St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-06
A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.
Buried in Snow Drift Three
Days-Sufferings of a Lady in a
Dakota Blizzard,

DohOta D1iLLdEu.
From R. NJ. Tuttle, Stanton, Oak.
AS has been published in the GLOBE
a good many times, there were no
deaths from the great January blizzard
in North Dakota. but there was one
case of severe suffering in this county,
the facts concerning which have not yet
been published. 1t is true that there
have been reports about the case i'm
some OF the Eastern papers with vary
ing degrees of dreadfulness, but though
the sufferer had some very peculiar ey-
periences, they are regarded more in
the light of disaster such as might
have happened almost anywhere, than
as an occurrence that reflects any Odium
OH the country.
eff l had lived in Kansas" said the
brave sufferer, Mrs. John r. Cook, to
the GLOBE correspondent, 81 might
have suffered good deal worse from
the effects of cyclone. or if L had been
in the South | might have been carried
off by the yellow fever. 1t is true |
shall lose part of each one of my feet.
and | have suffered untold miseries, but
| shall have my health and strength
again if it is Gods will.'
Mrs. Cook is one of the bravest
WohioH III OdhoGd. 'ollct llle StOrm Sne
has been confined to her bed,
was impossible to move her, for shO was
unable to bear the exposure that would
necessarily accompany her removal
seventy miles i'll sleigh. She is now
in the Bismarck hospital. and on Satur-
day last the operation was performed in
which the toes were cut off each foot.
ave located in Mercer county four
years ago." said Mr.. Cook. 1--WE have
been doing the best we could to build
up home there, and have done as well
as most of our neighborS, but the sea-
son of 1887 was against us, and we
found ourselves without as much money
as we needed. 1t came to this-that
one Of us had to do something during
the winter to earn some money. III
went away and left my wife to take
care of the farm she could not look
after the cattle, and so we decided that
the Heinemeyer district. We live about
twenty miles above Stanton. The
school that she was to teach is about
three miles north of Stanton and about
eighteen miles from where we live. She
began her work in October of last year.
On the morning of the 18th of
January, when it was time
for her to leave her boarding
house for school, the wind was blowing
very hard, and she would not have at
tempted the journey but she was afraid
that some of the children might have
started for the school, and she would
not on any account have had any of
them come to any harm. She figured
that she could stand the storm better
than they could. She got to the school
INV w,
there were no children there, and none
came during the day. She carried i'm
enough coal to last her all day, and
towards evening, some time before it
got dark. she thought she would 60
home, for as the house seemed to her to
rock in the wind, she was afraid that it
would blow away. She was we'll
dressed and set out for her boarding
house, only $50 steps from the
school building. The building
had its door to the south, and she had
to 60 round to start on her short Jour
ney. She went along for few steps,
when her shawl blew off and it seemed
as though a lot of fine glass struck her
face. The force of the snow and wind
bewildered her and see scarcely knew
which way to GO. She made up her
mind about that time that it would be
ing house and turned back, thinking
that she would again go to the school
house, and stay there all night. She
tried to do this, but missed the building.
and the next thing she knew she had
fallen down the embankment of the
Knife river. She was not injured by
the fall, but was buried in the snow,
and could not get out. Fortunately the
river flows about east and west at this
point, and it was behind the north bank
that she was protected, so that
the snow blew over her rest
ing place. If she had been on
the other side of the river the result of
her imprisonment would have been very
different. She was forty hours in the
snow bank near that river. Noone will
ever know the agonies of mind that she
suffered while imprisoned there. All
the night of the 18th nf January she
slept in troubled way in the snow, and
well wrapped up. LII the morning she
took off her overshoe from her left foot,
and began tunneling to get out of the
snow. She had no means of knowing
the direction in which she was tunnel
ing, and SO she went in the wrong di-
rection and did not realize it till she
had got about thirty feet. She had
dreams of the most troubled sort during
her sleeping hours in the drift She
thought that she was hearing her class
recite their lessons. What she thought,
and how she reasoned, and how she
prayed we shall never know.
''She realized that there was danger
while in the the drift, of sutfocation, and
worked all she could to keep all air hole
open at the top, and succeeded well