Sharp County record., 1896-07-17
4 Tale of WOe.
Sad Predicament of a Family of Arkansas
Refugees.

A Door, over worked and half
starved woman, with her three hun
grv children, arrived in town yester'
day on the afternoon train from the
south. One of her children, little
boy about 10 years old, had bis face
and head wrapped in a bloody band.
age, and blood was drlbbhng from
bis open mouth and bleeding lips
He appt I'd to be suffering from a
severe injury, and he was ordered
taken to the police station IN the am
bulance. Or. Henry being called
said he found that the boy had
fractured lower jaw, which some
physician had made mere pretense
of setting, and be ordered him taken
to the hospital.
When the poor mother, whose
name IS Mrs. Nelson Battles, with
her little child IN her arms, was told
of this she at once began to cry,
The story she told to reporter was
a pltiful one. Not quite two years
ago her husband owned a l6o-acre
farm in Brule county, near Pukwana
s. D. The farm was without incum-
brance, and they were perhaps as
prosperous as the average South
Dakota farmer. But the grasping
southern land agent came and de-
stroyed their real happiness by tell
ing them a visionary story of the
wonderfully fertile lands Of Arkan'
sas, He described IN glowing terms
the way the crops would grow if
only the hand of the farmer touched
the soil. Water was abundant he
said, and all they had to do was to
plant the seed. So they sold their
South Dakota farm for $3.50 and
paid every cent Of this to the south
ern land agent for 100 acres of Ark
ansas dirt. But when they arrived
there, the vision vanished in the red
clay and stony fields of an Arkansas
desert. No water was to be found
and, this the woman said through
her tears, "the soil wasn't fit for
raising beans"
So this spring the family started
in their wagon for their old home ir
South Dakota. They We're without
cent OF money, and the long ioEr'
ney was full of hardship and suffer
ing, with starvation staring them in
the face each dav. AL went with
out accident until about ti...o m.io,
from Mondamin, To-, when the little
boy was kicked in the jaw by a horse
! Several teeth were knocked out and
The lower jaw was broken, The
family proceeded to the town, where
the sympathy of the people wa'
aroused for the family and sub
scrlption list was started. Sufficient
money was raised to buy a tlcke
for the wife and her children t(
Pukwana, and to procure medlca
attendance for the injured boy
Then they came to Sioux City, while
the husband is now on his way will
the wagon. Now Mrs. Battles will
have to 60 on, leaving her boy be
hind in the hospital and her husband
slowly making his way IN thu
wagon.
The above we take from
the Sioux City Times o.
June 30th. The Times is
published away up NORTH
somewhere. In what state
other than the state of ex
citement is not apparent
from the copy before us
The foregoing is an account
of a recent Southern outrage
and possesses elements Of
truthfulness which we arc
bound to confess with some
degree Of shame and humil
ity, the elements Of trutl
may be enumerated as fol
lows: There is a Mrs, Nelsor
Battles, she has a boy some
ten years old who has a jaw
and her husband owns
vicious horse, which horse
may have kicked the boy o,
the lower jaw, but, we main
tain earnestly that if he did
sad horse was not a south
ern horse except III a com
parative way, being a Soutl
Dakota horse, and, having
once been in Arkansas anC
finding himself driven t,
Moudamin in Iowa, which i
seems, is located somewher,