The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-01-01
An AGED WOMAN
AND HER CHILD
LOST IN W|LOS
Found by Indians Without
Food or Shelter in the Far
Northwest
STRANGE STORY Of MOTHERS
SEARCH FOR HER LOST BOY

Lived in Wilderness Inhabited by
Hungry and Ferocious Wolves and
Where the Snow Piled in Mountain
Drifts and Mercury 20 Below.
Winnipeg, Jan. Wandering about
in the wilds of the north among the
haunts of innumerable timber wolves,
Margaret Romano, a Mexican woman,
old and frail, together with her
daughter, child of 13, have been
found by Indians, in a starving con-
dftion, almost frozen, and desperate
from hunger.
In the Remote North.
The place where the two were
found was at Calling Lake, seventy
five miles west of Athabasca Landing.
The pitiful story came to the immi-
grafton Offices of Bruce Walker to-
day.
Endured Awful Hardships.
| The place Is uninhabited and only
wolves and big game abound In the
bush and swamps which in winter
time are buried in mountains of
snow, and entirely unprotected from
the elements.
Evidently the victims of hallucina-
tion, they are wanderers over the
earth. Seemingly homeless and with
out friend in the world, they have
endured unknown hardships for q
long time. Both have been driven
from Canada into the United States.
and from the states into Canada
again.
Penniless and Afoot.
In April 1t was reported to ]. Bruce
Walker, commissioner of immigration,
that Mexican woman aged 72 years,
and her little daughter had walked
into Canada from Dakota. penniless,
friendless and foodiess, and were beg
! ging their food and living. from door
10 door, accepting the hospitality of
the farmers in the territory through
which they had passed. They event.
ually landed at the shack OF home
steader in the Cypress Hills district.
The old woman weak with the eff
fects of the long walk, required care
and attention.
Mounted Police Report.
The mounted police discovered the
woman, and after hearing her story
reported the affair to the headquar-
ters at Regina and whence It was re-
ported to Mr.. Walker at Winnipeg.
The commissioner took the matter up
Immediately and issued instructions
to the immigration authorities to &C.
cure a light wagon and team and
drive from the nearest point to the
Cypress Hills, pick up the woman and
child and take them to the nearest
point on the railway, from which
place they were removed to Moose
Jaw.
From Moose Jaw they came to Win
nipeg, and here 1t was revealed that
the woman had taken her child and
had walked all the way from Okla
homa, trying to get to Edmonton
where she expected to see her son, a
little boy, who was supposed to be
living at that city.
Could Not Speak English.
The mother could not speak Eng
lish at all and only conversed in
Spanish, but the child was able to
speak English fairly we'll. After the
couple was kept until they had fully
recovered their health and strength
and were able again to be about, Mr..
Walker took steps to have the twain
deported to the United States as they
had come in from that country.
Authorities Interfere.
The American authorities, howev-
er, declined to allow the couple to
cross the border. except that they
were booked through to Mexico, on
the ground that they were not citi-
zens of the United States.
The woman then declared that she
had friends to go to, and as she had
renewed strength, and as the immi-
grafton authorities had lost power to
eject them from Canada, they were
fixed up and allowed to depart from
Winnipeg. leaving this city on May
Is, 1908.
Wandering in the Bush.
| Whittier they went was not known
and the case was forgotten, and hid
den among the files and reports of
the immigration department until yes
terday when the mounted police re-
ported that Mexican woman, 72
years of age, and little girl about
1S years Of age had been found wan
derlng In the bush on Dec. 10, at Call
ing Lake, seventy-five miles west of
Athabasca Landing and 400 miles
north of Winnipeg.
Found by Indians.
How the couple managed to travel
there and what their purpose in view
is. cannot be understood. In weather
20 degrees below zero, they were
found by Indians, who saved them
from perishing from the cold and ex-
posure. or being eaten by wolves.
which this year are unusually feroci-
GUS and numerous in that district.
The police patrol was called by the
Indians who went to Calling Lake to
bring the couple to Edmonton. The
police report that 1t is miraculous
that the woman and child were not
devoured or frozen to death. The old
woman refuses to talk at oil, but the