The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-06-27
MY NARROW ESCAPE.
An Awkward Scrape, and How
Got Out of It.

"You want story of frontier life, eh?"
said Captain Thomas Watson, in reply to
the opportunities of company of Eastern
friends who were visiting him at his home
in Wisconsin. swell, really, would like
to oblige you, but am afraid you will be
disappointed If / undertake to tell story,
for the fact is, was never scalped by In
dams nor chased by wolves; never Rugged
by grizzly bear, nor even so much as run
over by herd of buffalo.
"No doubt you think it strange" contin-
ued the Captain, ito hear an old pioneer
make such an admission, but it is true,
strictly true. However, did have little
adventure one time when the country was
new. l suppose l might tell you some-
thing of that, though it is an occurrence
seldom allude to. The fact is / got myself
into a very awkward scrape, through my
own foolishness, and can never tell the
story in such a way as to make it appear
at all creditable to myself.
"But whether creditable or not, it was
certainly exciting enough, for to tell the
truth, was mistaken-and taken, too-for
a horse-thief, and came uncomfortably
near getting taste of that sort of justice
which Judge Lynch so often administers to
the luckless individuals who are forced to
go to trial in his court. 1, by the merest
chance, happened to escape; but many a
innocent, has been tried, condemned and
executed in less than an hours time.
The affair happened thirty years ago,
here in Western Wisconsin, not more than
twenty miles from the Mississippi River.
MY father emigrated from Ohio with
his family in the summer of 1853. I was
eighteen years old in July of that year,
strong and able-bodied; but the other
children-four of them-were considerably
younger, and all of them girls. Father,
however, was hard to be suited with
place to settle, and after looking around
awhile here in Western Wisconsin, he
pushed on across the Mississippi and To-
Gated in Southeastern Minnesota. The
claim he selected was on high prairie,
about forty miles back from the river, and
seven or eight miles from any timber.
1T was late in the season when we de-
cided upon location, and began making a
home. But all hands went at it in earnest,
and we had soon put up a comfortable little
house, and had cut and stacked sufficient
quantity of hay to winter our stock-a
span of horses and two cows. For the ami
mails temporary stable was constructed,
which afforded excellent shelter. 1t was
simply a framework of poles, covered and
enclosed with prairie hay.
although it was now the middle of No
vember, we had been too busy as vet to get
any wood, except just enough for present
use. we were about to set about that work
when an accident occurred. Father fell
from the roof of the house one morning and
broke his right leg. Fortunately, it was
not bad fracture; mother and 1, with the
help of neighbor, were able to set it,
without much difficulty. .sbe h.a
hut 'misfortunes never come singly,'
says the proverb. The very next morning,
when went out to the stable to feed the
horses, l found one of them stretched out
as stiff as an Egyptian mummy and as
dead as Julius Cesar. This was serious
loss TO us at that time, for we must have
fuel and team of some kind to get it.
Father was at first completely discour-
aged. With only broken leg, he had been
inclined to take a hopeful view of the situa-
ton, thinking would be able to keep the
family supplied with wood. But this
second misfortune was too much for his
philosophy, and he at once resigned him
self TO the blues. Mother tried to appear
cheerful, hut her cheerfulness was evil
IDENTIFY assumed, aud did not altogether
hide the anxiety she strove to conceal.
"Our neighbors--at that time there were
only three families within ten miles of us
came in occasionally and tried to cheer
us up, Offering to help us in any way they
could. But their friendly, well-meant
offers of assistance failed to take any
definite shape, while the wood-pile rapidly
dwindled away.
.'sThe prospect was certainly cherries
one. don't much wonder that the folks
grew down-hearted and Respondent, as
they unquestionably did. At the end Of a
week mother was two-thirds sick from loss
of sleep and overwork, while father had
been undeniably irritable and cross from
the first. ] suppose he had right to be,
= considering his aches and pains, and the
weight Of care and responsibility resting