River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-08-28
Little Refugees.

Cat yer feet iis thar, double up. and
keep still; git u+der that fcller's seat
etc, was the Fragment of speech which
a circle Of passeIsycrs heard last evening
ON the Illinois Central. The voice was
mufiied, and . lsok under the seats re-
veale0 nothing. ( The train had passed
several statiuns,s Ahen the ynce was
heard again glvi5g orders to some invis-
IDLE passenger. AGother look proved as
truit.ess rs the 1855 but the mystery was
soon solved, rftel: passenger had his
coat tails pullg:l;aAd requested to hang
his ,luster ovEs sl5e backs of two seats
which were tUgp'd and formed an arch.
cooking threGnA he saw a bootblack's
box, and then ale form Of the owner OF
the box huddlcs mp into = space hardly
large enough 10 eontain an ordinary pair
of boots. "Whf,'s the matter2n asked
the passenger. Just put your coat over
that seat-that jthe matter" The pas
seneer did SO AL TIE sinner was again
Happy. When sbe train reached Dun
leith crawles fom his place of con
cealment, and Seeing to the next se.t
aroused little tciluw and told him 80
come ont as tie conductor would not be
around any ms1s. he pleasant appear
snce OF the hcA,a had the effect of oraw-
lug several of 5thv passengers into con
versatiou with them, and il was
pitiiul and sylQpat etc story that told Z
their trip from Memphis to the north.
While the olde- i-was busy polishing sb ocs
the youngest - telling his story of their
leaving the scu&l and coming 10 the lar
horeh. Last Trsr. he said, mother and
father and sister fau2ht the vel o y fever.
anC after being.a~tul sick, y it'll nobody
to watch thca tjied while brother and
| were IN the sou &c asleep. In the morn.
ing oke III. pld hearing no one speak
got up, and li& Going TO the room found
all Of them dSd.:l told brother, and ne
| die not knowsTloat 10 do. as people were
| dying ~ fast SAa& every body was taking
care cf the 4 aQes and not botheriug
themselves al Spt the dead After crying
hard hc y cntsou: ON the street and found
a nan WHO sst lie would send around the
coHins. Nh$l tae man came he t al only
one large boSi. which he put mother,
| father and si,..f a.. and that eas the last Of
them, We c.nglt not leave the city as
men watched as, and we had 10 live alone
Tor many d~ys. Whenever we heard
wagons pass slic ;house we knew some
oody else $50 died. After the fever
had gone ous aEd all the people com
menced to ceHlr back, we made bar
gain To leave. M South ii it should ever
come again, =. we were so afraid of il.
Just little a.Scr week ago it was said
the yellow t"scs was again coming, and
that some has d9cd This frightened us,
ard we startGGi 2w the train, IS we knew
We could ncrer 3eaye after the fever got
| fairly started, Ahen we got down TO
the train the ware SO full that we did
net know - hat 10 do. and as we were
gOing out a1nutblack told us he knew
how we cou;l travel and he showed Us
tbs place ylIl saw lis in. That is the
way we rodt,.als the way from the South.
After the ~aUhg man adj completed
his story he:Ma% asked il they never ere
caught. Caught yes, four or five times.
On one road the brakeman kicked and
slapped US, ard we had to walk 10 the
next statioa Some conductors we're
good to US, specially the ones on the
~tstcrn r0as%; they never hurt us, only
asked rs to siask their boots, and wanted
70 know wlisre ave came from and where
We were goa;g THIS ended the story
Of the two I:tl* refugees from the South,
and the last%,aen Of them they y ere eat
ing heartv.mcal at the Julien House at
the expense - come kind stranger.