St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-11-19
Buried Alive.
RESCUED AFTER 80 HOURS IMPRIsoN-
MENT.

Joseph n. Howell owns farm and a
cider mill about mile and half south
east of the railroad station at Smith
town, L. 1. Mr.. Howell's house and
outbuildings are old and situated in a
dreary sort of place. They are sur
rounded by tall, scraggy elm trees that
look as if they were dying for lack of
nourishment. In fact the soil about
that part of Long Island is composed
mostly of mixture of sand and gravel.
At one corner of Mr.. Howell's rickety
old barn, was an old well with dilapi-
dated old curb. A part of the walling
had tumbled in, and the bottom of the
we'll needed cleaning out.
Last Wednesday afternoon two color
ed men, George A. Brown and William
Helms, set to work to repair the we'll.
Mr.. Howell had harnessed a horse to
his gig with the intention of starting off
on an eighty-mile trip down the Island
to take orders for cider vinegar. He
gave instructions to the colored men
and then went into the house to pre-
pare himself for his four days journey.
Brown and Helms went to work imme-
diately. They took long rope, made
several loops with one end around a
piece of timber, and dropped the other
end into the well, which was about 26
feet deep. The timber was placed
across the top of the curb, and Brown,
who was bossing the job, started down
to explore the well, after telling Helms
to hold on to the timber and prevent it
from rolling around. Brown went down
hand over hand, bearing part of his
weight on the stones composing the
walling of the well. He had got down
little more than half way when the
walling of the well suddenly tumbled
in. A dense cloud of dust shot up as
from the crater of small volcano.
When Helms partly regained his
senses he ran as fast as he could in the
direction of the village. He saw sever
al persons on the road, but he said
nothing until he came to gang of col
ored laborers. To these he told what
had happened, and they all started
back with him to help dig out the body
of the man who had been buried alive
Meanwhile Mr.. Howell left his house
and mounted his gig. Just before start
ing be noticed that neither of the color.
ed men was to be seen, and he remark
ed to his wife that he wondered where
they had gone. Mrs. Howell said she
supposed they had gone for some tools
and would probably be back soon. Mr.
Howell started off on his eighty
trip, from which he did not return til
Saturday night. jeremiah Arthur, wht
lives with Mr.. Howell, discovered tha
the we'll had fallen in soon after Mr.
Howell left, but was ignorant of th'
fact that a man had been buried ther'
until Helms came up with the gang o
colored men. The coloIed men set t.
work deliberately, supposing that afte
a few hours labor they would exhumt
the body of the unfortunate Brown, o
"Ginger," as he was always familiarl,
called by them. When they had beel
at work few minutes one of them sud
denly stopped and exclaimed, clark
The wOrkmen suspended labor for
moment, when they heard the sound o
voice directly under their feet, cry
ing. "Help, help" and 80 God, say
men After this the men went to wor
with redoubled energy, but at length
after having hoisted out many tons O
earth and stones, the foundation o
which they stood began to settle. Thi
put them in a quandary. They sa'
that if they continued to work on th
surface, the stones and sand would sci
tie down and smother the man, wh
was all the time crying for help.
The news that tman was burie
alive in Joe Howell's well spread a
over Smithtown, and by nightfall
large crowd had gathered about I'll
f living tomb. AS it grew dark, Lantern
r and torches which had recently bee
used in Hancock and Garfield torcl
/ light professions were brought in
{ service. After the discovery that Brow
: was alive, only one man was allowed
:. the we'll at time, and the work of e,
4 cavation was necessarily very slo'
At about III o'clock at night the que