Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-03-23
'veritable babes II the Wood.

Two small children, sons Of Mr.. Gubser.
aged respectively three and I'VE years, and
a child aged five years, son Of Mr.. Smith,
wandered from their homes last Wednes-
day evening, got lost in the woods, and
were not found until Thursday morning.
Mr.. Gubser and Mr.. Smith, parents ofthe
little truants, Hive on the Cornell road. about
five miles from Portland. Three O'Clock
Wednesday afternoon Mrs. Smith came
past Mr.. Gubser's house on her way TO
church. She brought her little son along
and left him In care of Mr.. Gubser, as
Mrs. Guhser was to accompany her TO the
meeting. Leaving the three children the
mothers went to church. Shortly after the
women were gone away the children LEFT
the house and began to play about the
yard. Mr.. Gubeer was in the house all
the afternoon. He saw the children play
ing several times, and gave himself no
solicitude about them, supposing that they
would come into the house as soon as
darkness set in. Six O'Clock came, and
the children failing TO put in an appear.
ance, Mr.. Gubser went out and called
them Nd answer was received in re-
Spouse to his loud and repeated calls. He
thought that probably they lad gone over
to the house OF Mr.. Smith, which was not
far away. Accordingly he went over
there, but was surprised and alarmed to
| find they had not been to Mr.. bmifh's
that afternoon. Gubser was convinced
that the children were lost, and as not
moment was TO be lost he spread the re-
port as rapidly as possible among the
neighbors. Soon large crowd had col.
lected and began TO scour the woods IN all
directions. The search was continued
I l,,- fl,<ax ttxr1o tnh
DAYLIGHT made its welcome appearance,
but brought no trace or ;idings OF inc
little wanderers. At one time about 10o
persons were engaged in the search.
| Thursday forenoon, about ten O'Clock,
Mr.. Gubser's youngest child was
found. The little fellow was lying
1 on his back, chilled to numbness and per-
fectly helpless A little dog belonging
to Mr.. Smith had followed the children
/ off. The faithful creature was found ly-
| ing on top of the child, and endeavoring
to keep its little master warm. Itseems
remarkable that instinct should have
taught the dumb brute SO much, for had
1 IL not been for the warmth derived from
I the dogs body the child would inevitably
| have persisted with cold Search was
continued for the other missing children,
and they we're found about 200 yards
from the youngest child. Both were ly-
ing down clasped in each others en-
brace almost frozen. Snow began to fall
rapidly about twelve O'Clock Wednesday
night, and continued to descend without
interruption until some time after the
finding of the missing ones. The night
was dark and windy and extremely cold,
and il is really q matter OF wonder that the
little truants did not perish before morning.
II is thought they could not have sur.
vived more than two hours longer, when
they were fortunately discovered. Luck
| lily they were comfortably clad, or else
they would have died from exposure to
the pitiless storm. No words can por-
tray the sense of relief and JOY expe-
rienced by the anxious parents when the
children were found alive, as they felt
confident that the wanderers had died
from cold during the night. The chill.
dren were taken home, and our informant
states they are doing very well. They
had strayed only about mile and hall
from Mr.. Gubser's house. The children
say that they were playing about until
nightall, and becoming bewildered in the
dark, wandered around until overcome
with the cold and exhaustion, when they
sank down. Portland Oreg0nian.