense to those above, and still more awful to him i below ensued. To them and him a fatal and instant catastraphe seamed inevitable. But the fire was extinguished with a bottle of water, belonging to himself, and then the party above, though almost exhausted by their labors, succeeded in drawing him to the top. He was as calm and sef-possed as upon his entrance into the pit, but all of his companions, overcome by fatigue sank down upon the I ground, and his friend Professo*- Wright, ! from the over exertion and excitement, j fainted and remained for a time insensible The young adventurer left Lis name I carved in the depths of the Maelstrom—- ■ the name of the first and only person that ever gazed upon its mysteries.

An Independent Candidate. Our readers, says tlie Memphis Eagle, will remember a circular published in our columns from Mr. James A. Jones, a candidate for Congress in Arkansas, in opposition to Mr. Rust. Jones was defeated by some six or seven thousand mijority and upon ascertaining the result, came out in his paper; tlie Ouachita Herald, as follows: DEFLATED, OR UP SALT RIVER. ‘We cave”— Muggins. ‘Not in vain should such examples be.’

Byron. j We —tliat is to say, James H. Jones, I editor of the Ouachita Herald and late | candidate for Congress—are ingloriously I defeated. To use a classical and entirely I original expression, ‘we have met the enemy and we are theirs.’ We evidently [ cast our perils before swine. We magnanimously, and at a considerable sacrii flee of our habitual self respect, offered to j serve a people who had no appreciation of the offering. We didn’t make the people and we are not under contract to supply them with brains. If they were willully blind to our merit, the fault is theirs. If I they are apposed to receiving individually ' a hundred and sixty acres of land apiece, I they have a right to reject it; they know whether or not they deserve it. If they don't want the rights of the South ‘pre served inviolate,’ why, they may have them pickled for all we care. We did our duty, and our conscience is easy. At the enormous expense of sixteen dollars and thirty-two cents we printed a multitude of circulars, sufficient to elect any man’ with which we flooded this cungres- ' sional district, and a large portion of the Cherokee Nation. We wiote toour friends i and to some who were not our friends to rally. We then concealed ourselves as well as we could at home, refusing positively to extend our acquaintance, or to see more of the public than the public did of us. With these precautions we deemed success certain. A great many persons wrote to us tliat we should get an overwhelming vote; they were not deceived, it was overwhelming. Many credulous persons told us that we should be elected; we listened to them and were deceived. But we forgive them, for they made us feel very comfortable—for awhile and all earthly happiness is transitory.— We shall never become a candidate again without consulting somebody on the subject first, and ascertain whether they do

er nosMus're us to run; for we are satis-' fled that it is folly to be a candidate tinlcAjft«|rs<xfy does want you to run, and vyilLsVote for you on the strength of that desire. We arenot without consolation. We are not the only candidate that was defeated. There are numbers tu as bad a fix as ourselves; and, besides, greater men than we claim to be have been as badly beaten. Gen Harrison, afterwards President of the United States; was once defeated for county clerk in Ohio, and James K. Polk was beaten (or Governor of Tennessee.— We are in good company, and therefore shall not complain. There is one thing for which the people should be grateful to us. We did not bore them with long and tiresome speeches, as some of the aspirants did — We remained ‘quietly at home,’ and they so highly appreciated our modesty that they have given us the privilege of continuing to do so. V\ e thankful for small favors. Among out numerous friends, ex-Gov-ernor Drew is entitled to our warmest acknowledgements. His intention doubtless was to assist us in beating Rust by procuring a large and- influential majority of the Democratic party to vote for him. Witli this object in view, he made a brilliant failure. But, notwithstanding he carried off a considerable portion of our vote, we honor him for hia laudable intentions Hereafter he has but to command us and we will obey—if it suits us to do so.

To the fifteen patriotic and chivalrous voters who cast their suffrage for us in Pike county, we beg leave to tender our unfeigned gratitude. We owe them a 1 debt that wili be difficult to repay. Asa slight evidence of our high appreciation and lasting regard, we propose that, il they will forward us a list of their names, we will send them the Herald for life—at the usual rate, 83 per annum, invariably in advance. In conclusion, we desire permission to remark that tlie small experiment we have just made is eminently satifactory. What ever aspirations we inay have had for glory are entirly subdued. Tlie pursuit of a seat in Congress ‘under difficulties’ is one in which we have no desire to engage. W’e are satisfied that we carry wilh us into retirement the best wishes of a generous though ungrateful people, and are content. Pursuit of Pleasure. —We smile at the ignorance of tlie savage who cuts down : tlie tree in order to reach its fruits, but ; the fact is, tliat, a blunder of this discripI tion is made by every person who is over earger and impatient in the pursuit ol ; pleasure. To such, the present moment is everything, and the future is nothing; lie borrows, therefore, from the future at a most usuriout and ruinous interest; and the consequence is, that he finds the tornof his best feelings impaired, his self respect diminished, his health of mind and body destroyed, and life reduced to its very dregs, at a time when, humanly speaking, the greater portion of its comforts should be still before him.

Singular Circumstance. — A very singular circumstance happened to a young lady a tew nights since. Tlie evening, or rather all the day previous, she liad been complaining of a severe pain in tlie head amt eyes, more particularly the latter. Judge of her astonishment and tliat of her friends to find, tlie morning following, that during the night she had become completely cross-eyed. Tlie transformation occasioned no additional pain, and lias since been a matter of much speculation. Her name is Lucilla Marks; she is about fifteen years of age, and resides on Barr street, near Linn— Cincinnati Gazette. A Chinese Delicacy—Baked Ices.— lu China they bake ices. An ice is enveloped in a crust of delicate pastry, and introduced into the oven. Tlie paste is quickly’ baked and Ibe ice is still un melted, having been protected from the heat by its envelope; and thus tlie epicure has the delight of biting through a burning crust, aud then immediately cooling the palate with the grateful contents.

Did You Ever. Did ever you go into the presence of one whose face hitherto, never failed Us brighten at your approach—of one wboso features you had never seen contracted by a Irown, or cold with indifference when turned towards you, only to meet an aspect of clouds and gloom? If sc-, how did it make you feel? Was you not struck, instantly, wilh a chill? Yes, you can remember how it was—there is little doubt of that; and you never want the experiment repeated. There is no blackness of the night, that can make such gloorn as the vail that an angry or a changed heart can hang before the face of one you love, and who has, until now, always seemed tu love you — Anything, anything, of earthly anguish can be belter borne than the loss of the love and friendship of onc< you love and thoroughly believe in. And when you have had cause to dread that your friend was changed—that bis eye, indeed, beamed fondly, and with the kind approval of old, but not on you, and when you have found that jour great and dreadful fear was groundless—that be was not liappy-almost as if you bad seen in Heaven, and heard the dwellers there naming your name as one that was written in tlio Book of life?

'Friendship and love! true love—unchanging and kind like that of Heaven—what would this weary world be wers these to forsake it and not reiurnl Tom Corwin’s Last. At a trial recently held at Fellow Springs, growing out of a difficulty between some of the students and the faculty of Antioch, the‘Old Wagon Boy,’ who represented the faculty, was exhibiting to the jury a foil or cane belonging to one of the students, which was probable used in the melee Tom was in his usual happy mood, and brought down the house frequently by his wity illustrations of tho noble science of fencing; now parrying imaginary thrusts, and anon throwing himself fiercely upon the attack. At last having exhausted his lull store of pleasantr es, with one fell thrust he made faint to strike one of the students, Mr. Fisher, who sat near by, and with a look of unfathomable, gloom and the voice of a Stentor, he thundered out, ,And what would you do, sir, being unarmed, if I should attempt to pierce you through?* Imagine the roar of laughter which greeted this last eloquent effort of the ‘old stumper,' when the half-frightened student, collecting again his wits, sprang to his feet, and successfully mimicing Corwin's most bombastic style, exclaimed, 'l'd welcome you, sir, wiih bloody h nds to a hospitable grave.’—Cleaveland Plain Dealer.

Dress You a Childmrn —This is one of the most dangerous seasons for childern. Colds nnd coughs are now easily fastened upon them, often resulting in consumption and premature death. Therefore, dress them warm. Let lhe.r necks and throats be well protected. Let your bovs* pantaloons reach to the instep. Don’t dress them in monkey bowsers reaching only to the knee or toddle of the leg, and leaving their limbs exposed to the chilling air. Do not sacrifice your childern’s health to the gratification of a circus rider’s taste: but dress them with the paramount view of comfort and safety. A great shaving matcl\, against time was recently performed in England, near Leeds. A ‘Professor Carrodus.’ attended by three latherers and five strappers, engaged to shave seventy men in sixty minutes; and succeeded in performing the task four minutes within the specified time. An editor in a neighboring city took a policeman to task for want of vigilance. •The ungrateful hound!’ exclaimed the policeman; ‘lf I had been vigilant, be would have been in jail for drunkenness instead of b.-ing allowed to write his complaint against me at home.’ A new stove has been invented for the comfort of travelers. It is to be put under their feet, with a mustard plaster on the head which draws the heat through ♦be «ho’,e system

NO. 42.