Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-02-06

around half circle, that "the dear, in.
nocent darlin' was somewhere about OIL
that way from the house" She scolded
the men sharply for their lazlness, telling
them they had not looked for the lost
child, but were waiting around the house,
''while the blessed baby starved and the
big black haste stood over him"
Dan caught at this and declared that
the "old hvpocrite" was no fool. She
knew enough to understand that lit was
no way to find lost boy to shell out
whole township of able bodied men and
set them to chase an old woman around
lot"
The fortune-womanc came back to the
house, held final grand seance with the
teacup divinity, and declared that the
"swate child" was within half mile of
the place and if they would only look
they W Guild find him, and that if they did
not look, within two days, 1.-THE big black
haste would devour the poor, neglected
dariin'." After this the fortunew woman
was put into the wagon again, and Josh
drove her home. 1t vas fully in accord
ance with the known perversity of
human nature, that the faith of the be-
levers in her infallibility was not in the
slightest degree shaken.
y
by fresh arrivals to more than one hun
dred men, organized for the search. The
colonel ranged the men in line about
twenty feet apart, extending across the
wide stubble-tield and the pasture, The
men were directed by the colonel to "dress
to the left"; that is, as he explained it,
for each to watch the man at the left and
keep twenty feet from him and observe
all the ground in marching.
The word was given, and the line, more
than half a mile long, began to move
sidewise or platoon fashion, sweeping
from the road by the house across the
clearing to the woods. 1t was a grand
charge upon the great wilderness. The
long platoon, under the instruction of
their commander, swept the woods
bordering the clearing, and then, doubling
back, made semicircular curves, going
deeper and deeper at each return into the
primeval forest. The limit of their
marching and countermarching in one
direction was river too broad to be
crossed by fallen trees; it was sure that
Willie could not have crossed the river
The termination Of the marches in the
other direction was controlled by the
judgment of the colonel 1t was a magnif-
cent tramp through the wild, wet woods,
under the giant trees, each eye strained
and expectant of the lost boy. Here and
there, In advance of the line as 1T pro-
crossed, partridge, aroused by the
voices of the men, would start from the
underground and trip along for few
steps with her sharp, coquettish gut, gut,
qut, and then whir away to some adjacent
hollow, to be soon again aroused by the
advancing line.
The afternoon was wearing away
The woods had been thoroughly explored
for about two miles from the clearing,
far beyond what it seemed possible for an
the house, the fortune woman, urged by
the men, went "out of doors" and walked
infant less than four years old to pene-
trate.
The colonel said he could think of
nothing more to be done. The men
returned in struggling groups to the
farm house, tired, sad, hungry and
dspirited. There were many specula-
tons whether Willie could be still alive,
and if alive whether he could get through
another night.
"You see," said Josh, 'such little fell
Ter, and three days and two nights a wet
TIM and a freezin' and thawin' and no
grub, why he couldn't, don't you see?"
1t was never found out, not even at
Whisky Hollow, where the men unveiled
all their iniquities, who the wretch was
that first started the dark suggestion
about the murder of little Willie. Dan
became very angry when the men,
fatigued and famished, struggled back to
the farmhouse from the disorganized
line as above narrated, began to hint that
things was tremendous queer" and
that them as lost could find" and that
John. Willie's father, was perfect hyena
when he was "mad"
Dan, tor the only time that day, became
prOfane as he denounced the sneak, who
ever it might be, who had started such a
suggestion. He expressed the conviction
that the fortune-woman had her foot in it
in some way. Superstitious fools, he
said, were likely to be suspicious.
But Dams anathemas did not stay the
rising tide. AS the searchers came back,
suspicious glances were turned upon the
father, who sat with his afflicted family
at the house. Some of the searchers
lieving that Willie had been knocked on
the head" with fail and concealed un-
der the floor.
But John, the father, was no coward,
and he had neighbors and friends who
believed in him. They told him of the
suspicious rising against him. On the in
slant he called meeting at the little
hovel of a school house, few rods down
the road. The hundred searchers gather
ed there and filled the room, sitting, lO1l-
ing, and lying upon the benches. The
father of the lost child, almost stranger
to most of the searchers, took his place
at the teachers desk and confronted his
accusers.
1t was plain, direct work. Here were
hundred men who had exhausted all
known means of finding the lost boy; and
more than fifty of them had said in effect
to the man before them, eve think you
killed him" All were looking at John;
he rose up, and facing the crowd with a
dauntless eye. he made speech.
II this were a story told by Homer or
Herodotus, l suppose Johns speech
would figure as wonderful piece of elo-
quence; for man never had grander
opportunity to try his strength in per-
suading others than John had. But in
fact there was nothing grand about the |
matter. except that here was a straight |
forward man with nerves of steel, who |
had been ''hard HIT" as Dan said, by the |
loss of his boy, and was now repelling |
with courage, and almost scorn, a thrust |
that might have killed a weaker man.
His speech was dramatically correct, |
cool, deliberate, and dignifed He said |
he had no knowledge of the black hearted |
man who had originated so cruel a sus-
plcion at such time, and he did not |
wish to know who he was. He asked his |
hoa RI Inr how