The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-10-12
WILD IN THE WOODS.
CHILD HERMlTS IN THE MOUNTAINS
OF SOUTHERN MISSOURI.
Offspring OF Recluse Hide From Human
sight-Five Children Growing Up as Saw
ages Report of Traveller just ke-
turned From the Ozarks.

In the fastness of fancy county, Mo.
hidden from the outside world almost
as secUra Isl as though they were upon a
Cru, stand. Is a family of wild chill
dreE OCCASIONALLY a crazy man gets in
&c the woods and there are sensational
stories OF a wild man, F" but in this
case it Is a family Of little children
left alone in the heart Of wilderness.
They are growing up as savages.
Captain :. c. Johnston returned 70
Springfield. Mo, recently from a
months sojourn in fancy county, where
he found the wild children among the
Ozark mountains near Little Beaver.
about ten miles northeast Of Forsythe.
The captain was trying 70 make his
way down the creek on horseback when
he came to the Hunter ranch, one of
the largest tracts of land inclosed in
fancy county. This obstruction threw
the horseman out of his course. and he
had 10 ride, or rather lead, his horse
several miles through the toughest sec
tion of the Beaver mountains in order
TO get around the ranch.
1t was while making his way around
the Hunter ranch, now mounting up a
rocky peak and then down into deep
gorge that Captain Johnston found, he
says, family of children, half naked,
subsisting on wild fruits and as ready
to run at the sight of man as the wary
buck Of the woods.
The children were five in number,
: Il.
They are orphans whose mother died
nearly year ago The father of the
children has been dead much longer
but his absence was not seriously felt
in the lonely household, Captain John.
ston thinks, as he took but little inter
est in the welfare of the family, leav-
ing that business TO the consideration of
the mother When the woman died,
there was no one TO look after the chill
dren, as they were without kindred or
friends and lived far away from
thoughtful and kind neighbors.
The children remained at the desolate
home and lived upon whatever the
larger ones could pick up. The woods
soon became their chief food supply, |
and when the berries began to ripen
they lived almost entirely on such fruits.
They wore out their clothes till only
rags and shreds partially shielded their |
bodies from the scorching sun. Water
was never used by the little fellows ex.
cept TO quench thirst, and sun and dirt |
together had left but slight traces of a |
civilized race in the features of these |
hermit orphans Of the Ozark mountains.
Captain Johnston says that at the |
sight of him the children ran with evil |
dent signs of fright to a steep cliff and |
crawled under a shelving rock for con-
cealment. He could learn but little |
about the parents Of the children Their
father came into the country few years |
ago and settled as far from other human
habitation as he could get. He was a
strange man, with no social inclina.
lions, and lived 10 himself When the /
settler died, his distant neighbors took
but little note Of the fact, and the
widow and her children lived on in SOL
itude The mother survived her hus-
band a couple of years, and then the
children were left in the little cabin
lost TO the eyes Of the world in the
great mountain forests of fancy coun-
ty Kansas City Times.