The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-07-31 00:00:00

A PERILOUS ALPINE ADVENTURE.

Herr F. Burckhardt, member of the Basel section
of the Swiss Alpine Club, accompanied by the guides
Fritz Teutschmann and Johann Jossi, both from
Grindelwald, made an attempt the other day to
ascend the Jungfrau from that side. After leaving
the Guggi cabin, the party had to mount the glacier
of the same name—an enterprise of some difficulty.
The usual precautions were of course taken—that is
to say, the three mon were roped together, Herr
Burckhardt in the middle, one of. the guides before,
the other behind him. When the climbers reached
the sbves, at an elevation of 2700 metres, an enor-
meas piece of ice broke off from the upper part of the
glacier, and came thundering down the arrete. Al-
though by good fortune the mass of the avalanche did
not sweep across the path of the three men, they
were struck by several large blocks of ice and sent
flying. Jossi, who was leading, went head first into
a crevasse of unfathomable depth, dragging after
him Herr Burckhardt, who, however, contrived to
hold on to the edge of the crevasse, but in such a
position that he could not budge, and was unable to
help either himself or Jossi. Their lives at that
moment depended absolutely on the staunchness of
Teutschmann, who alone had succeeded in keeping
his fee.. It was beyond his power to do more; im-
possible by his own unaided strength to haul up the
two men who hung by the rope. If he had given
way a single step all three would have been precioi-
tated to the bottom of the crevasse. So there he
stood, with feet and alpenstock firmly planted, hold-
ing on for dear life, conscious that the end was a
mere question of time, and a very short time; his
strength was rapidly waning, and then? It would
have been easy for the two to escape by sacrificing
the third. One slash of Burckhardt's knife would
have saved both Teutschmann and himself. But no
such dastardly idea occurred to either of them. They
were resolved to live or die together. Half an hour
passed; they had almost abandoned hope, and
Teuschmann's forces were well nigh spent, when help
came just in time to save them. The very same
morning another party, consisting of two German
tourists and the two guides, Peter Schlegel and Ru-
dolph Kaufman, had started from the little Scheideck
for the Jungfrau, and coming on traces of Burck-
hardt's party, followed them up, and arrived before it
was too late on the scene of the accident. Without
wasting a moment Schlegel went down into the cre-
vasse and fastened Jossi to another rope, so that those
abovewere enabled to draw him up and release Burck-
hardt and Teutschman. Joni, although bruised and
exhausted, was able to walk as far as the Scheideck,
and all reached Grindelwald in safety.

The strawberry is boycotted on the Pacific Coast
because it is picked by Chinamen. What if the
Chinamen should take to making whiskey—Would
that be boycotted, too? It is a most interesting ques-
tion, and we should like very much to see the experi-
ment tried.
There is a difference between a hurricane and a
cyclone. A hurricane devotes several hours to the
work of scattering a man's house over several miles
of territory, while a cyclone picks up the structure bodily
and completes the job in about fifteen minutes. No
eight-hour movement for the cyclone.
"Now, isn't he an angel?" said the fond mother as
she seated the little fellow in his high chair at the
table for the first time. "A sort of destroying angel,"
remarked the cynical father, as he saw a costly dish
go spinning to the floor with a crash.
"But, Paul, how can the Spirit be in us and us in
the Spirit at the same time ? " said the young man
to a venerable darkey. "Oh, dar's no pussle. bout
dat. It's like dat poker; I puts it in de fire, and it
gets red hot. Now, de poker's in de fire, and de fire's
in de poker."
The reason why the betrothal between a rising
young journalist and a prominent society belle has
just. been declared off is because at a recent evening
seance the fiance, after kissing puggy, wanted to kiss
E— there we had almost given away his name.
"You say the trout weighed ten pounds?" "Yes,
sir; it was the biggest trout I ever saw." "And he
got away from you F.' "Yet" "Will you take an
oath to that?" " I'll the no more oaths; I iswore
enough about it when he got away."