The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1876-02-25

hoouI Two nOuIS LileiT q
terrific storm arose, rendering objects at
the distance of few yards invisible by
reason of the swirl of snow driven by the
fierce winds. Some fear was entertained
for the safety of the lads, but it was argued
that by that time they would have reached
ihe stacks and, by digging into them,
could remain in safety until the subsistence
of the storm. At all events, no one could
go to their relief. The evening wore OH
with no abatement in the violence of the
storm and, as it was impossible to extend
aid to the sufferers, they remained out all
night. In the morning the oxen they had
driven out were found in the cattle-yard.
They had their yoke on, and had evidently
been loosed and turned adrift. In the af-
tcrnoon of tho day party was organized
to visit tic stacks, and with considerable
difficulty proceeded there. They found
the road entirely obliberated, and the snow
drifted in fantastic shapes over the prairie.
Reaching tue stacks, no trace of either
man or boy was found and n further
search Of three consecutive days failed of
tangible results. On the fourth day, how
ever, the boy was found under snow
drift. frozen stiff. He had all his clothes
on, and was evidently following the trail
of the cattle when overcome by the cold.
About one hundred yards distant, in a di-
rectly opposite direction, the shoes, nit
tens, cap and outer shirt of the man were
found in the snow, but no trace of the
! owner. The experienced prairie men eu-
gagged in the search announced immediately
that he bad discarded his clothing in fit
of insanity, and discontinued the search as
useless. When the snow melted from the
! ground in the spring, the body OF the un-
! fortunate man was discovered sitting at the
! base of a tree on the banks of stream six
miles away. 1t WAS entirely destitute of
! clothing, saving single garment.
| Now, here was boy of dull intellect
following a judicious course on being lost,
and using the calmest reason in his efforts
to escape; and an intellectual man who
became crazed by the same circumstances
! within twcDty-four hours. Not that it is
to be understood that the lost person must
necessarily be possessed of intellectual cul-
ture in order to become crazed by the lost
feeling, or that an uncultivated person pos
sesses an immunity, by reason of his COM
parative ignorance, from that feeling and
its general consequences. 1t simply goes
to augment .he mass of proof tending to
show that the feeling of terror, despair,
and desire for sympathy and companion
ship, acting upon n cultivated mind, un-
hinge it from the sheer capacity of that
mind to more acutely and intensely expe-
rience them than can the untutored intel
lect which is on a plane below such keen
appreciation of its situation. The very
combination going to make mp the lost
feeling must have been educated up to n
certain standpoint by the general culture
| of the individual before it can so to ally
and entirely assume possession of him as
to induce insanity. Then, too, the insani-
ty produced comes under that class OF
mental alterations known as temporary,
| in this respect at least, that, when the lost
insane is placed i'll the companionship Of
his fellows again, his intelligence gradually
returns. and he becomes, after n time, as
sane as before. There are, of course, ex-
| ccptions to this rule, but it is .rue IN nine
cases out CT ten.-H. Il. RojinSon in Ap-
| pleton.