Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-02-21
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EnOw two feet deep, ana Tying IN fInf1ensl
dritts miles and miles from the neares
habitation, with no idea of which direction
he must travel, or what distance, to reach
the nearest shelter. Supposing that he was
north of the main road, he started in the
direction which he supposed to be south, in
hopf that he iight discover the lost track
Hour after hour did he wade through the
snow swithsthe fearful storms hiiling. hin
throu9h,and, through Before many hour;
he found that his ears, face and feet were
frozen solid, and his hands were beginning
to. freeze. II But still. strong in determine.
tion to save himself, if in, the range of pos
ssIollitiss, hs Kept moving On through & Chg
fered greatly from hun ger, as he had eaten
nothing since Thursday noon. When dark
ness again closed around him, he felt that
the chances for surviving the. night were
very slimlindeed. q He dare not sitdown to
rest, fearing that he would fall asleep and
pefisht ! AL through the second night he
kept on hisfeet, Sometimes becoming so ex-
haueted with cold; hunger, ami his great
exertions to keep travelling, he would stop
a few moments to rest.s He repeatedly fell
asleepiwhile thus standing, and was, only
awakened by falling into the .snow.t Again
and3again duyingl Friday night did7he thus
Struggle on till daylight appeared. The
wind had pQvIeeasedg but the coldywas in
xIstIEID. B1sATURDAYo 1nl;nz2bissrs
morning he was, able. for. the first time to
learn the directions Looking. atlxiolsly
around on every side, and seeing no settle
Gs iSag hS 6sls SBs5a that longer ss
finding that he1was still able to move, he
turned his face to the east, knowing that
his only hope now was in being able to
reach the Desmoines river, along which he
was sure to find settlers. All day Saturday
he toiled on: through the deep snow, suffer
ing intensely from hunger, cold and loss Of
sleep Whenever his strength gave out,
and he stopped for a moment, he would fall
asleep and tumble down into the snow,
again awaken, rise up, and again push on.
Night once more came on. and found him
still out on the great prairie, with no shell
ter in sight. Again did he pass another
might the third 0ne--on his feet, walking,
Stopping, falling asleep, otnmb bling down,
awakening, rising up, and toiling on again.
disniayed, he watched patiently during the
long hours of the night for the rising of
the sun on. the morning of .
ns2iidnq2a ti19ss SUNDAY, SUNDAY ,i92ri721ai z
the, fourth day out. 4. The sun rose bright
and clear, but twas intensely cold, the
mercury at sixteen degrees bt low zero.
with keen, cutting wind from the north.
He had now strange as it may seem, ceased
to suffer from hunger; and nerving himself
for one more. eforty be turned his face east
ward, and again struggled on. His pro-
gEess was very slow, but at about IL o'clock
discourage was renewed by the sight of a
grove in, the distance. Hope, that had never
entirely deserted him, and grew strong,
and all through the Gay he strove with al
most superhuman efforts to reach the tim
ber before. daFks fearing that he could not
survive another night on the prairie.
But Qhis strength was too. much ex-
the energy of despair, he, saw tie
sun go down and night again close arousd
him, while the friendly trees were shut out
from view and beyond his reach. Fearing
that if he attempted to travel after, dark, e
should lose sight OF the grove, and know
ing that in his weak and exhausted condi-
tion he could not survive the night on his
feet, he. finally sought out a huge snow
drift, and digging out a large cavity with
his hands, he crowded in and buried him
self beneath the snow. In this position he
soon fell asleep, and slept for several hours,
dreaming that he had arrived in safety at
Fort Dodge, and was telling his compar-
ions of his perils and escape from freezing.
But, upon awakening with the first dawn
of morning, he found himself buried in
the, snow, out on the great prairie, soweak,
from hunger and exhausted from the. SUI
perhuman exertions he had put forth dur
ing the three terrible days and nights past,
and so crippled from freezing that he had
hardly strength to crawl out of his icy bed.
But. by great 'exe xertions he regained his feet,
and could see, Lost Grove about mile
ahead When he tried to walk he found
that his limbs had lost their vitality, and
he cot lid only move forward by reaching
down, with his frozen hands and lifting his
legs out Of the snow and placing one foot
forward with bis hands, and then the other.
He then managed TO move slowly toward
the Grove. Afteralong, toilsome struggle,
in Which his indomi table energy of Viii
triumphed over every obstacle, he at last
reached the Grove, only to find it cold,
cheefless and suninhabited.n No signs of
life, food or shelter could be found. Still
undismaYed, his iron will, nerved him on to
make one more great effort for life, 80 - -. re
Beyond the Grove, at a distance of about
one aud half miles, he saw a house. Hav-
ing by this time almost entirely lost the use
Of his legs, heobegan to crawl on his bands
and knees through the deep snow for the
houses Sometimes he would be able to rise
to Ibis feet and take a few steps forward,
when he would again fall into the snow,
and drag himself forward once more. In
this way he managed at last to reach the
house, having been from daylight until two
o'clocl1oin the afternoon going two and a
half miles. He had reached the residence
ofzMrs Hicks five miles west of DAYTON
and about thirty miles southeast of the
pointjwhere he lost the road. He had been
out from Thursday at four o'clock until the
next Monday at two O'Clock, in the severest
storm of therseason, with the mercury
ranging at about Ia degrees below zero,
and had beenyon bis feet during all OF the
time but about twelve hours. He had gone
four days and nights without a morsely of
food of any kind and no drink but snow.
He had only slept about five hours in five
days. When we saw him he was almost en-
tifelys helpless, and very weak. from his
terrible .sufterings,, His face is turned black,
and pieces of flesh are peeling OFF. His feet
are terribly frozen, but the doctor hopes to
save them from ampItation, by removing
some Of the toes. He will lose one ear. and
undoubtedly be badly crippled for lie. We
doubt whether there is another case on rec
ord of such fearful suffering, heroic endur-
ances determined energy and cool, .unflineh-
ing courage, as has been suffered and dis
played by this stage driver. ,l,;., q, IN .'J,- ~
!, The sleigh. containing the, mail, has been
found about three miles south of the Fort
Dodge road, and, about half way, between
this place and Yates. settlement. One of
the horses was found near it. frozen to
death, but the other has not yet been found.
.EA6zOod Thinga0n m The u JOuarnsaI.A <
A correspondent of the Cincinnati Com
merciGI tells the following excellent joke
upon the editor of the LoauSUiIle Journal:
1.-The following took place in the Kentucky