The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 4, April, 1884Various
History
The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 4, April, 1884
Various
Massachusetts -- Periodicals; New England -- Periodicals
This rock-hewn passage is lighted with lanterns hung at the various
turns, so that the descent and ascent, notwithstanding the way is rough,
can be made with safety. Though the day was warm outside, we were in a
very short time chilled through and glad to make our escape. How these
men could have endured many long years of labor in this vast
refrigerator, and retain any degree of health, is a problem. Faith and
zeal doubtless kept the blood moving through their veins. It is said
that a knife, or dirk, and a pair of scissors of very ancient origin,
which we were shown, were found by Mr. Marble in a fissure of this solid
rock. That they were left there by pirates, years on years ago, no sane
man can for a moment believe. The probabilities are that some one
deceived Mr. Marble.
When this misguided adventurer commenced this work, he was possessed of
about fifteen hundred dollars, which he expended long before his death,
after which, he depended upon the charities of those who sympathized
with him in his undertaking.
In one of the buildings named above, there are several portraits of
pirates and their wives, drawn, it is said, by some one under the
influence of the spirits, in a marvelously short space of time. Several
wives of Captain Kidd are among them.
Captain Kidd must have been a remarkable man, to want more than one such
character for a companion, provided the likenesses are true to nature;
at any rate we are not at all surprised that he was a pirate, under the
circumstances.
To illustrate how Mr. Marble professed to have been directed, we give
the following correspondence with the spirits:--
Mr. Marble wrote: "I wish Veal or Harris would tell what move to make
next."
This query was covered by fifteen thicknesses of paper and then the
medium was called in, and, merely feeling of the exterior of the paper,
wrote what the spirit of Veal revealed through him. Captain Harris,
named in the communication, is supposed to have been the leader of the
piratical band.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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