The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1913-12-03
Exposed
By THOMAS r. DEANE

One morning in August a party OF
men started from Chamonix to climb
Mont Blanc. There were Joseph With
ers, a young lawyer from Philadel-
phia; Edward Swift, a recent grad
and Roswell Baker, big. elegant look
ing fellow, who was the impersonation
of manly strength.
About noon Baker and one of the
guides came into the hotel, the guide
looking very somber and Baker much
agitated. They reported that at the
time the snow sQuall came up they
were ascending a razor shaped rock,
the edge Of which was but from one to
two feet wide. The first man in the
rope line was Koenig, the guide who
returned. The second was Baker, then
Schufelt. Withers slipped and went
down on one side of the declivity, drag
ging the man before him and the one
behind him on one side of the edge.
while the shock threw Baker and KOe
mig down on the opposite side. Baker
OcAu IhdI LhC lOpO bhOhC IhOSO III
his rear had gone down, he knew not
where, because it was showing so hard
he could not see a dozen feet below
him.
All listened to the recital of the &C
cident with blanched faces. The land
lord, Carl Becker, stepped forward,
the only person present who seemed to
grasp the situation. Selling the rope
that was in the hands of the guide, he
looked at It's end, threw 1t down and
hurried away to make up a rescue
party. When half a dozen volunteers
had been collected they started up the
mountain, piloted by Koenig. Baker
declared that in falling he had hurt
his side and feared that he would not
be able to make the distance.
Some surprise was manifested that
one who had appeared to be the Ajax
Of the party, who had seen his COM
mander go down into a gulf, should
be willing to remain behind when 9th
ers were going to the rescue. AS soon
as the rescuers had gone Baker went
to his room, remained there an hour,
then left the hotel. He soon returned.
stating that he had received telegram
to go Immediately to Paris, where his
mother was lying at the point Of death.
Within half an hour he had left Cha
monk.
Meanwhile the rescue party, guided
by Koenig. assembled to the place of
the accident, arriving there about 4
o'clock in the afternoon. The sky was
clear, and there was no difficulty in
looking down into a crevasse into
which the men they sought must have
fallen. But it was not a straight de-
scent, and the opening was narrow, so
they could not tell how deep it was.
The landlord Of the hotel volunteered
to be lowered for an exploration. A
rope was tied around him under the
arms, he was given an alpenstock for
a fender and was let down slowly into
the crevasse.
He had not descended more than
forty feet before he heard faint hal
loo On being lowered another twen-
ty feet he reached the snow, sinking
into it to his knees. He was within
three or four yards of Swift, whose
head was protruding from the snow on
which he had fallen. Becker got
second rope he had brought down with
him under Swift's shoulders, gave a
signal, and Swift was drawn up.
Not a dozen feet away the landlord
found Withers. He was lying uncon-
scious with his head and one leg above
the snow. The rescuer had flask of
brandy with him and poured a quaint
ty down Withers' throat. He opened
his eyes. Becker called for the rope to
be lowered. and Withers was pulled
up. There only remained the guide,
who had sufficient strength in him to
fix the rope to his own shoulders, and
surface.
The landlord had no sooner finished
his work than he took up the end of
the rope that was dangling from With
ers' waist and. looking at it, muttered
an oath.
"Cut!' he said.
"Withers, who was by this time
somewhat restored. added: II saw him
cut it. He was on the edge of the
rock, and we three, being heavier than
Koenig on the other side. were over
balancing him, and Baker was being
dragged over. To save himself he cut
the rope"
"And frayed the end to make it ap-
pear that it had broken" added
Becker.
Koenig declared that he had not seen
Baker cut the rope. Indeed, this from
their relative positions would have
been impossible. He admitted to have
seen him fray the end of the rope, but
be had not revealed this because after
the weight had been taken from the
opposite side he would have gone down
several hundred feet had not Baker
given him a hand and helped him up on
the edge.
When the rescue party returned to
the hotel and found that Baker was
missing so great was the indignation
that it was proposed that they go after
him and bring him back. But Baker