The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-05
ISLAND MAIL CARRIER
MANY DANGERS THAT LURl
 ALONG THE ROUTES.
Thrilling Experiences and Marrow Escapes from Death on Lake
 Erie-Hazardcus Passage on Broken Ice.


 In Lake Erie. or most of them, are ac- quainted with the dangerous occupation of the island mail carriers. but the people on the main land. and especially those .who live inland, have no conception of the dangers that turk along the islands sUail route.
 A carrier must be a stranger to fear end never '1ose his head" so to speak, for 1T he does his chances are good for 6nding resting place on the bottom of the lake. Unforeseen dangers arise sone- 4inaes which call for rapid thinking and equally quick action. To hesitate at such Hines is to he lost. hence the islands mail carriers take desperate and danger pus chauces at times--chanccs that, to people unacduainted with the work, swould seem fool-hardy; but the carrier recognixss his danger and takes chances, and with an apparent reckiessness, that makes one shudder to think of, yet through all the carrier is cool and calcu- lating-he must be.
 Captain Amos Hitchcock has had the islands mail route for years. His father had it before him, and the dangers they have encountered would make a book more thrilling than border life during Indian war times In the early set clement of the. country-dangers which no one hut themselves know anything of No matter how cold and stromy it may be an effort must be made to get the mail tbrugh.
 :. One morning Captain Hitchcock left North Bass Island. The ice was not strong enough to bear his weight walking Gtrapping the mail pouch upon his back and lying fiat upon his face he started creeping for Middle Bass Island, more xhan mile away. A large dog seeing him In that position started out on the Ice toward the creeping man. but broke shrough and was nearly drowned before parties on shore could rescue him. Cap tain Hitchcock crept the entire distance across the channel, the ice cracking un- der and all about him. At another time he was crossing the Ottawa channel in q boat. A heavy fog came down and he had to resort to his compass to keep his bearings. Iron in the boat caused the compass to vary and he was carried two pailes out into the lake and would no doubt have perished had not the fog lifted so that he might see where he was. When the mail was carried from Port Clinton-14 miles-Captain Hitchcock, used sleigh. One day he came to crack in the ice several yards wide. He had two or three passengers and several shundred pounds of freight. He chopped put a big cake of the ice upon which the sled was standing, and his horse, sled passengers and freight were ferried across the creek
 For the past several winters the cap- tain's two sons, Lyndon and Ernest, have carried the mail and their experiences have been as thrilling as those of tI ir father before them. On one occasion the boys were coming from Middle Bass Isiand--they had one passenger in their boat-Miss Blanche Vroman. She will never forget that trip! The Ice was breaking up and running down the lake. They could not row, but the crossing must be made just the same. They got into their harness (nade of ropes and straps with which to pull the .boat) and started for Put-in- Bay island a good. ipnS mile away. Jumping from cake to cake of ice, many times the cakes not larger than an ordinary washtub. often sinking to their middle in the icy water, and yet not daring to stop, their boat Humping on the ice behind them--a breathlcss crowd standing on the docks on both islands watching the periious trip--and when they reached the Put tn-Bay shore both boys were laughing as If 1t was rare sport.
 At another ume-it was a terrible day cold and stormy-when they arrived at their home dock (Put-inBay) their clothes were frozen to thu boat and they had to be chopped loose, helped to a fire and be 'thawed out before they could remove their clothing--they looked like { two pillars of ice when they arrived. At another time they were caught In run ming ice In the Ottawa channel and work as hard as they may they could not push their way through and were carried down the lake. Their father was watch Ing them through glass from the fhore. They managed to land on Kel- ley's island. seven miles below.
 On New Years day 1885. they had another thrilling experience. Two pas sengers were with them-Mlsses Mary and Myrtle Nroman. Shortly after they left, Catawba. on the main land, dense fog came down: ff was impossible to see road ahead of the boat. Their com pass misled them again. The residents of the island were alive to the gravity of the occasion. for lost on Lake Erie In fog Is serious matter. Cannons were fired, and church bells rang. The boat finally landed on East Point several miles out of the way. and the young women wanted to embrace everybody in sight when they landed. so glad were they.
 Among the most dangers encountered is crossing when the ice is breaking up and running out, for to get caught be- tween two big cakes of ice means the crashing of the boat like an cgg she'll That is the reason for using a small H. foot boat-they can be lifted and pulled about where a larger boat could not be handled. In one trip they may sail, row. skate, pike ice or use their creepers. tFor the benefit of those who do not know what "creepers" are, l will say they are steel plates strapped to the feet like skates and on the bottom of which are q number of steel spurs or spikes an inch long and sharpened to a needle point.)
 rrhaza ara for-