Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-06-07


 was an anomaly in a Swiss village. Unfortunately again, he was not studi- ous. His record in the village school had been on a par with his manual work, and the family had not even the consolation of believing that they were fostering a genius.
 In community where practical in- dustry was the highest virtue it was not strange perhaps that he was called lazy and shiftless. No one knew the long climbs and tireless vigils he had undergone in remote solitudes in quest Of his favorites, or, knowing, forgaye him for it. Abstemious, frugal and patient as he was, even the crusts of his fathers table were given him grudgingly. He often went hungry rather than ask the bread he had fail- ed to earn. How his great frame was nurtured in those days he never knew. Perhaps the giant mountains recog- nized some kin in him and fed and strengthened him after their own fash ion. Even his gentleness was con- founded with cowardice. Dot vos de hardest" he said simply. 'It is not goot to be opligit to half crush your brudder ven he would make laugh of you to your sweetheart" The end came sooner than he expected and, odd ly enough, through this sweetheart.
 "Gottlieb,' she had said to him one day, 'sthe English fremde who stayed here last night met me when I was carrying some of those beautiful flow CTS you gave me. He asked me where %N h1a @nII 11Sv only you knew. He wants to see you. Go to him. It may be luck to you.D Ruetli went. The stranger, an Eng fish Alpine climber of scientific tastes, talked with him for an hour. At the end of that time, to every ybody's as- 5tonishment, he engaged this hopeless idler as his personal guide for three months at the sum of 5 francs day! It was inconceivable. It was unheard of The tEnglander" was as mad as Gottlieb, whose intellect had always been under suspicion! The schoolmas- ter pursed up his lips. The pastor shook his head. No good could come of it. The family looked upon it as another freak of Gottlieb's, but there was one big mouth less to feed and more room in the kitchen, and they let him go. They parted from him as ungraciously as they had endured his presence. @
 Then followed two months of sum shine in Ruetli's life, association with his beloved plants and the intelligent sympathy and direction of a-curtivated man. Even in attitudes so dangerous that they had to take other and more experienced guides Ruetli was always at his masters side. That savant's col lection of Alpine fora excelled all pre- vious ones. He talked freely with Ruetli of further work in the future and relaxed his English reserve so far as to confide to him that the outcome of their collection and observation might be book. He gave flower Latin name in which even the ignorant and delighted Ruetli could distinguish some likeness to his own. But the book was never compiled Tn one of their later and more difficult ascents they and their two additional guides were overtaken by 8 sudden storm. Swept from their feet down an icebound slope, Ruetli alone of the roped together par ty kept foothold on the treacherous incline. Here this young Titan, with bleeding fingers clinched in rock cleft, sustained the struggles and held up the lives of his companions by that precious thread for more than an hour. Perhaps he might have saved them, but in their desperate efforts to regain their footing the rope slipped upon jagged edge of outcrop and parted as if cut by knife. The two guides passed with out an outcry into obscurity and death. Ruetli, with last despairing exertion, dragged to his own level his uncon- scious master, crippled by broken leg.
 Your true hero is apt to tell his tale simply. Ruetli did not dwell upon these details, nor need I. Left alone upon treacherous ice slope in be- numbing cold, with helpless man, eight hours afterward he staggered, half blind, incoherent and inarticulate, into shelter hut with the dead body of his master in his stiffened arms. The shelter keepers turned their atten- tion to Ruetli, who needed 1t most. Blind and delirious, with scarce chance for life, he was sent the next day to the hospital, where he lay for three months helpless, iTSa@cile and un- known. The dead body of the English man was identified and sent home. The bodies of the guides were recovered by