St. Paul daily globe., 1893-05-24

| pected prize. They jabbered in all tn
languages which are to be found in tina
| polyglotic settlement, and pointed will
| fingers, clothed in varied degrees o
CRIME, at the raft and barrel-shapet
affair.
Gottlleb refused to say a word il
| answer to their inquiries, and he sloWl,
tied up the boat, took out his oars. ant
! then stepped onto the raft. HIS knoWl
edge of the Scandinavian language wa
rather limited, and the owner of the rec
hair and scared face could not talk IL
| German, but they soon arrived at the
same opinion that the best thing to bt
done was to open the barrel and permi
the imprisoned man to get out. The
! trouble was then made manifest; the
! lid, through which the occupant hat
anticipated making al egress. had be
come jammed and would not work. a
| few stout blows with an ak soon settlec
the trouble, and soon about six feet Of
Norsk stepped out onto the shore. Ht
/ stretched his limbs, stretched his arms,
| and finally said he was hungry.
There was crowd or about fifty in at
| tendance on the rescued man as he wen
to the home of GOttIIeb for lunch. They
tried 10 get inside, but Gottlieb shut the
! door in their faces and said it was none
of their business. An Interpreter was
| then secured, and while the coffee poi
| Sizzled on the little cracked stove the
modern Moses told his tale to the red
faced understudy for Phara0h'S daugh
ter. A reporter for the GLOBE had no
ticed the excitement and the croWC
from the Robert street bridge and
visited the scene. He was al
! lowed to enter the cottage anC
was present when the story of his adj
! ventures was told by Nels Nelson, son
! of Norway, and almost as tall as some OF
| the historic pines of that country. His
narrative, as modified by the interpreter
and without the dialect, is as follows:
Nelson's Narrative.
"My home is in the city of Miuneapo-
lis" he said as he hungrily eyed the
coffee pot, land l am cooper by trade.
! | am poor man and do not make much
money, so | have tried to save up all |
could for the purpose of getting my
wife over from the old country. 1t costs
lots Of money to sleep in house, and in
the warm weather | sleep in other
places. | lived in a South Minneapo-
lis boarding house all winter, and as
soon as the weather got mllder 1 started
to build for myself a little place to
Sleep | finished it but few days ago
and TIED it to the eastern shore of Mic
ollet island. 1t was moored just below
one Of the big sewers, and l spent Sl.50
for ropes to tie it to.
ION Sunday night | went up to North
Minneapolis to visit friend of mine,
and we had some beer. We had oOnsid-
to sleep in my little bed | was very
firoh Won tynnXu raiOpn onh hIn Wy
like the devil that night. | went to
sleep all right, and shut down the cover
of the hole through which | entered in
order to keep the rain out.
81 don't know how long | had been
asleep when suddenly | felt something
strike the barrel. thought that some
boys were throwing stones at me, but in
a minute or two l could feel that the
raft was moving and was turning
around and around. Then it struck
something harder. and all of sudden
felt myself dropping. l went down so
fast that L was suspended in the air in
the barrel, and l did not touch it on any
side. | could not imagine what was
the matter until | suddenly thought that
the island had fallen over me. You
know the beer made me feel so queer,
and l could not get my brain to work
right away. After | had found that |
was alive [ tried to open the cover of
the barrel, but the water came pouring
in and 1 quickly shut it again.
when | aWOke | thought that my
head was splItin two pieces. | felt that
| was covered with bruises, and l could
not turn over in my bed. | was soaked
through with water which had dripped
through the covers the openings, and
the water had soaked them so that they
would not open. | did not feel the raft
moving and thought that | had landed
some place down the river, as | knew
that | had
Gone Over the Falls.
at was daylight, and the sun peeped
through the cracks around the opening.
| finally got into position where |
could use my feet, and then | kicked as
hard as l could. Finally | split part
of one of the covers. just enough to get
my head out. Then | looked around
and saw that was on the river shore in
pile Of brush. which had also tloated
down there. Through the trees | could
see Fort Smelling, and l knew that L
was near the mouth of the Minnesota
river.
lit was no use hollering. I yelled
uilb'l VI tllAOClG gave Oul, dllu luGu L
gave it up. had nothing to eat, as |
did not carry provisions in the barrel. [
used few things which | always
brought home for supper and breakfast,
but l always left them on the raft.
finally turned over and went to sleep
again. spent the day in yelling for
help and in sleeping, but | never heard
the sound of human voice all the day
long. l thought that | would probably
stay there and starVe.
ut was little after daylight this
morning when l felt something strike
the raft with an awful bump. l put my
head out of the hole and found that an
immense log had struck the raft and
dlSlOdged 1t from its moorings in the
brush. Then we started down the river,
and l knew l would be picked up and
saved. | tired myself out shouting as |
came down the stream, and | yelled at
every house in sight. But no one heard
me, and | went to sleep again. | could
not even whisper when l saw this man
coming for me in boat"
Question Of Salvage.
In the meantime NeIs had been hold
ing the steaming cOffeepot in his hand.
and had interpOlated sundry gulps of
the fiery liquid. 1t seemed to warm
him to the core, and when one of the
Russian neighbors of Gottlieb handed
him flask of vodka" he smiled Nor
| Wegian smile, and quickly caused the
fluid to disappear. Gottlieb is a man of
| business, and after the tale had been
told he bluntly asked Nelson how much
he was going to receive as salvage. Mel
son was considerably surprised at this
question. and they discussed the matter
at length. Finally, when Nelson said
he was too poor to pay the sum of S5 for
his release from the barrel. Gottlieb
said he would be compelled to kesp him
as hostage, and let him work out the