New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-10-03

i against the building, that it might
| be set on fire, was still more difficult,
and in this case unsuccessful, for be-
| fore it could be done both husband
( and wife had shot an enemy, while
the fifth and only remaining one
i sought safety in precipitate flight
/ Each moment the conflict lasted
the husband grew weaker, and medi-
cal aid could not be procured with
out a journey of $50 miles. To
i traverse this distance there was no
other conveyance than the oxcart.
| In this rude vehicle Mrs. Myron
/ placed her husband and child
dren, and not once during
| that tedious journey. made painful
by the suffering of the man forWhom
she had braved the dangers and dis
comforts of a frontier life, was halt
made.
| At ST. Cloud surgical aid was pro-
cured, and there, after Mr.. Myron's
recovery, he sought work of any
kind that would bring in sufficient
for the support of his family, since
the depredations of the Indians had
impoverished him. It was only BY
the greatest exertions that Mr.. Nv
ron could keep his family from actual
want; and hearing thatlaborers were
in greater demand at Cape Gradeau,
he, with his wife and children, en-
barked on the steamer Tidal Wave
for that place, after having remained
at St. Cloud nearly a year.
/ The voyage was never completed,
| however, for when Tower Grove, Mis-
souri,, was reached, a fire broke out
on the Inflated steamer, and in a
very. short time she was burned to
the waters edge. The loss of was
considerable, and among the missing
ones were the two Myron children.
For the second time Robert Myron
was homeless and penniless, with his
sufferings intensified by the loss ofhis
children. Perhaps it was fortunate
for him that he was obliged to work
very hard simply to keep the wolf
from the door, for it prevented him
from brooding over his misfortunes,
as even stronger man might have
done.
During the two years that elapsed
after the burning of the Tide
Wave, Robert Mryon labored
industriously, but without success,
so far as the accumulation of world
! ly goods was concerned; he had been
able to pay the rent of a rude cabin
three miles from the village of Tower
Hill, and to furnish it scantiIy. But
the expenses attendent upon the
birth of two children, and his own
severe illness, during which he was
confined to his bed two months, had
exhausted the small fund he had sue
ceeded in saving to enable him to
remove to Cape Girardeau.
Then came a time when he could
no longer find employment near his
wretched home, and he sought it
some miles up the river, going and
returning each day in a small boat.
Even when it appeared that mis-
fortunes was not wearied with pur-
suing him, for one night when re-
turning from his work, a storm came
up, which overturned his frail skiff,
and, nearly exhausted, he was thrown
upon a narrow bar of sand that
made out from q bank of the river
at the spot where the Tidal Wave
was burned. On this frail and
treacherous foothold he managed to
remain during the night, in full sight
of the town, but unable to attract
attention to his desperate condition.
The dawn Of day revealed still more
horrors, for close beside him, having
evidently been unearthed by the
waves, was a skeleton of a human
being. At first Myron felt that tear
which seems to be natural in man
when he sees the deserted tenement of
one OF his kind; but the resting-p place
which the waves gave to the living
and the dead was SO small that he
Was obliged to remain almost in ac-
tual contact with the yellow bones.
AS he sat by the skeleton waiting for
help from the shore, which seemed so
tardy in coming, he saw about the
| ribs Of the fieshless frame a leather
belt. Curiosity overcame his terror,
and, unfastening, the belt, he found
within it gold coin to the amount Of
| $4,000.
That Robert Myron was in a fever
of excitement hardly needs to be told.
He had struggled to the full strength
OF man many years, and was hardly
more than a pauper when he should
have had at least a spot of Gods
footstool he could call his own. The
dead had brought him what the living
had refused. To take the gold for
his own purposes seemed a theft, and
yet he who had fastened lit about his
body could no longer use it. The
struggle between his conscience
and his necessity was a long one; but
when those who came to rescue him
arrived at the sand bar they found
him with a skeleton ON which nothing
could be seen, and no one could have
fancied that the half-drowned man
had found a treasure. That the bones
were those of one of the passengers of
the Tidal Wave, NO ONE doubted, and