The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-01-06
FROZEN TO DEATH
IN GREAT CITY IS
BOYS FATE
Lifeless Body of l2-Year-0ld, Lad
Is Found in Bank of Snow
He Had Started Out To
Find Work.
Frozen Tears on Casket Show
Mothers Grief in Cold and
Desolate Room.
BY J. ". KNIGHT.


sat In the big new LaSalle hotel the
other morning. II was evident that
this great. rich city was bidding u
glorious welcome To 1910 On Madi-
son-st.. laughing. fur-clad men and wo-
men were swept by In fiurries like the
snow that fell In binding curtain.
Neither cold nor storm, though.
checked the radiance OF prosperity
that was outside and in. All around
me In the granite-and-gilt hall. people
were saying "A fine January"
A big man happened TO mention.
TOO. that II was 6 below zero.
And that's what made me turn to
the cold weather report in my news
paper. Halfway down the column
were the names OF four victims. and
this sentence led the list:
Z Jolly, Harry, aged II; frozen to
Death while looking for work.
Here. then. was the other side OF
what a cold day--every cold day.
means TO a city like this. | started out
TO see that other side.
There are so many big hulks OF
grain elevators lining Calumet river.
Each is filled up with wheat and in
Harry Jolly lived, and from where he
started out TO look for work and was
frozen to death. The little one-story
house with the white crepe on the
door was the one. Geo. n. Jolly
lIarry's father, opened the door when
| knocked
"Harry's In There oead!"
Yes, it's true" he said quietly
when | asked him. "Harry's in there.
dead. had seven boys. II times
weren't so hard I'd say TO the others.
never risk your lives in the cold
Harry wasn't my Oldest. Joe, he's
l6, works every day. He's working
now. Then George. he's IA is leading
a horse for the ice-plow over at Wolf
lake George Is working today. My
four others. Louis, aged 10. Freddie.
who will be seven in April, Clarence,
he's only four, and the baby there
His names Walter" spoke up his
mother, who held the child at her
breast. Hes not Is months old yet.
You must tell the man." she added
to her husband, what a good boy
Harry was
That he was" the father spoke mp.
without a tremor in his voice. The
grief was i'm his face but he did not
express IL. The poor have so many
griefs that the words of woe dry ua
within them.
This Is what he did say:
Harry didn't want 10 work until he
got his school books all fixed up for
time when vacation stopped He
went To the Gallistel school. and WAS
In the seventh grade. There's his toy
blackboard that was Christmas
present. See the figures on It? Harry
made them.
Always Bright Boy.
HE was always showing he was an
extra bright boy That sled outside Is
one he made: Just as he left l. after
he gave his brother a ride Then ne
started out to the lake to get work
II was awful cold.
when he didn't come back that
night we thought he'd gone home iii
q playmate. Sometimes the boys
would.
Then, in the morning, my wife was
worried. SO | didn't start to work
I'm q carpenter--gork at the Solvay
coke ovens yonder
II followed Harry's footprints. So
lid George. with his dinner bucket. for
he had TO go that way to get to the
ice-cutters.
Then George found Harry dead. He
called TO me, AMI, sure enough. he
was frozen stiff In the snow, where
those bulrushes are, right close TO
home. II he'd have called TO us, We'd
lave heard him here.
Those are hls footprints In the
front yard. Ny wife is hoping the
wind won't blow the drift into them.
Because we're going to bury Harry
tomorrow, and those footprints OF MS
will remind her Of the boy
Il tell YOU it's hard. His books are
In a bundle in the corner. All ready
&c take back to school.
would you like to see the body
I'll show you"
The front room, where the little
white plush caskct lay. was as cold as
outside--a frozen crypt.
In that placid little face there was
no hint Of pain. But the blurred sight
of IL showed what remained OF grlef
I'm the home. For Harry's mother
tears. that had fallen on the glass
window Of the coffin, had frozen there.
The father, beside me, could only see
an indistinct picture of the dead boy,
because OF the tears. And then he
broke down and wept, too.
Sobe shook him as he said: George
wouldn't believe that Harry was dead