Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-07-03
BURIED ALIVE.

BURIED ALIVE.
Mr.. Buff and Mr.. Black started for
Blue Rabbit by the way of Potawat.
TAME diggings, where they stopped
to liquor at doggery. They took a
hand at "poker" with the "boys,'
who were there assembled. By the
middle of the afternoon, the weather
had greatly moderated, and the sun
was encircled with a circumstance, y
that denoted q coming storm. Buff
and Mack were by this time pretty
essentially corned." Towards night
they started off across the prairie for
Little Blue, Buff taking with him a
glass flask, on one side OF which the
thirteen stars and the face of Wash
lngton were moulded. The flask was
filled with s'sweet scented Rock
river" The snow had for two hours
been showerrng down like feathers,
and almost blinded our travellers.
The tops of the grass were not visi-
BILE in the road, and this negative
sign was the only indication where
the path was; night was coming on,
and no land in sight; and still they
had some miles to go. The wind
arose, and began to beat the snow
about in whirling eddies, and pile it
in drifts. The darkness thickened,
the cold increased, and the storm
howled around them with frightfuI
fury. Their limbs were benumbed
with cold. Scarcely ale to stand
against the tempest, they soon lost
their way.
"Buff, let us kick in the snow"
said Black, "and try to find the rnts
in the road.'
"Why, Mack. my legs are SO cold
| couldn't feel rut with my foot !;
and | am afeared to get down on my
knees to feel with my hands, least /
couldn't get up again"
"Gracious God what tempest {.
1t is as dark as a nigger's pocket
and the storm beats SO can't stand.
What shall we do?"
smack, we shall never get through
this snowbank; we shall be covered
over--out of sight, in Eve
Let us turn to the left and
run before the wind Lord how |
shiver!"
swell, Buff, put out the flask, and
let us take horn first, to keep us
from freezing. We would hate to be
left here frozen like our horses is, or
like Lots understanding monuments
of the cold. D. all lawsuits, |
say"
They turned and ran before the
wind, they knew not whittier, for half
an hour. By this time the liquor
they had swallowed began to take ef-
feet they came to small ravine in
which there were some hazel bushes
a little protected from the Storm
They crep. away in these bushes and
laid down to rest.
ugh! ugh !" uttered Mack, puff
ing and blowing, sim clean out of
breath--I'm fairly-ugh ugh fairly
wind broken-I am. Give me some
ugh !! ugh !-some liquor, Buff
81 shan't," stammered Buff, edo
such thing-hic--Mack.-
You've got more--hic-more liquor
than you can carry now. Old Buff
will take the-hic-remainder."
"The h you will !" roared Mack,
a grasp for the flask. They
clenched and fought like
dogs, rolling oyer and over down the
driited ravine; when all at once
thrash they fell, locked together, to
the bottom of mineral hole forty
feet deep.
Were they not killed? inquiries
the reader.
Killed no! how can you kill
man who is drunk ? They DESCRIBED
to be killed-but must confine my
self to facts; they were only badly
stunned, and it was some time before
they knew what sort of a fix they
were in. They soon felt the influence
of the warmer atmosphere into which
they had tumbled.
Their intoxicatlon was banished by
fear.
"The Lord bless mel" groaned
Buff, "who Is here? Oh! oh! OIL
dear oh! is this--Oh! this is
Mack?"
"Jesus!" groaned Mack /; "Oh (!
get off of me! get up! Pm killed
I'm dead. Where in h are we !?
Who sells liquor here ?"
ave have" said Buff, cropping and
feeling about him, 1--WE have not ex-
actly got home to our papa's down
below bnt we are part way there
we arc in amineral hole"
They soon fell asleep. When they
awoke in the morning and looked up
and saw how deep hole they were
in they were much alarmed. They
felt the cravings of hunger and
wanted, more than all, whiskey, their
habitual stimulus.
They halloei a few times; but
that was hopeless. Mack next took
his bowie knife and commenced dig
g,ng holes with it in the sides Of the
SHIFT for steps to climb Up by. After
carving out and climbing up one step
after another for about twenty feet,
the earth in the sides of the shaft
under him caved and he fell to the
bottom with the precipitated mass,
in which Buff was nearly buried.
The increased diameter of the hole
as well as its conicsl form forbade
any further attempts to get out by
cutting new steps in the sides. They
safe down in. despair, constantly
treated with the fall of the mass Of
the earth above them.
Another night came--a horrible
morning dawned upon
their sleepless eyes. Buff began to
show symptoms of delirium tremens.
Their hunger became intolerabIe.
Mack found a toad burrowing in the
hole. He tried to conceal It from
Buff, but did not succeed. Buff