The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-05-23
Tramp IN A DESERT.
FueArT AND HIS SONS WALKED FIVE
HUNDRED MILES THROUGH SAND.
They Nearly Perished In Sand storm
CiAsped In Each Others Arms-Rescued
by . Los Angeles Merchant Who Helped
Them to Their Destination.

py . Los angeles hercnant w no hetpeu
Them to Their Destination.
Rufus ;. Fugatt and his five sons re-
Gently tramped 500 miles over the desert
from Prescott, A. T., enduring incredible
hardships before reaching Chino, Cal. Mr..
Fugatt tells the story Of the journey In
the san Francisco Examiner.
His wife had deserted them, and they
made up their minds to 60 to Chino,
where they had lived before. for work.
Having only sl5. they started about Sept.
90 with two donkeys, on which the two
youngest boys rode, a small tent, shot
gun, shovel and some cooking utensils.
The boys were Claude, Jesse, Francis.
John and Ralph, ranging i'm age from IL
70 o.
"Claude was poisoned by cactus in the
region of Congress, A. IT,, F" says Fugatt,
land for ten days we had TO stay In a
lonely gulch. We got no work at Phonix
and trampod from there TO Yuma. While
tording the ella river with Ralph and
John on my back oil our dried food was
wet and spoiled. We lived for two days
with some Pima Indians and gladly shared
their fare OF mesquite beans and baked
meat.
AT one mining camp along the lifeless
and grim way among extinct volcanoes
from Azrec 10 Yuma l traded my shotgun
for food and medicine. My little Jesse
had become i'll from the miserable food we
had to eat, and his legs and bare feet were
sore and swollen from cactus thorns. We
rested two days on the bank of tiny
stream near Tacna until we had left only a
chunk of salt pork as large as my hand
and four crackers. This was the stock of
food for six, and Yuma was 40 miles away.
Francis and l were so sick in Yuma
that we could not move. We lived like In
dians on the bank of the muddy Colorado
river for week, while recovered To
raise money To buy food traded the last
OF our blankets for SO. With that sum ex-
pended in pork, jerked beef and crackers
for us and hay for our donkeys, we started
across the Colorado desert.
1T is marvellous that my little boys did
not lie down in that sea of sand and die of
sheer exhaustion. Jesse was so hungry
that he chewed on the horn buttons on his
coat, and Francis was in a semiconscious
condition the last two days we tramped
over the desert
"One day we went from dawn until
sand made our thirst the more agonizing.
1t seemed as If my brain were cooking and
my eyeballs were blazing in their sockets
Heaven only knows what the boys suffer
ed. Claude was almost insane few hours
before we reached Mesquite, where We got
water from the Southern Pacific railroad
tank
1--WE could not cook our scanty food on
the barren waste, for we had no fuel: so
for eight days our sole diet was raw pork,
bareback, stale bread and uncuoked can
ned vegetables.
Eve had two candles in our equipment,
and the boys devoured them. AT night we
slept in shallow bitches that we dug in the
sand We had then not thing about us
to keep us warm but our tattered clothes.
'My two little boys, John and Ralph,
wore their shoes out, end for a full week
they went almost barefooted. At times
they suffered severely. Blood trickled from
the wounds in their legs and feet and they
were thick tOngued from hunger and
thirst. The. sun beat down relentlessly by
day and the night was singing, piercing
cold us we lay in our scooped out hollows
of sand.
eve were near Mesquite, about 90 miles
from Yuma when the first sand storm
swept upon u.s. The wind blew great guns
and all of us were cut deep into our flesh
by the blasts. had the boys picket the
donkeys as quickly as possible by tying the
donkey halters To their own waists.
"We were none too quick, for with a
stupendous sweep and indescribable awful
ness the storm was upon us. 1t blew, as
nearly as we could tell, straight from the
south. i gathered my boys about me- and,
| stretching the canvas of our tiny tent over
our heads as we lay on the desert we
bravcd the sand storm. Jesse and John
burst into tears with terror and Rugged
| close to me. 1t became as dark as night
| In three or four minutes. felt the fright
ened donkcys not six feet away Juggling at
the ropes that held them to US, but could
not see them. Finally one of the donkeys
| broke tho rope that held him, and with a
| hidoous sound of fright ran away in the
darkness. We never saw 1t again.
1.-The storm howled and screeched We
could barely see one another in our little
| family party, and we clutched more tight
| ly to one another. The sand came hard
and pelting as from sand blast No hui
man being could have stood up and faced
that hurricane of sand and gravel Coca
sionally when had to put my hand out
blue tne CduNtS tO CONer up my boys rag
| ged and sharp particles of sand came sting
| ing upon my flesh. How our remaining
donkey ever lived through 1t have no
| idea. The canvas over us was covered over
a foot thick with sand, and the telegraph
poles all along the railroad are chewed and
eroded by blowing sand
1T seemed as IL we would suffocate be.
meath the canvas but we were only too
glad we had that protection from the howl
ing hurricane. My little boy Ralph put
his face down close to the desert waste and
sobbed in fright. We had to shout to one
another. Papa, is this the end Of the
worldY' said 9-year-old Francis when the
tempest ragged fiercest. The most dreadful
thought to me was that tho storm might
continue day or two. That would have
been death to oil Of us, and we should have
been buried there alive, as hundreds OF
other desert travellers have been.
| son Wednesday, Jan. 20, our food ran
out entirely. We were II miles from any
railroad station, and to add to the horror
of our situation out In the desert the can
teen leaked and all our water ran away.
/ ltxa . thn. md n -. g.