Perth Amboy evening news. [volume] (Perth Amboy, N.J.) 1903-1959, 1910-09-21
PR0DIGAL SON
RETURNS AFTER
LONG ABSENCE
Olaf Gasmann Missing for
Thirteen Years Surprises
His Relatives Yesterday.
TOURED THE WORLD
Mother Nearly Overcome
With Joy Upon Seeing One
She Thought Dead.
WAS IN THE B0ER WAR
Left This City in June 1897
on Barge--His Letters
We're Lost.
WAS IN THE B0ER WAR

Like the Biblical account of the
Prodigal Son was the return to his
home In this city yesterday of Olaf
Gasmann, who for thirteen years had
not been heard of by his aged moth
er, and had been given up for dead.
Not line of communication had
passed between them, he writing and
receiving no response because the
letters failed to reach here, and his
mother delaying in writing because
she did not know whether or not her
son was still alive.
Yesterday Gasmann walked. into
the house at 315 Willock's Lame
Mrs. Dorothea Gasmann, little less
than seventy-f1ve years old.
Hello, mother" he said, extend
ing his hand. At first she did not
recognize him, owing to failing sight,
and then when the form resolved it.
self into that of her long lost son,
there was rejoicing and tears Of joy.
And now while a fatted calf will not
be killed, there will be a big celebra-
tion in the Gasmann family.
The wanderer has been In almost
every corner of the world. He has
fought In the Boer war, in South AZ
rica, has suffered the aches of that
dread disease. yellow fever, and was
almost buried when unconscious in
smallpox fever. He has travelled
Europe and has sailed the coast of
South America, traversed the Amer
lean continent from New York to
California, travelled through the
reefs along the African coast to the
most southern point of that conti-
nent, Capetown.
BY profession, trade or following,
which ever one may choose to call it,
Gasmann is a boatman. During the
entire thirty-fve years Of his life,
save in his infancy, he has been on
the water, as was his father before
him. One day in June, 1897, he left
his home in Front street to board a
barge on which he was employed.
From that day until yesterday not
a word passed between him and his
mother. She inquired about him in
various shipping Offices, but could
not ascertain his whereabouts. He,
on the other hand wrote several let
ters, but receiving no response, con-
cluded that his family had either re-
moved or was angry because he had
left. 1t appears that on reaching
New York he had shipped on a
steamer bound for Europe, and from
there had travelled to other distant
ports.
In South Africa, Gasmann became
afflicted with yellow fever. He also
had Asiatic cholera and smallpox. So
severe was the latter attack, that he
was carried one day on a stretcher
tn pit dug for a grave. Just as he
was about to be thrown in and COW
cred over, his eyes opened and 1t was
discovered that he was not dead.
Returning yesterday, the prodigal
believed he would learn Of his moth
er's death. AS he later put it, he
expected to place a tombstone over
her grave But he found her still
alive, and his return, she says, made
her feel ten years younger.
The appearance of the wanderer
is much the same as when he left,
although a moustache adorns his sun
and wind-tanned face. Today he is
renewing old acquaintances and re-
ceiving congratulations on his many
lucky escapes as he recounts his ad-
ventures in the Boer war.