The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1894-02-10

several days the skies were laden aud
ominOus
"Then it began showing. Lightly, at
first, but more and more heavily as the
days wore on. No person who was not
there ever saw such snow. Soon it had
so changed the appearance of both;
mountains and valleys that but for our
compass we should have been hopeless
ly confused. At last even that guide to
direction failed us. It was accidentally
dropped by theman who carried it, and
never recovered.
Still we were strong hearted, and
plunged blindly forward several days
longer through the snow.
"Helplessly bewildered. we finally de-
cided that our only hope was to go into
permanent encalnpnent till the storm
was over
AFTER we had been in camp ten days
we had to content ourselves with but
one meal, and that small one. each
twenty-four hours. A few days more
and even that gave out.
Then we had nothing with which to
satisfy our hunger but the moss which
we dug down through the snow and
tore from the rocks. and the bark from
the branches Of dead trees
Soon, so awful was it all. a great dis
trust grew up among u.s. Each man
feared that he would be slain and eaten
by his ne1ghbor After that none'of us
dared sleep.
For two nights and days we stood
and sat around that roaring fire with
Enclosed. glaring eyes,
Then the end came. One after an
other our overstrained minds succumbed.
We yelled and laughed and danced
| about like the maniacs we were, ours
ing the gold which had lured us into
our trouble. the mountains which shut
us off from our fellow beings. the snow.
the fire. God and each other.
That night. from sheer exhaustion.
we fell like stricken beeves in the snow
around the fire, and while the others
slept, arose and took an ak and slew
them-all OF them-my six poor CON-
rades
And then, having killed them, cut
SISdL ClluIlAo VI ucSu l1Ou luCAA uCUA,
helpless bodies, which cooked and ate.
How long this fearful feast was kept
up do not know. but it must have been
for considerable time, for it was many
weeks after the storm had ended before
some settlers found me, in valley to
the westward, prone upon the ground
and breathing heavily.
Il was picked up and nursed through
terrible fever. which followed, every
moment of which made hideous with
muttered disclosures of my doubts and
fears and orgies around that awful
camp fire.
1.-Two months later. as soon as was
well enough. came back east to my
young wife, but without any knowledge
of my crimes had no recollection
whatever of the period l described to
you. Those to whom recited it's par
ticulars at the time of my illness re-
garded everything l disclosed as mere
mad ravings-the Authorizations of fever
and weakness. And so it was not till
my return to California. a year later.
that was told of my sickbed con-
LESSONS.
mo sooner did hear them. though.
than it all came back to me with the
| most fearful ciearness-the hooking
snow, the 1naddening hunger. the dis
trust my comrades aetl bore each
other. the murders, the cannibalism-
everything.
''Well, Mr.. Greenwood. after was
told of my fever rawlings, went to DON
ner lake and searched till found that
valley of death beyond it. still had
hope that | might have been only deliri-
Gus after all. But at the site of that
wretched camp fire was evidence beyond
doubling, the bones of my murdered
comrades. our arms, tools, all the famil-
lar and damning array. It was more
than conclusive. | surrendered myself to
the authorities, who thought me labor
ing under delusion. They instituted
a private investigation, but were con-
fronted with so many elements of doubt
that they soon dismissed me with the
opinion that it was case in which the
Almighty alone had jurisdiction.
$50 | left my merciful judges and
came home.
"But terrifying fear had seized me
in that Californian courtroom which
my subsequent studies satisfied me was
only too well grounded. Mr.. Green
wood. have consulted every obtainable
authority on the subject of heredity, and
substituting other names and places
have laid the matter before the most
eminent specialists. The result in each
and every instance is the same. Not
one ray of hope offers itself from any
source. My daughter cannot marry
because sooner or later either she or her
children will inherit from me an appe-
tite for human flesh!'
For brief interval, perhaps minute,
Kenneth Greenwood sat staring at Tul-