The Holbrook news., 1910-09-16
GIRLS PENNED IN CAR
TWO TOTS PRISONERS, HUNGRY
 AND THIRSTY 72 HOURS.
Ride From Buffalo to Hoboken Where Searching Railroad Officials Find Them Unconscious-Vic-
 tins of Boys Prank.

New York.-Two small girls who were penned in pitch dark refrigera- tor car by boys whose sense of humor was abnormal were found lying in the car when it reached Hoboken from Buffalo
 They were not able to walk. It was some time before thye could speak. They had been seventy-two hours without food or drink or sufficient air. That they were alive at all was a thing to wonder at.
 Mary Moni is 10 and Nelsie De For ko is 8. Both girls live at 21 Indiana street, Buffalo. The two girls used every day to run around the Lacka- wanna freight yards in Buffalo.
 Boys of their age and older hung around the freight yard. One morning a couple of these boys shouted out to the girls: ''Heyi There's bananas in that car. Want some bananas? Back in that car you'll find some. G'wan in."
 It was an empty refrigerator car to which the boys pointed. The two girls clambered into 1t and began po- king over the floor. They heard the heavy door bang to and found them selves in blackness. They rushed for the door and pounded on 1t. They could hear the boys outside laughing in derision.
 The boys made no attempt to open the car door and the girls got fright ened They screamed a little and kicked with their bare feet. Pretty soon they heard the voices of the boys and knew them to be trying to open the door, The door never budged. A little longer the two girls kicked and beat upon the door, Then Mary Moni heard Nelsie fall upon the floor of the car and begin to sob.
 They heard an engine putting louder every second. Bang; Mary was bump ed to the floor There was an inter- val of several minutes. Then the .en- zine chugged. the car gave a jerk, and in the darkness they knew them selves to be moving. They were mov- ing rapidly now. Mary coaxed Nelsie up into a corner. They sat there and sobbed as the train sped.
 After a long time thye felt hollow and hungry. Mary and Nelsie ex- plored the floor of the car They found nothing at all The two girls found they were to be without food or wa ter. Besides, it was so hot and stif1ing they found it labor to breathe, and moving about was ex- hausting. They lay perfectly still, therefore, and in time the first faint ness of hunger left them.
 But it was intolerably hot and their thirst grew. It was night now. The beam of light was gone. Yet neither girl slept. The roar of the train was loud and steady. Great tears rolled down their cheeks.
 During the first night Mary made useful discovery, the only relief they hit upon the whole journey. She i'm parted it at once to Nelsie. You take your thumb and catch the tears on it. Then you sip the tears. They are salt and inadequate, but they cool the mouth In experimenting with this discovery they passed the rest of the night.
  pared. red and pleasurable. All that day the two lay on the floor of the car, iolted each minute and turning from side to side. Then night came on. It is possible the girls slept fit fully. though they could not recollect having done so. The second morning found them a little weaker. They no longer spoke to each other in one syllable words. ,Nelsie tried to repeat a prayer. She repeated Ave Maria" to herself several times.
 Then came night and as the beam of light faded Mary's consciousness faded. too, and Nelsie, who could cry no mere. lapsed into. quietness.
 But when the two girls didn't come home the first night their parents had gone anxiously to the police. Some were found who had seen the children in the freight yard. F. H. c. Schoeffe. chief special agent of the Lackawan- ma, thereupon telegraphed Chief Beat ty of the Lackawanna special police in Hoboken to peer instantly into ev- cry empty that reached Hoboken. For two days not an empty car reached Hoboken without being examined in a hurry.
 On the third when string of twen- ty-five empty cars came rolling in Yardmaster Dutton, who happened to be moving about the yard, bounced | on refrigerator car No. 69s6 and pried | open the door. He jumped inside. There in the corner he found the two | barefooted girls black with dirt. Nel- sic was unconscious
 It took the doctor two hours to hiring hOth girls to.