The herald and news. (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, September 04, 1906, Page SIX, Image 6
i. JI= WORLD'S STRANGEST 01T
A Thousand Years of Toil Hai
Honeycombed Out of Seoid Salt
an Entire City.
William G. Fitzgerald, in the Scient
fie American.
If there is any more surprising mot
ument of human labor than Wielicka\
underground city, when in the courk
of ages the earth, one would like t
know what it is an(] where it may b
found. An out-of-the-world place thi
in the quiet Carpathian Valley of ti
Vistula, some miles off the Cracov
Lemberg railroad in Austrian Polan
For ever since railroads came ini
the world these peasants refused I
permit them near, fearing lest tl
vibration should cause the upper ear(
to fall in upon those strange, crysts
sparkling streets a thousand fei
in the earth, with their little hort
railroads, drawn by congenitally blin
animals, who may be said never i
have been ''in the world'' at all, I
we know it. The origin of the rock'so
mines of Bonchina and Wielicka
lost in the mists of antiquity. The
are certainly known as early as ti
reign of Bela IV of Hungary, in 125
During the Tartar invasions they wei
somewhat neglected, but they wei
restored to fresh activity by immnigrai
Hungarians from across the border i
the time of St. Klinga.
One thousand years of patient hi
man toil have honey.-conibed out of ti
solid salt crust of the earth an entii
city at various levels. It consists <
an intricate coigeries of windir
sbreets and dim. svintillating alleys;<
pillared church: diaim-nd and ruL
staircases. re.iauiants. railroad sti
tions, shrines. siauies monuments av
a thousand other wonders-all roup
when in the hard. sparkling rock sa
crystals. which. li by electric light
pine torches. magnesium flashes <
thousands of candles. fairly blaze
world of precious stones.
The Salt City is not only difficl
of access. but the Austroi-Hungai
Govern men t (it is State propert,
most jeal.i.ly guards it ; and -
W'ilrkmen ar sear1ced several tiies
day . let thv sx-shmil lie ivinpled 1
c na a.l i I I-z (d r, ck salt ni
their l 'iis. Ii is not 41111' w
11)er1t salt shouhi11l lie cisideredi
precimis, hi the hice ren-inlls 0that0
woIrkers are searehed as jealou)1sly
the K1ffiirs ill the liamon141id Illines
K(imbherloy.
The eit rance is a hm , low, rdi
nry--lookin- huibling, cmntaining I
administ .at iII ollicers of t lie minl
and also a small museum of paleoul
logicAl euriosiliCs, fuind dCeP dowI
remote recesses. Elevators -desce
the abysses leading to this wondro
cit,y, though many visitors prefer
ge down by the long, massive stairea
hewn in the solid salt, which flasi
emerald and ruby rays at every stel
One naturally asks why an enti
''city'' was hewn in the salt, more <
pecially the pillared cathedrals,
alt.ars, statues, iand the like. And o1
learns, naturally enough, that
this patient work chiseled out duri
centuries, is ini the naturec of' voti
offering from grateful muen, whom Il
salt has yielded what will seem to
a mere ab,ject pittance, ranging fro
five cents to t wenty-five cents a da:
TJihe salthiewn eathedoral of St. A
thoniy dates from the seventteeth ce
tur y, and wais projected by a pin
for email. (Galicia n miners ar.e deep
ieligious people. They have their ov
minister of religion ini the dlepths, ai
touching prayer. serv'ices with weil
music are held in their rock sa
ohurches. Also they have their ou
band for festive Iccailonis.
The high altar inth at''(tl
dral '' is cunningly aond w
tw~isted pillarns, and i stlnc
Ssalt,hewii stat ues ofi St. St anisla
S and St. Clemenmt. (Oni the1 altarm stel
are carveda in rubly-redl rock salt (
figuies of' two kneeling monlks, and
the background of thle altar is a hIl
salt erucifix, before which stiands i
Virgin placing the infant Jlesus
St. Anthony 's arms. This, tile me
extr'aordinlary church in all the worl
contains a salt-hlewn pulpit, suppo
e, d by salt statues of St. Peter and I
Paul, and in a niche below stands
glistening statue of the good Kit
.Augustus II.
~. Emnulat ion must have been thle
cret of all this gigantic work. It seei
that no soonecr was the first shrni
chiseled in salt, the first statue eat
od, than sueeding generations
miners, fired with zeal, resolved
see what they also could do in ti
Sstrage sculpture, Some three hl
a red feet away from the cathedral
a most wonderful rock-hewn salt ca
eorn in this wierdest of cities. Thlis
ithe vast ''Salle de D)anse,'' the wo
erful Lentowv ball r'ooml, lit with e
rmnous lusters or chlandeliers of wvir
hung rock crystals of opalescent huci
, heoe last were added in 11onor1 of
ylsit froin the Russian Czar, Alexa
ter I, w)Io (like many other royal ar
4iapeal~ dtenaries) visited the Cil
Y of Salt with the palatine of Hungary.
This great ball rcom is over three a
hundred feet in length and towers t
dimly to a height of 190 feet. Its d
walls of salt rock glisten and flash v
with exquisitely-hued crys;als, and r
there are symbolical statues here and I
there, representing "Knowledge," i
'"Labor," "Vulcan" and "Neptune"
as well as a special throne of state at
s one end, of course, hewn in the rock 8
e salt and kept for the use of the aged i
0 Emporor Franz Joseph or the imper
e ial archdukes.
3
e There is a triumphal archway in
salt over the entrance to the great
ball room, surmounted by a miner
0 saluting, and at his feet is carved in
salt crystals the Polish greeting
i "Szcze se Boze il''-the equivalent of I
h the German "Gluckauf." When ever
1 an old working is exhausted and clos
ed, or a new "street" opened in the I
;e subterranean city, the event is cele- .
brated by a great ball in the Lentow j
saloon. Then it is that hundreds of I
Galician peasant women, wives and I
It friends of the workers below, quaintly
is clad as a comic opera chorus, take i
their partners in the vast, rough-hewn
salt cavern while shrill pipes, quaint
sounding flutes and sweet violins i
make merry music as the couples (
e whirl in wild Slavonic dance. Another
t vast eham1bor, abowt 350 feet from the A
surface, is the Michaelowice Hall on I
the second tier of the city. Rock
salt ,yas dug out of this for forty-four i
years. It is about, hundred feet long, i
e 65 feet wide and 117 feet high. The
fsides and roof are secured by hun
derds of tree t rnks, placed one above I
the other as pillars and strutted to- i
rether. This reminds one of the ter- 1
rible accidents that have happened s
in the city of salt. More than once I
fires have broken out in the work- I
t ings and have' burned for years, un
tI the wooden props have given out. .
Or again, the strange, sullen--looking
a saline lakes, navigated by boats in I
these dark depths may rise suddenly,
it probably fed by suhterrancail springs,
m and drown scores l.t these patienl I
har1d-wor-king men. <
Worst ot all. -reat, masses of the I
a rock sall, 1ften weig und reds of
tons, ma1y 'Ifall inl aralanteli's I'oiim ti lI
dl "ed 1.((11's 401 1hie. str ets or the ceil
Um. o w 'ebaIm's. (hie Iotices
hat the imieise saloons. restaurants,
(huirclies and other publie buildings
hWl inl SAilt, are lighted by great
chandeliers of' salt crystals. There is
le i e the MIichllowice 01hamber, 1t)
fevt niimeter. 20 feet high and
I,c,,jon(aitining about 2410 eandles.
The Kaiser Franz chamber, iamed
after file present ruler of the dual
in moarhely, contiuins two immense pyr:
,d amuids wit.h ornamental bases, corn
us menmorpting a visit of the Emperor
to and limnpress many years ago. This
se hall is nearly 200 feet long and about
105 feet high. Leaving this chamber,
one crosses a wooden bridge over a
Ve subterranean river filled with blind
s- fish, and in tie dim light of torehes
hie one beholds another pumblic monument
a-an obelisk 30 feet high, carved in
di rock sakt, and recording a visit of the
late Crown Prince Rudolph and Prin
ve css Stephenie in 1887.
e One umay mention in~ passing the
as Drozdowice and Archduke Frederick
m chambers, on thme wvay to the Central
v! lliailroad station, which is named after
a- Court Goluchowskl. Here meet all the
1little trolly lines of the underground
city, and it was made a kind of een
t ral " Broad way'' thlree centuries ago.
liere coniverge many of the prinei
dc pal street or galleries of the East
.d Field. Thle lines are narrow gague,
11. and thme little cars ar.e drawn by Polish
*ponies, most of whom have never been
on earth at. all, and are born blind.
Th'llm platform of this "G'rand Con-,
lt1ral depot'' has seating accomoda
t ins tor 400 porsonls, andl on holidays
in enfes~ andl rest aurants are crIow~dled
ws~ithi visitors5 fronm the upper wvorld,
who eat and drink and enjoy the wild
hmusic of the miners' orchestra, which
echoes and reverberates strangely
mthough the dim yet sparkling streets.
in Nor mnst we forget to mention the
st salt lakes of the city, in many places
a20 or 30 feet deep, and navigated by
t~ ferry boats containing twventy-five
t. persons. These lakes give access to
a rcmote and very ancients parts of
the city, such, for example, as the
*Stephanie diaevah saints rise strange
i.. ly out of the dense salt water, grit
ns and enshrined, as it were, by most
tie beautiful salt stalactites and stalag
..mites. But wvhile admiring these won
of ders, this patient work of ages, let~ us
to not lose sight of the hard life which
li the poor mining inhabitants of the
.Salt City are compelled to live. There
is are some two thousand men at work
v- day and night down here, in eight
ohour shifts, and as a rule the men get
n- little mor.e than twventy cents a clay.
Like the monks of the great St. Bler
nard. their allotted span of life is
sshort. The men have a peculiar livid
alook. They are hollow-cheeked and
bloodless-a conmd ition1 probtably due
dto thme action of the salt on the system
after years of insidious contaot.
Besides floods, falls of salt imlasses
nd fires-all of which catastrophes
ike on additional horrot down in the
epths-another serious danger is the
iolent explosions of carbureted hyd
ogen, which may accumulate in new
y-excavated gallerie.4. All holidays,
olitical and religious, are celebrated
it the City of Salt with a careless
lan that blots out all thought of
orrow. There ai-e imposing services
n the unique cathedral, dances, pie
ies, boating parties, and even mar
iages. down in this strange under
vorld, hollowed out of the rook salt.
Children are born here, too, and
bristened. When these grow up, of
,ourse, they take naturally to the
vork of their fathers, and help to
iew out the hundreds of thousands of
ons of rock salt which is a govern
men.ta) imonopoly. The ;men seem
)erfectly happy, and to see them on a
,estive day, when the streets are half
Lm inch deep in ruby and diamond
lashing salt pebbles and dust; when
he Emperor may be on his throne
n the great Lentow saloon, and 250
3ave musicians directing a perfect
irgie of delight-then indeed one
vould say the citizens of the salt do
nain need no sympahty from outsid
'r.s.
k Parrot Story from Nation's Capital
qew York World.
vhen the President aid his family
veit to Oyster Bay, at pet parrot of
vhich Mr. Roosevelt is fond was turn
A over to a dealer to be cared for.
lie parrot was int rodleed into the
oosevelt household sone years ago,
.1 becamv n4icli atlached to t.he
rI-esident 's eldest dlaughte. iis voice
houting, ''Alice! Alice! Alice!'' was
requeintly heard ringing through the
all ways.
Witli the Imarriage of Miss Roose
e0t. to Representative Longworth the
larrot seemed to lose interest in life.
Is jubilant voice chaniged to a dull
roak, and tile familiar cry of
'Alice!'' changed to a colorless echo.
I. no lionger flapped its wings, nor
lid its shirill eries ring IH0rough the
Then ealne tie departure or Mrs.
nwwth Ifor I'Iur-poe. The parrot's
WoudI 10111inma1-,e v ell. For daYs it sat
ip n1 its pecl as 11h4oigI inl a siupor.
'ow it is slirolnld'led by birds of ev
11ry1 desvription amid elime: bit it does
m1(i ntice them. it sits with its head
ilucked u1ndevr its wiligs, anld no
itnomnt of per-suiasion can induce it
to talk.
New York World.
The following is a copy of a letter
,ent to Secretary Talft by President
Roosevelt regarding the slaughter of
Boros at Mount Dajo, written ae
Nording to the new spelling:
The Whit Hous,
Washington, August 14,1906.
My. Der Mr. Secretary-I hav re
sevd yer letter of March, 13, with
ikompanying kab of Gen. Wood an
sering yer inquiry as to the a.lejdl wan
Ion slawtler of Moros.
Thlis anser is, of kors, entirely sat
isfactory. The ofisers and enlistd men
mAer Gen. Woo3(d 's konmand hav' per
rormied a miost galant and soldierly
Feet in a wa konfers aded kredt on the
Amerikan Army.
Tha r entild to the hartiest adnmira
thun andl pras of thos of ther felo
itizens who r glad to e the honor of
lie flag upheld by the kouraj af theo
nen waring the Amerikan uniform.
Th'leodor Ruzvelt.
Natural Question.
'xchange.
A little Philadelphia boy was taken
>y his father for his first visit to tihe
soo. Stopping before an inclosure, lie
isked, ''Papa, what animal is that 7''
tendling the sign tacked upl to one side
iis fat her resopnded. ''That, my son,
s ai prong horned antelope. ' '''Kin he
dow his hiorn 7'' was tile quest ion that
)Iomplt ly followed.
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Cheap. Apply at this office.
FOR SALE-Two hundred cords of
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A pply to M. R. Caldwell, Newberry,
S. C.
WANTED-A superintendent for our
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EULE LOST-Black horse mule lost
Oin Saturday night about 1 o'clock
between Gary's Lane and Bush riv
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