Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1873-01-18
A NIGHT OF TERROR.
An Adventure on Lake Winnebago-The
Pertls orTraveling ON Ice.
From the Oshkosh Times.

cOrrectless
Our readers are well aware tha, for years
the wood choppers of Calumet county have.
during the winter months, used Lake Whine.
bago as highway to transport their loads of
fuel and produces to this city. distance of
OF over ten miles Of water intcrvenes. but, Ill
this northern cline, the great expanse is gen.
orally frozen over by the ist of December.
Sill, great cracks aid assures will, aud have
sometimes broken open, and interrupted in n
degree the smothnees of travel These cracks
are however, seldom over two or three feet
wide, and can he easily scaled" in the day
time, If the team and wagon Is stout, and the
nerves of the driver steady but the greatest
danger consists in their liability to spread in
single night, and as suddenly close again.
On Friday. perhaps one ofthe coldest dnys
OF the season, two Germans named respecl.
lively Latke and Dcgol, started from Clifton,
each with a load of wood, destined for the
Oshkosh market. The latter was a new conner
from the old country, and had but recently
settled in the village OF the cliffs, and as fate
would have it, this was his first trip over the
ice. The two, In company with dozen 9th
ers, successfully crossed To our shore, and soon
bad their loads sold upon the market, after the
transaction Luke and Degol went around TO
''see the elephant" Night drawing on, the
former went 10 the hotel barn, whore both
teams were lodged, and waited for his COM
panion, whom he had got separated from du.
ing the course of the day. Luke waited and
waited in vain, and darkness approaching,
hltched up his team and started off, not wish.
ing night to overtake him on the road. as a
fearful crack lay about four miles off the Osh-
kosh shore. Degol, 1t seems, had met an old
country friend, and spent a longer time wait.
ing than lie supposed, for night had approached
ere hc imagined 1t time to leave, Eight o'clock
was struck by the town bell, when he got fair
ly under way, but lie struck manfully out,
though almost utterly igonant, of the correct
course to pursue.
For nearly an hour he kept his way due
east, but suddenly his horses started back with
fright, nearly upsetting the driver, who now
peered forth in the pitchy darkness, and saw
terriable gap in the ice, yawnng directly be-
fore. II was, he states, over six feet across,
and to jump it seemed impossible so turning
his team to the North, he endeavored, for two
or three miles, to find narrower place, which
however, not seeming &c be found, he turned
and progressed towards the south. of Black
Wolf Puint, place about three feet III width
was reached, and whipping ON the horses, an
attempt was made to jump the chasm. For
sometime they refused to leap as, snorling with
terror they seemed to wish to fly away from it,
but at last they were forced onward and gained
foothold on the opposite side in safety
Degol now breathed free, and kept on his
eastwardly course, seemingly forgetful that
his own town was far TO the north of the
point he was aiming tor-Rrolhertown. He
thinks that tull another hour and a half had
passed away when lie was agained suddenly
brought 10 stand-slil by another fissure,
this time wider than before. But the spirit OF
frenzy seemed To have overcome both driver
and team, for the driver goaded his brutes, and
the leap for life was made. Far up in the air
they sprang, sled and all. and Came dawn with
a crash on the other side, nearly nine feet away !;
but the ice broke D.! anil the narrow piece on
which they landed separated from the rest
and fOated close into the ehasn,. The situa-
IT,
The weight Of the team and sled submerged
the cake for nearly two feet, and il seemed as
If that too, might soon crack ana scatter them
in all directions; and the horses snorted aud
screamed with terror, while Degol himself
tore his hair and rdved like maniac. The
terrified equines stood like statutes, for had
they moved an iola they would have surely
have stepped of, so small was the piece on
which they toated I he driver, suddenly
gaining strength, stood on the top of the wood
rack and leapcd for the sound ice, but fell into
the water. Grasping the sound foe, how
ever, he succeeded IN dragging himself out.
The horses, seeing their master safe, seemed
also from their cake, but not having any foot.
ing to start from, they also missed their mark
aud, afler the most strenuous efforts, the heavy
iron-shod sled drag ging them down, they were
drowned.
Horrified almost beyond measure, Degol
swooned, but, as fate would hayu II, was soon
after found by a party that had been sent out
to meet him, but had also been stopped by the
crack, and had wandered south to find mar
rover opening,
Almost frozen stiff, DegI was carried home
wheIe high fever attacked him. but. with
careful nursing, I've is now recovering.
A chill of horror comes over him when he
tells his tale-the story Of a winters night ON
Lake Winnebago.
THE COLORADO DEsERE-Liltle doubt