FALLS CITY AND CAVE CITY.
EARLY in May, I left Cincinnati and went to Louisville, Kentucky, one
hundred and fifty miles down the river. I took passage on a splendid
steamer—one of the finest on the Ohio or Mississippi. The fare was only
two dollars, and each passenger was furnished with two excellent meals
by the way, and a state-room berth when night came. It will naturally be
thought that this was remarkably cheap; and so it was. But it was the
result of competition. “Opposition” boats were at that time running
between Cincinnati and Louisville, and the fare—usually four or five
dollars—had crawled down to two. Certainly “Competition is the life of
trade.”
This, however, does not quite equal, for extreme consistence, the rates
of fare on the Hudson river boats some years ago, when an “Opposition
line” from New York to Albany was established. The distance from New
York to Albany is about the same as that from Cincinnati to Louisville;
and the fare got lower and lower, at one period, till any weary traveler
could go from New York to Albany—or _vice versa_—for twelve cents—meals
_not_ included. Nor did the freaks of competition end then. One of the
lines, at last, concluding that the difference between twelve cents and
nothing was but a mere trifle, reduced the fare twelve cents, and
carried passengers a week or two for nothing. Not to be outdone, the
other line not only carried all for nothing, but promptly paid each
passenger a premium of six cents for riding from one place to the other.
It will be naturally supposed that they could not make much at such
rates, but it is said that the number of passengers was so great that
they did a better business then than they had done when the fare was
two-and-a-half dollars.
Louisville is the largest city in Kentucky—its population being now
about ninety thousand. It is a great tobacco market, and has some of the
most extensive warehouses, for the storage of that weed, in the United
States. The principal business street in the city is called Main street,
and it is one that would do no discredit to any city. It is wide,
perfectly straight, about four miles long, and is lined with fine large
buildings occupied by merchants. A well-conducted passenger railway is
laid on this street.
Louisville is also called the “Falls City,” because the Ohio river there
takes a considerable fall, so that steamboats, except at high water, are
compelled to pass through a canal with several locks. The Falls of the
Ohio at Louisville, are not abrupt, but extend with a gradual descent,
over two or three miles. Opposite Louisville is the town of
Jeffersonville, Indiana; and three miles below, on the Indiana side, is
the city of New Albany, with a population of about sixteen thousand. Of
course I visited those places.
From Louisville I determined to go on a visit to the celebrated Mammoth
Cave, a very considerable and extraordinary hole in the ground, situated
about half-way between Louisville and Nashville—that is to say, nearly
one hundred miles from each place. I was informed at the Falls City,
that I should take the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and get off at
Cave City, whence I should take a stage for the Mammoth Cave, ten miles
from the railroad.
Leaving my trunk at my hotel in Louisville, I took the five o’clock
evening train, and arrived at Cave City—a small village that isn’t a
city at all—by reasonable bedtime, where I retired to rest for the night
in a good but rather expensive hotel. I was put in a double-bedded room
with another passenger from Louisville, who also intended to visit the
Mammoth Cave next day.
The clerk having conducted us to our room, withdrew from the chamber and
closed the door after him.
“I wonder if there is a lock on the door?” said my companion.
“There ought to be,” I replied. “We should secure it by some means, at
all events.”
“Yes,” he remarked, “I always make it a rule, when traveling, to see
that every thing is secure.—Yes, here is a lock and bolt,” he said, as
he walked to the door and examined it. He turned the key and shot the
bolt. “Are you going to the Cave to-morrow?”
“Yes, that is my object.”
“Did you come on the train from Louisville?”
“Yes; did you?”
“Yes, I too. I am from Missouri: and you?”—
“I am from Pennsylvania.”
“Were you engaged in the war?”
“Yes.”
“Federal side, I suppose.”
“Yes; and were you also—”
“Confederate.”
“Exactly. Well, we are fellow-citizens and countrymen once more, and let
us congratulate each other that the strife is over. If you are going in
the stage in the morning, we will be traveling companions, and, I am
sure, will prove agreeable to each other, notwithstanding that we have
been fighting in opposing armies, and possibly shooting at each other.”
“I agree with you,” he replied, “and was about to make such a remark
myself. True soldiers never carry animosities home with them, when the
contest on the field is over.”
My Confederate companion was a young man of prepossessing appearance,
twenty-five or twenty-six years of age, intelligent, affable and polite;
and, as the lamp was extinguished and we retired to our respective beds
in opposite corners of the room, I congratulated myself on my prospect
of having an agreeable companion to join me in my visit to the Mammoth
Cave on the morrow. Nor was I mistaken. My new acquaintance proved to be
all that he appeared—a perfect gentleman.
With a confidence I seldom feel while a stranger is sleeping in the same
room with me, I fell asleep, and enjoyed a good night’s rest, after my
ride on the train from Louisville.