The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-10-23
WAS A WANDERER
FIFTY-ONE YEARS
Gold Seeker Returns Home
After Lapse of Half a
Century.
FAILED TO MAKE FORTUNE
Mother Left Light Burning in Win
dow for Twenty Years, Hoping
for Return.

New York. Oct 22-Aifred Booth
Sands is a veritable Rip Van Wrinkle
except that he did not sleep. Given
up for dead years and years ago, he
has returned, after an absence OF
fifty-One years. 10 the Hudson river
village OF Milton. where he was born.
TO find that nearly all his relatives and
friends, including the sweetheart Of
his young manhood, are dead.
Many of the elements OF. Washing
ton Irving's famous story OF that other
Hudson river village at the foot OF the
Catskills mountains are TO be found
in the experience of Alfred Sands,
who now, at the age of 70. is renewing
associations which he abruptly sew
cred more than half a century ago to
seek his fortune in California
It was, in fact, a chance reference
to Rip Van Wrinkle by one of his com
rades in the Yountville Soldiers
Home, near San Francisco, that put il
into the old mans head last spring TO
return, as Rip Van Wrinkle did, 10 his
birthplace and take by surprise any
who might be still alive to remember
him. Perhaps, too, the memory of an
old romance and desire to learn how
she had spent her life prompted his
/ decision to return.
For eighteen years Sands has been
in the soldiers home in California.
While sick last spring a friend on an
adjoining bed saluted him as RIP
Van Wrinkle" Instantly the familiar
story ran through his mind and the
idea of returning to Milton occurred to
him. Gradually his plans took form
and June IS found the old soldier on
board the steamer City of Panama,
steaming to the isthmus He engaged
passage as RIP Van Wrinkle" con-
cealing his own Identity.
Brothers All Dead.
Getting off the West Shore train at
Milton, on the west bank of the river,
four miles south of this city. he asked
Billy Brewster, the stage driver. If he
knew where Walter Sands could be
found. He's dead. years ago." an
swered Brewster. Walter Sands was
his brother.
And Horace Sands?" inquired the
stranger.
Dead, too" answered Brewster.
Then. one after another. the old
man asked after the Williams boys
Fletcher Wesley and George-with
whom he played in the fields and
swan in the river. They. too, were
dead. said the stage driver.
The old man sighed. "All my jour
ney for nothing" he said Nobody
will remember Alfred Sands"
Yes. 1 remember you" spoke up
Brewster. Il was a young lad when
! you were here working with your
/ father at ship building. / can see the
family likeness in your face. But you
were given up for dead many years
| ago"
Brewster took the stranger into his
stage and drove him to the village,
/ where. as soon as it became noised
around that a member of the once
prominent Sands family had returned
as from the grave. the homes of count
/ less nephews. nieces and other rela-
| tives were opened 10 him. He is now
/ dividing his time among different
members Of the family
Visits Mothers Grave.
The first place Mr.. Sands visited
was the grave of his mother in the lit
/ tie Methodist cemetery. She was in
/ poor health when he disappeared in
/ 1853 and was not expected 10 live
more than a year or two. Therefore
he was surprised when they told him
that she lived for twenty years after
he went away and that for nearly all
that time. confident Of his return. she
kept a lamp burning at night In the
window of her home.
One day one of her other sons re-
turned from New York and told her
that he had seen a grave in that city
which was believed 10 be the grave OF
the missing son. There seemed to be
no doubt OF Alfred's death. The moth
er discontinued for some months the
practice Of burning a light In her win
dow, but she dreamed one night that
after there was a nightly beacon in
the window until she died.
The old man wept as he heard this
narrative. and he thanked those who
had kept his mothers grave so green
and orderly. He was glad, too. to find
the monument which he had erected
to his father, after the latters death
In 1854, in good condition
Never Made His Fortune.
Il failed to find a fortune in Cali
fornia. but I've found a lot of pleasure
in returning to the old home. and
every one is so kind ito me that il
makes my old heart beat young
again." said Sands.
After Sands father David, who
was born in 1878 in Milton, was the
son of Benjamin Sands, one of a colo
ny of Quakers who settled in ana near
Milton before the revolutionary war.
Benjamin received a grant OF 1000
acres from the crown, and this grant
is now part OF Milton village. David.
his son. had two wives. by whom he
had thirteen children. Alfred being
the seventh of nine by the second wife.
MY father. who inherited a large
part Of my grandfather's grant from
the king, built the fourth steamboat
In the United States said Alfred
Sands 1T was modelled very much
like the Clermont, and was called the
Washington, running between this
landing and New York. My father
built many sailing vessels and
wharyes. and was pioneer among