Staunton Spectator

Singular Infatuation from Spiritualism.—

Situated near Lynn, Massachusetts and buried in the depths of a forest which extends for miles around is a spot called Dungeon Rock, from old tradition, said to mark the neighborhood of a cave, once the resort of an old pirate named Thomas Neal. Tradition further says that the old pirate and a fair maid, named Catharine, who had been stolen by the pirates, and another woman, were entombed in this cave with all their treasures, by an earthquake which had effectually obliterated all marks by which its entrance could be discovered. The locality is wild, desolate and barren, huge trees and giant boulders and bare masses of primitive rock taking the place of smiling gardens and cultivated fields. But in this lonely wilderness a Mr. Hiram Marble has built a small house in which he resides with his wife and son. He was a manufacturer, which occupation he abandoned to devote himself at the bidding of "the spirits" to the discovery of the old pirate's cave. For six years past he has been engaged in this wild and absurd undertaking with a zeal which no disappointment appears to daunt or diminish. He believes that he is acting under the special direction of the spirits of the old pirate Thomas Neal and the girl Catharine. He has drilled and excavated a tunnel into the solid Jasper-like rock of the hill for the distance of about eighty feet. It is all the way through solid rock and the work has all been done by the poor enthusiast and his son, sometimes assisted by a laboring man. Mr. Marble exhibits an ancient broken sword, an old-time dagger and a pair of antique scissors as having been found in the progress of the work in a seam of the rock, where a super-incumbent mass slid over the cave at the time of the earthquake. These relics have probably been placed there by some person to continue the delusion. When he finds the cave, which he is certain he will ultimately, for the spirits so assure him, though they will not tell him how much longer he must labor, he expects to find the remains of the old pirate Neal, of the girl Catharine and of one Arabel, a wife of one of the pirates, with all their treasures. Mr. Marble is said to be a man of intelligence and of pleasing appearance. He has at his house a picture of Catharine, who must have been, if it is a likeness, a very pretty girl. This picture was painted by a Boston artist named Fenton under the inspiration of the spirits! It is pitiful indeed to see an intelligent man the victim of such a delusion.