The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surface

From hungry and thirsty they began to grow sleepy, but the facilities for sleeping were not good. The furniture of these prisons was never elaborate, even in the days of the glo...

A party of us, one afternoon, while loitering around Newburyport, fell in with an ancient inhabitant who was a firm believer in the existence of the wealth of Captain Kidd. He k...

“Jack and the Arab finally pulled me back by the heels, and the Arab went for a rope. When he brought it we arranged for a new departure. They wanted to put the rope around my n...

“It’s enough to make any man faint to see what I have seen. I went into the cabin of that ship; it was full of water, of course; but that wasn’t all. It was full of the bodies o...

“Why, you see,” said the pilot, resting a moment, to shift his quid of tobacco, “you see, Mike drank so much whiskey that he destroyed the coating of his stomach, and the doctor...

“From the ravine we managed to get into a small forest, without, as we thought, being seen by any one. In the forest we could walk erect, but we had great fears of meeting some...

It is not at all times proper to dismiss a complaint when caused by malice. One day a man came before us, who swore that another man had swindled a large establishment out of co...

It is a curious fact that most of the rich placer diggings in California were discovered within three or four years of the discovery at Sutter’s mill-race. Some rich deposits ha...

In 1862 an inundation occurred at the mine of Lalle, in France, by which one hundred and five persons lost their lives. The story is thus related by M. Simonin:—

He went on with the details of his scheme, which was plausible enough, only it was a trifle too large. Had he been an adventurer, I should have suspected him at once; but here w...

It was not a coal mine into which I descended, but a copper mine. We stepped into a basket suspended by a hempen rope, and our conductor gave the signal to start. The engineer s...

At the cave of the Cumean Sibyl, where the Emperor Nero and other famous men of the olden time were accustomed to go to hear the prophecies on which their fate depended, we foun...

Let us enter one of these houses, and see how they are built, and at the same time admire the freschi, paintings, and statuary which adorn the graceful abode of the ancients.

It is a ring rising seven or eight feet above the sea level, enclosing a lagoon, and presenting the characteristics just described. The lagoon inside is but a few fathoms deep;...

We thought that in entering this western part of the tunnel, we should get out of the rain; but we found streams of water occasionally coming through the brick-work, and especia...

One day, when the ship was at anchor in the Bay of Panama, Charley started to swim out, as usual. The bay was full of sharks, and just as he had reached the side of the ship, an...

There was a picture of a crushing mill in full operation, and there was all the machinery portrayed on that parchment for running a first-class mine. A dozen of us were invited...

Petroleum wells can be “salted” or “baited,” just as gold or other mines can be salted, and in the early days of the oil fever, the baiting of petroleum wells was by no means an...

The petty impostors, who solicit loans from five dollars to fifty cents, have usually met with so many rebuffs that they make their approaches with a diffidence that usually und...

The detectives went to work, and it was said that one or more of the bank’s officials were suspected, and closely watched for some time subsequent to the robbery. Two men, who w...

“Here am I, a Victim of Gambling! Take Warning by me, and never Enter this Hell! The Man who Plays Damns his Soul Forever! Don’t Deceive Yourself! Bet Once, and You are Lost! Th...

The landlord started off to bring my allowance of opium, lamp, pipe, etc., and the colonel improved the opportunity to illustrate his theory that the opium smoker is not absolut...

None of them had any thought of silver, and they knew so little about silver ore that when they found it, they were ignorant of its character, and cursed it as a nuisance. They...

Sometimes the Bastille was under governors who had a good deal of the milk of human kindness in their composition, and sometimes it was under the control of men who had as littl...

The majority of the rag-pickers sleep where they can, and take their meals in the dismal cook-shops, eating whatever is given them, and asking no questions. Worthless dogs that...

They opened mines wherever there were indications of silver, and so fast did they progress that it was estimated, at the beginning of this century, that operations were going on...

Blood also attracts them, and where there is blood, they make no distinction between natives and foreigners. In the present instance, the lover had drawn blood from his antagoni...

“That chap sitting down with the short pipe in his mouth,” said the legal bloodhound, “is not more than thirty years old, though he looks nearly fifty. He was born and reared in...

Most of the dead were buried on a knoll overlooking the Wyoming Valley. The funeral was attended by many hundreds of people, and was probably one of the most impressive funerals...

Underneath the immense building there is a reproduction of one of the mines at Perm, one of the cities of the Oural mountains. The utmost care has been taken to make the reprodu...

The special expedition in which we military journalists were concerned was deemed an unusually dangerous one, for the reason that the river had then fallen, and there was consid...

On Jackson Street we stopped a few moments in front of the Chinese Theatre, listening to the unearthly din of gongs, which from time to time announced the change of scene, in a...

I may as well explain here, that on our way back we invented a new plan for paying him, and at the same time avoiding trouble. When we neared the hotel on our return, I counted...

There is a similar mountain, though much smaller, some distance away to the west. It is more curious in some respects, there being a stream of water which passes it, and has wor...

Several Americans ran all sorts of saws on the Englishman, and prophesied some terrible calamity at every step, saying they never would have thought of coming into the gloomy re...

From 1847 to 1870, the number of coolies or forced laborers taken from China to Cuba was one hundred and thirty thousand, to Peru two hundred thousand, and to Australia, Java, a...

The Catacombs of Paris are not used, like the Catacombs of ancient Thebes, Rome, and Naples, as places of original sepulture; for they were once quarries from which the stone em...

The moment the gas comes in contact with the flame of a lamp, its tremendous explosive force is revealed, and it penetrates into every quarter of the mine. In an explosion of th...

Every visitor to Rome makes, or is expected to make, a journey through the catacombs. Very soon after my arrival in the Eternal City I started to make this tour. Our party went...

He estimated that the channel could be made an average depth of twenty-five feet below low-water mark; that the work could be completed in six years, at a cost of about six mill...

One of the principal sights in the mines is the Infernal Lake, a body of water seven or eight hundred feet long, some four hundred broad, and fifty deep. Above and around it is...

Game, such as quail, rabbits, wild turkey, and even deer, is abundant there, which, with the good fishing in the Green River, less than a mile distant from the public house, sho...

“Fortune favored his scheme more than he had anticipated. At a boarding-house where he was temporarily lodged, he found that a boarder named Johnson was in very bad health, and...

Dishonest men hope for wealth, they care not how obtained, and in its pursuit they frequently imitate the labors of the miner. Shafts are sunk and tunnels are driven; the pick,...

“They thought they recognized here and there, chiefly under the Palais de Justice, some cells of ancient dungeons built in the sewer itself. Hideous _in pace_. An iron collar hu...

The city of Mycenæ must have been wonderfully beautiful. Homer calls it “the city rich in gold and broad of streets,” at the time when the ruler of Mycenæ, Agamemnon, assisted t...

Hypochondriacs are to be met at the celebrated baths, of course; for wherever there are disordered bodies there are disordered minds. No human creature is so ill as he or she wh...

These necessities led to Sommelier’s invention of drills worked by compressed air, and of the machinery for compressing the air. The machines have already been described in conn...

The explorer was left alone, and concluded to investigate on his own account. There were the remains of the fires where the lead had been melted, and the number of them showed t...

Going down the mountain was much easier than going up. We did not go down at the same place where we made the ascent, but went a little to one side, where we could walk down thr...

The land to which most of the Russian convicts are banished, Siberia, is, curiously enough, less dangerous for a traveller than the European possessions of the czar. In a land j...

“One of these fellows laughed, and said, ‘I wish we had gone to see the Ready Return Mine. Jim Jackson says it is the funniest thing alive. There is a sailor there, superintende...

There are in all ninety-seven posts, put up to such a height that the wire spanned over them forms a softly inclining plane. The distance between them is from 150 to 250 feet. T...

At any rate, it is probable that the discovery of fire led to that of metals. Fires built against certain rocks may have calcined them, and caused the metals which they containe...

The road follows, with its double track, the direction of the streets; it curves, however, considerably, to such an extent, even, that in a distance of four English miles, mostl...

We descended a narrow stairway, so narrow, in fact, that we went singly, and so low that we were obliged to stoop to avoid hitting our heads. The place was hewn out of the rock...

There is very little difference in the character of the quartz mines and mills throughout California. Where the vein is perpendicular, or nearly so, the shaft is sunk directly t...

Many a nice young man about town is clothed free of expense by fashionable tailors who have an eye to business, and know it is to their advantage to keep the much viewed swells...

“He calls, he waves his hat or his handkerchief; the sand gains on him more and more; if the beach is deserted, if the land is too far off, if the sand-bank is of too ill repute...

Fifteen miles north of Spring Creek, following the Deadwood road from Custer, we reach Rapid Creek, just half way between Deadwood City and Custer, and in the very center of the...

How to carry him to the light of day was the next trial, but he was determined to do it; and taking him upon his back, he began groping his way through the pitchy darkness, in t...

The greatest consumers of mercury are the Chinese, not physically, or for mechanical or chemical purposes. The Chinese use a great many paints, and especially red ones. As a nat...

Inundations of mines are frequently fatal. Sometimes the water enters with great force. One day, in an English coal mine, the water fairly drove out the auger with which the wor...

The Chapel is striking and picturesque, albeit there is no more reason to call it Gothic than Doric or Ionic. It closely resembles a chapel, and I should fancy Nature might have...

The Hon. W. Campbell discovered gold in March 1850, at Clunes; concealed the fact at the time from the apprehension that its announcement might prove injurious to the squatter o...

In the early days at the diamond mines, there was a good deal of rioting and trouble. There was not much observance of law, mainly for the reason that there was no law. But at p...

Finally, a certain day was fixed for the opening, and a great many persons were invited to be present. They found a comfortable station and waiting-room under the sidewalk of Wa...

A case that was at the same time amusing and saddening, was that of a woman, the widow of a laborer, whose horse and cart had been stolen. She was the complainant and principal...

The collection is the richest possessed by any European monarch, and altogether beyond what so small a power would be thought able to collect or keep. The Saxon princes, it must...

Another diamond, quite famous in its way, is the “Sancy.” It fell from the helmet of Charles the Bold at the battle of Granson, and was picked up by a Swiss soldier. The soldier...

Homburg within the past ten years has also become very fashionable, and counts its summer visitors by the tens of thousands. It lacks the pictorial quality of Baden, but its atm...

The story of “Camille,” or “La Dame aux Camelias,” as it is termed in the original, is founded very largely on fact. The central figure of Dumas’ pathetic drama had genuine exis...

Produced by Chris Curnow, Christian Boissonnas and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available...

1. Phases of Underground Life, FRONTISPIECE. 2. Austin, Nevada; A Western Mining Town, 34 3. Impressions of Plants found in Coal, 40 4. Discovery of Anthracite Coal in Pennsylva...

IRON AND ITS VALUE.—ITS ABUNDANCE, AND WHERE IT IS FOUND.—A MOUNTAIN OF IRON.—IRON MOUNTAIN AND PILOT KNOB.—THE AUTHOR’S VISIT.—CHASED BY GUERRILLAS.—A NARROW ESCAPE.—THE ANTIQU...

I never did much work myself. I was as willing as Barkis; but I had little skill in that species of practical engineering, and was so much excelled by my companions in captivity...