278 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET 
Column. All the chambers and most of the objects in 
the caverns have been named, and generally from their 
resemblance to natural or artificial objects. From the 
vestibule we enter a long narrow passage called the 
Vegetable Garden, from its display of vegetable forms, 
very good imitations of potatoes, carrots, aud the like. 
We then enter the theatre, a great audience hall, and 
thence to the fish market. Here hang along the walls 
as if for«sale. but perfectly sweet in this constant tem¬ 
perature, varieties of fish, almost perfectly formed, even 
to the white bellies and the wiggle in the tail: one can 
ideutify, the shad, the bass, the perch, the mackerel, 
and the illusion is perfected by the trickling’ moisture 
which gives a slimy, fishy look to the objects. There 
is the Elfin Ramble, fantastically ornamented, six hun¬ 
dred feet long and three hundred in breadth, aud beyond 
that Pluto’s Chasm, a rift five hundred feet long, ten 
broad, and seventy deep, a dive into subterranean gloom. 
From this point wonders open on every side. In the 
distance is seen suspended in the air, projected on the 
darkness, a white Spectre. We pass on to a miniature 
lake where the formation of crystals is still going on. to 
the Bridal Chamber, with its delicately veiled stalactites 
and stalagmites, and its long trailing arms of alabaster, 
to the Giants' Hall, with columns of Egyptian massive¬ 
ness, and sculpturings of Grecian fineness. And we 
here pass near other objects, Diana's Bath. Titania's 
Veil and the Saracen's Tent, the latter a perfect repre¬ 
sentation of the folds of a conical tent, with the curtains 
drawn aside in front. Elsewhere is a throne with a 
hanging canopy. These objects require no aid of the 
imagination to make them out. Some of the most 
striking effects are of hanging shawls, scarfs and lam¬ 
brequins, in graceful folds, and some of them with bor¬ 
ders striped in colors. Illumined by placing candles be¬ 
hind them, the illusion is beautiful. 
One of the great sights is the Cathedral, a vast, lofty 
apartment, with gigantic columns and profuse roof 
ornamentation. At one end is the stone organ, with its 
row of regular pipes. When these are struck they pro¬ 
duce musical notes. Striking them in irregular succes¬ 
sion with a stick, the guide plays "Days of Absence” 
without missing a note, and a lively quickstep with only 
the loss of a note or two. There are elsewhere hollow 
resounding shafts, and thin upright masses of alabaster 
which sound like drums when struck. In one place is a 
vast fallen column, fifty feet long, and fourteen feet 
tluck. It once hung suspended with its great com¬ 
panions, and the place in the roof whence it broko off is 
still visible. It has lain prostrate so many ages that a 
stalagmite column has slowly grown up from the drip 
on one eud of it. Drooping near it is an angel’s wing, 
of alabaster whiteness, ten feet high and seven broad, 
tapering like a wing, and finished on the surface with 
feather-like sculpture. 
Everywhere one sees masses of gigantic, glittering 
columns, the tower of Babel, the leaning tower of Pisa, 
the Sultana, the double column, a frozen cascade, and a 
hundred wonders. There is a very good imitation of an 
elephaut’s head and trunk, the long neck and head of a 
camel, with the drooping lip. Through the hollow col- 
umu it is said an ascent can be made to a chamber sixty 
feet above. Near this the eye is arrested by the rctreat- 
ing form of an alabaster lady, in party toilet. Her head 
is hid by the jam of the doorway, but, says truly a 
visitor, the rounded shoulders, delicate arms, shapely 
waist, and long. Rowing skirt and train, profusely orua- ' 
rnented, are all there. It has been named “Cinderella 
leaving the ball.’' Beyond this, by the way of the 
Bridge of Sighs, one comes to Skeleton Gulch. At the 
bottom of this, in a narrow trench, are several human 
bonesjnore or less imbedded in the calcareous drip. I 
made out clearly 'an arm bone. From the amount of 
drip over these bones they have probably laiu here two 
hundred years. Nobody knows who left the skeleton 
here or his object in leaving it here, but the notion gains 
ground that these are the bones of a character much 
heard of since the war. a Fossil Politician. 
One of the minor curiosities in the floor of one cham¬ 
ber is a bird’s nest containing three small, white, bird’s 
eggs, pebbles rounded by the action of water. The 
guide, who is a man of truth, swore that nest and eggs 
were found exactly as we saw them. When he asked 
me if I did not believe it, I told him I believed anything 
he said so long as I was underground with him, and he 
was the only man present who knew the way out. 
I understood the guide to say that the lowest point we 
descended in the cave is 260 feet below the entrance. I 
have nothing more to say of it, except that I believe it is 
the most highly ornamented, fantastic, bewikleringly 
beautiful piece of work known to man that Nature has 
anywhere executed unaided. But then we know very 
little more about the earth beneath us thanabout heaven 
above.— Charles Dudley Warner in The Courant. 
GOLDEN-ROD. 
Asty Lester felt herself a most injured and abused 
girl that afternoon. If the summer had not been such 
a gay one, she might have better borne the prospect of 
being thrown entirely upon her own resources. Three 
months of constant frolicking and enjoyment, and then 
all her friends who were, like here elf, only summer 
residents at Mortlake, had gone back to the city. And, 
just as Amy was looking forward to meeting them 
again in New York, came the news that the repairs on 
their town house would take two months longer than 
had been anticipated, and it was decided that Amy and 
her mother should remain in Mortlake until the middle 
of November. I am Sony to say that Amy took the 
news by no means amiably. It was hard, perhaps, but 
surely that was no reason for growing cross and speak¬ 
ing angry, impatient words to her pretty, delicate 
little mother. Amy had grown ashamed of herself at 
last, but not sufficiently ashamed to apologize, as she 
ought to have none. She did not feel happy, though, 
any more than you or I do, when we know that we are 
in the wrong. Perhaps she did the very wisest thing 
she could in going out to take a walk. Unless you are 
