The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-11-30

| ton he had taken from Charlotte. A score
of people turned out and secured the coun-
| try, but no trace of him could be found.
At midnight, with most of the searchers
camped on the highways and in the fields,
| still believing that the robber was hidden
| in the woods, snow began to fall and the
wind to rise, and at daylight gale was
sweeping over the country.
| Uncle Jim, as everybody called the old
| man whose real name was James White,
| had lived for many years In the outskirts
of the village of Charlotte. He was what
| people call ''fated man" He married
in 1860 and had just got settled in home
| when the house took fire and burned
| down, and he lost everything. The next
year his wife was killed by accident. Six
months later he was badly hurt while at
| work. When he recovered, he enlisted as
soldier, but had only reached the front
when the accidental discharge of a cannon
| deprived him of his right arm and most of
| his left hand. He had not been home two
months when he was run over by a vehicle
and so injured that his left leg had to come
off at the knee. With his pension money
he bought an acre of ground, with poor
old house and a tumble down barn on it,
hoping to make his living by growing
fruits and vegetables, and for time he
| got along reasonably well.
Then his health gave out, his pension
was stopped on the grounds that he had
| given wrong date in his application, and
! on Thanksgiving morning, which dawn
| ed bleak and drear enough for the happi
est in the village, Uncle Jim had two call
| erS.
One was from villager who held a
| mortgage on his real estate and had called
to tell him that it must be foreclosed, and
| the other was county official who tried
! to tell him in a kindly way that the mat
| ter had been talked over and it had been
decided to send him to the poorhouse for
the winter.
When the callers had gone their ways,
| Uncle Jim sat down and ate his meager
breakfast and looked out Of back win
dow upon the dreary landscape and reflect
| ed and wept. Fate had followed him for
| years and downed him at last. The eli
max had now come, and as the old man
sat down to face it alone he could find
| but one way out of it, He would never go
| to the poorhouse, and he would never hob
BILE around the country as a professional
mendicant. The alternative was suicide
and he would accept it. While other vii
| layers prepared their Thanksgiving dinner
sermons prepared for the day his dead body
would be swinging at the end of rope in
the old barn on the back end of his lot.
Yes, he would hang himself. He had not
entered the barn for month, but he knew
there was q stout rope coiled on a peg out
there, and the beams and braces offered
better chances to secure the free end thar
hook in his humble cabin. After
hours thought Uncle Jim got up, pue
his hat, looked around to bid his he
| farewell and started for the barn
knew that a gale was sweeping o,g
country, but he did not realize its
until c1eaf or the mouse. Tia
tween the kitchen door and the ba
den gust caught him up and fun
! down, and at the same instant thg
barn tumbled in with crash
The old man got up daZed and bewildc
cd. The fall of the barn frightened. hin
and temporarily drove away all though
| of suicide. He had turned to re-enter tho
house, when he heard faint cries for help
| from the debris of the barn, and in a state
! of great amazement he hobbled out of the
| wreckage to investigate. He soon discov-
cred man held down by beams and
planks, and as he worked to release him
he came across satchel The man had a
| broken leg ana soon AFTER being found be-
came unconscious. Uncle Jim, almost
helpless and very badly frightened, shout
ed for help, and it was an hour after the
victim of the accident had been released
that his identity was known, and people
| told the old eX-soldier that fortune had
smiled on him at last.
The bank robber had not hidden in the
woods. Instead of going beyond Charlotte
he had secreted himself in Uncle Jim's old
barn to wait for pursuit to cool and ia
vorable moment to steal another horse.
| Davids & Davids had offered reward of
! So, 600 for the man and his plumber, and
at noon of Thanksgiving day both were in
! the kitchen of the old cripple's shanty
home and being well guarded by officers
of the law. The burglar, who turned out
to be a professional of no mean reputation,
was very badly injured, and it was months
! before he could be tried and given his just
deserts. but Thanksgiving sun had not
/ yet gone down when Uncle Jim had been
! provided with all the comforts of life and
] had thanked his God score of times that
] out of the bitterness of poverty and the
| climax of misfortune had arisen a gale to
| prevent self murder and bring happiness
/ I,,lo in, ba