Show T ftp j benius vs GENII ancient superstition partly retained by the unsophisticated moun aud chamah hunters in alpine peopled the and ravines caverns and subterranean recesses of the st gotthard mountain with gnomes sprites and wickedly inclined beings genii who would resist all approach and advance of man aix oix domain of the aborigines no the enlightenment of the contu ry tenaciously cling to belief in the presence and activity of such demoniacal dwellers in the mountains found some support in tho misfortunes attending a certain spot in the the tunnel which has been dug through tho re istance by the invincible genius and muscle of man A short distance from the entrance to that famous forms aliff irain artery of trade from southern to Nort licin europe there is a so called bad place as it has been christened where millions of francs have been sunk in a epach of seventy metres in length three icare have passed in n continual struggle between an ill natured freak of mother earth in the shape of a stratum of soft plastic material and alie capital and skill of the contractor M favre plus the science of his assistants and the railway engineers gi near this endrott bad placa AL favro fell dead from a coup de sang apoplexy the result no doubt ofha anxiety over tho results of his struggle fany and costly were the elpe dienes tried but one after another succumbed to alic offended ded genii of st gotthard whose internal economy had been so rudely invaded by those sons of adam the paper and a second lining of strong masonry wag built but only to share the fate oatlie predecessor A short time since a third wall was begun and it ajas o constructed as to form an elliptical cylinder upon which the pressure from whatever direction it came or upon whatever point on alie exterior surface it was exerted served only to compress more firmly together the stones forming this cylinder which of course is the tunnel itself at aliis place up to alie present time this third lining lias withstood alie utmost of the evidently infura atad genii and the engineers are confident that the unruly mountain decoir has been effectually exor cased |