Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-02-12
A SEA OF SAND.
A Tale of Dreadful Suffering on the Dry
 Desert.

4 Tale of Dreadful Suffering on the Dry
 Desert
 Daylight was just breaking Gs we mounted our horscs-2i of us, led by young licutenant-and rodc out upon tho sands of the Great Sta!c,l plain. We left trees, grass. flowers a"t' n hunhIing spring and sparkling riNui bcniEd us. Ahead and to tho right and Jeff was a desert of sand, whereon only the -:untcd sage bush and the ugly cactus crvw- We headed by compass for the other side, and before WIG had gone q mile some of the men were al ready sipHinG at their water bottle. By noon the horses betrayed their thirst, and when nicht finally came, and we made a firclcss and waterioss camp We realized that we had not sufficiently prepared for the journey The water intended to last for three days was almost gone. The men would have quite CmptieJ tEeir bottles had not the officer collected them and watched OVCr them with his own eyes, A few sips of warm and tLickening water for the ridcrs-not d drop for the poor horses held my horse : mouth open and dropped dozen dr"r' on his tongue. and he showed his gratitude by rubbing his nose against my C!iyE
 Thn: night at midnight, made dcsper- ate by thirst. Inc animals stampeded in bunch, Erj..y straight to tho cast, and | when murfl0. cInlc we piled up saddles and brid. = in heap and set out Cn the | trail of the horses. II the men had suffered l with hCa; while in the saddlc, they now 1 suffered far more as their feet sank deep into the sand and the sun was reflected hack into their faces. By II o'clock the | sands wCrc So hot as 10 almost burn the bare hand, and tho feet of the men raised dust causing thirst which only hints of iCo cold water could have aSSu- aged. Just al sunset the lieutenant stag gcrcd and fell, and the men camC up ono | by one and fell down beside him and made tho camp at that spot. Thcro was but pint of water for 2i men. -Aftar bit the | officer dealt il out in the shell of n car fridge. The twenty fourth of pint for man whose tongue was dry as stick 1 whose voice was only a whispcr-who had cursed or wcit as he lurchCd over tho hot sands and rrn., :nbcrCli the ice cold spring We had left lchind on the western side! ' The relief did not last above n minute l ThCro WAS arccly enough tO muiSten the l tongue.
 IT. n, 7: cuy c,l as they handed back the 1 shri! aIu iIv G&..H. S'!uC tried to slSCp- | 3,E,r- ;3;r Itcir i-Tuund coArc and hard tac Ll | !ijhi,a .ti ;hcir salt meat and 1 th.~ ;.u . [" IL; F i..1r,J. No ore wanted fool i.,tr.- r.:..:. vs."..-i Eav" given all hi- g: rthly i',-., >l.':.~ .or a pint ut water. IL T. vs,.- :.. dew X ov:vn times during q :s. .c9. i'..'.t 1,.%n ,1vt !j1 10 see if the La!.r,,. .,!j = ,i.;., .d on the sands had C3U- !.t any . :l.';HcsS bus they were as dry aS if Iu,t tt!.''H Dut Ut ;n CvCli. ltwas | n night ot wa,ltnss and CurSiES and suffer ing. When morning came tho lieutenant, | who wa, hardly moro than Q boy and not l in robust health. looked wild and talked queerly No orders were given. We rose up, one hy one, looked around us in 0 dazcd way, and then resumed tho march. Hero and there two men walked side by side, but most of them walked alone. It seems to me as I think it over that every man talked to himself, and every ones l voice was wonderfully changed. Tho talk l was all about wells and springs and brooks and ice. and it added to ones misery to hear 1t. It was every man for himself. We had n lieutenant, a sergeant and . two corpOrals, but I cannot remember that any of them gave any orders. The men sat down or marched on. At noon eight of us happened to bc sitting together. counted them over and over and am sure there were eight. No one else was in sight No one asked what had become of the others. About midafternoon, wo were toiling painfully along, I counted again. This time we wCro only five. Not a word was said about the others. When the man in the lead fell down and stretched out, the rest of Us did the same, and thus we went into camp. Night had come and I was drOwsing when I heard the corporal say to Peters:
 It is not water. but i; will stop this awful thirst"
 What is it' nsked Peters after long interval.
 "BlOOd!'
 "Whose blood''
 Il know"
 No morC was said between them, but it came to me in a dim way that they meant to kill mo and drink my blood. Twas not | frightened at first, but after a little fear began to steal into my heart and rose up and ran of into the darkness. ran till fell exhausted and from that time all was
 blank for four days, Our horses reached the eastern side, and the pioneers who found them suspected what had occurred and came tO our relief. They caEue as quickly as possible, but they were too lato to save the majority. Ten out of 2i were picked up aS they wandered about in de
 lirium or had laid down to die. The others were dcad-dCad of sunstrOke,
 thirst CT the fangs of the rattlCsnakcs on
 which they taDd as they pressed forward to drink Ut n spring they believed to be bub-
 bling up from the sands of the desert ! M nr-An