Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1911 — LOST IN THE CATACOMBS [ARTICLE]

LOST IN THE CATACOMBS

By GROVER J. GRIFFIN

When I was a boy reading stories of Rome in connection with my studies the" great desire of my life was to visit the Eternal City and the localities at which the incidents I read about occurred. I wished to go over the seven hills on which the city had been built; I wished to see the Forum, the home of the vestal virgins, the spot Where Castor and Pollux appeared, marked now by the ruins of their temple; I wished to see the Coliseum, the triumphal arches, the Pantheon. Above all, I desired to go down into the catacombs where the early Chris : tlans secretly deposited their dead. The time finally came when I reached the object of my desires. I visited Rome. On the steamer crossing the Atlantic and later steaming over the Mediterranean 1 met Marian Chambers, and, sitting on deck moonlight nights with her, I caught from her a fever—the fever of love. By the time we reached Gibraltar I was down, and during the whole voyage from there to Naples I was very ill with this irritating disease. I was cured on the homeopathic principal that like cures like. The love of the girl given in gradually increased doses put me in a normal condition. _ By the time we reached Rome I was ready to enjoy the sights I had counted on seeing ever since I began to study Latin. And now I had a loved companion to visit them with me. The catacombs that had interested me most I reserved till the last. Marian and I had a fancy for slipping away from those we traveled with and going sightseeing together. One morning we took a carriage, drove out on the Appian way and stopped at the entrance of those subterranean passages I had long wished to explore. We were in time to join a party about to descend, were each given a wax taster, and a monk in a white cowl, who was to pilot us. led us down, a stone staircase at the bottom of* which were the catacombs. We followed the taper light-proces-sion for awhile, but finally—at the time I would not tell how It happened, but now I am an old married man I will admit that I was never happy for half an hour at a time without a kiss from my Marian, and I led her away from the others for the purpose of taking one. As soon as this object had been accomplished we started on after the others. Immediately we came to a split in the passage, and the party had gone so far that we could not tell which of the two avenues they had taken. Making choice of the left hand passage, we ran as fast as we could, only to find new splits and turns and corners, but not the party. We were lost.

People have been lost before in these underground burial places and have narrated their experiences. In our case there is something different from any of them. I had a box of matches in my pocket that I carried for cigar lighters. We also had two tapers. As soon as I realized that we were lost I put out both the tapers, and. being in a small open space where was a Christian’s skeleton in a sarcophagus, we sat down on the latter to think. What would be the result of our thus being lost underground? We would not be missed by the party we had joined, for we knew not one of them. Parties were going through the catacombs every day, but would they happen to come our way? Besides, we might starve before we were discovered. There was nothing whatever for us to subsist on. We might try to find our way out, but there were many miles of these subterranean passages, and we were liable to wander farther from the entrance. The result of our deliberations was to remain where we were. I will pass over some twenty hours of our captivity without attempting to describe our feelings. The most hopeless part of it was that our friends did not know where we were. We passed most of the time in the dark, for I wished to save our tapers and matches for any opportunity that might occur. While sitting on the sarcophagus something ran on my foot I scratched a match, and its flame revealed the two glistening eyes of a rat • I at once lighted a taper, and while Marian held it I tried to catch the rat If he would serve no other purpose we might need to eat him. I didn’t have much trouble getting my hands on him. I think he knew we were lost there and was willing to help us out Then an idea occurred to me. Scribbling a note on a letter I had in my pocket, stating that we were lost in the* catacombs, I held the rat while Marian tied the note with a strip tom from her handkerchief around the little fellow’s neck. Then we put him down. He gave us the most knowing look in the world and ran away. Half an hour later I felt the rat running over my feet. I lit a taper and saw that he was without either the note or the strip by which it had been fastened to him. This gave us hope that it had been removed by a human being. Ten minutes later I heard a' halloo. I replied, and after a number of calls we could see the dim light of tapers, then a imrty coming to search for us. They bad received the message. but had not missed us when the party we had started with returned. We brought the rat out with us. He sleeps at night in a cage and by day coca where he like* — <•