Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1882-12-29
JOE LAMBERTS FERRY.

JOE LAMBERT'S FERRY.
1t was thoroughly disagreeable
March morning. The wind blew in
sharp gusts from every quarter of the
compass by turns. 1t seemed to take
especial delight in rushing suddenly
around corners and taking away the
breath of anybody it could catch there
coming from the opposite direction.
The dust, too, filled peoples eyes and
noses and mouths, while the damp, raw
March air easily found its way through
the, best clothing, and turned boys skins
into pimply goose-tlesh.
1t was about rs disagreeable morn
ing for going out as can be imagined;
andy everybody in the little western
river town who could get out went out
and stayed out.
Men andwomen, boys and girls, and
even little children, ran to the river
bank; and once there they stayed, with
no. thought, it seemed, of going back to
theirshomes or their work.
The people of the town were wild with
excitement, and everybody told every
body else what had happened, although
everybody knew all about it already.
Everybody, I mean, except Joe Lam
bert, and he had been so busy ever
since daylight, saving wood in SQUIRE
Grisard's woodshed, that he had neither
seensnur heard anything at all. Joe
was the poorest person in the town.
He was the only boy there who really
had no home and nobody to care for
him; Three or four years before this
March morning, Joe had been left an
orphan, and being utterly destitute he
SHOULD have been sent to the poor
house, or bound out" to some person
us a sort of servant. But Joe Lambert
had refused to go to the poor-house or
TO become bound boy. He had de-
clared his ability to take care of him
self, and by working hard at odd jobs,
saving wood, rolling barrels on the
wharf, picking apples or wedding on
ions as opportunity offered, he had
managed to support himself latter
manner.ava the village people said
That is to say, he generally got enough
to eat, and some clothes to wear. He
slept in warehouse shed. the owner
having given him leave to do so on
condition that he would act as sort of
watciiman on the premises.
Joe Lambert alone of all the villagers
knew nothing of what had happened;
and of course Joe Lambert did not
count for anything in the estimation of
people who had houses to live in. The
only reason l have gone out of the way
10 make an exception of so unimpor-
tant alperson is that / think Joe did
countfor something on that particular
March day at least.
When he finished the pile of wood
that he had to saw, and went to the
house to get his money, he found no
body there. Going down the street he
found the town empty, and, looking
down Il cross street, he saw the crowds
that had gathered on the river-bank,
thus learning at last that something un-
usual had occurred. Of course he ran
10 the river to learn what it was.
When he got there he learned that
Noah Martin, the fisherman who was
also the terryman between the village
its neighbor on the other side of the
river, had been drowned during the
early morning in foolish attempt TO
rowahis ferry-skiff across the stream.
The loo which had blocked the river for
two months, had begun TO move on the
day before, and Martin with his wife
and baby-a child about year Old
were on the other side of the river at
the time. Early ON that morning there
had been o temporary gorging of the
ice abort a mile above the town, and,
taking adyantage of the comparatively
free channel, Martin had tried to cross
with his wife and child, in his boat.
The gorge had broken up almost i'm
mediately, as the river was rising rapid
ly, and Martins boat had been caught
and crushed in the ice. Martin had
been drowned, but his wife, with her
child in her arms, had clung to the
wreck of the skiti, and had been carried
by the current to a little low-lying
island just in front of the town.
What had happened was of less i'm
portance, however, than what people
saw must happen. The poor woman
and sbaby out there on the island,
drenched as they had been in the icy
water, must soon die with cold, and,
moreover. the island was now nearly
under water, while the great stream was
rising rapidly, 1t was evident that
within an hour or two the water would
sweep over the whole surface of the
island, and the great fields of ice would
OF course carry the woman and child to
a terrible death.
Many wild suggestions were made for
their rescue, but none that gave the
least hope of success 1t was simply
impossible to launch a boat. The vast
fields of ice, two or three feet in thick
ness, and from twenty feetto hundred
yards in breadth. were crushing and
grinding down the river at the rate of
four or five miles an hour, turning and
twisting about, sometimes iamming
theiss-edges together with so great a
force, that one would lap over another,
and sometimes dl,ftiLg apart and leay-
ing wide open spaces between for a
moment or two. One might as we'll 90
upon such a river in an egg shell as In
the stoutest row-boat ever built.
The poor woman with her babe could
be seen from the shore. standing there
alone on the rapidly narrowing strip OF
islahd.y Her voice could not reach the
people on the bank. but when she held
hey poor little baby toward them In
mnhF appeal for help, the mothers there
linBArstood her agony.
There was nothing TO be done, how.
eyfts Human sympathy was given
frceJE but human help was out Of the
Guekti0n. Everybody on the riyer-shore
was agreed in that opinion. Every.