Weekly journal-miner., 1921-08-24
WOMAN RESCUER OF DESERT BOUND KAUFMAN FAMILY SPEAKS OUT FOR SIGNS AND LESSONS IN FINDING WATER, ADVOCATES MORE MAPS
(From Friday-s DaIlyl

2. Automobile associations should give ample warning by sign posts of conditions where stretch of desert faces tourist.
 B. Automobile maps should mark, | if possible, water holes across desert stretches and explain how old holes which are filled with sand need only be dug into to find the water. 4. A fresh COW track will general ly lead to water.
 5. Fright will kill more quickly than lack of water, especially when extreme heat is there to help.
 6. Above all, automobilists should keep on driving if they run out of water, for all roads if they look well travelled eventually lead to some ranch or town.
 Such were the conclusions drawn by Mrs. Joseph Rudy, who with her husband and her daughter, Mona, aged 8, found the August Kaufmann family, dying of thirst on the desert stretch between Signal and the Santa Maria river, Mohave county, last week. The tragedy that resulted in the death of August Kaufman of Pasadena and his three-year-old daughter, Lillian, Mrs. Rudy said yestefday to a Journal-Miner report CT, was the sort of thing that could happen to almost any tourist cross | ing that part of the country and un- acquainted with conditions.
 There is something terrifying about the desert and it takes long time to get over this fear" she con- tinued. q remember my first ex- perience in driving a car under simi- lar circumstances. saw 50 miles of desert ahead of me and got frighten- ed to death. I drove madly across it for fear I would be on it after dark, and when I reached the noun tains I was all right
 And I am familiar with the coun- try, having been born in Kirkland. So can see how it would effect strangers, especially when the young ones start crying for water. MT. Kaufmann undoubtedly thought of them first and took the water out of his radiator.
 "There was water all around him, if he only had known it. One can find it almost anywhere and certain 1y the stretches between water holes are not more than IS miles. In fact had he driven two miles further he would have seen the Santa Maria river, which lay before him about seven miles further on.
 There was a water bole close by, but it had filled with sand. A little digging would have revealed it, but how can one expect uninitated travellers to know such things? A coyote will dig away the sand for water. So it is not only important that tourists should carry water, but they ought to have maps showing the water holes and instructions as to how to dig for it if sand has gather ed and the holes look dry.
 "Mr. Kaufman had an exception ally good map, but most of them have poor ones, or none at all. l usually draw one for. them and per haps I'll get some printed and save me the work. Of course, warning signs at the roads would help, but they are expensive.
 "The chief thing, however, ii one runs out of drinking water, IS to keep cool and continue driving. The radiator may melt, but one should keep on driving until the engine re- fuses to go. A road always leads somewhere and, if well travelled, 1t usually will bring one to ranch.
 Then, too, if one watches care fully for fresh COW tracks he will get water clues, usually. But the chief thing is to stick to the car
 "Of course, fright had more to do with this desert tragedy than any thing else. Panic and extreme heat will kill the strongest-hearted. Mrs. Kaufmann and her two children would have been dead, too, ill few hours. We had to give them few mouthfus apiece at first, and didn't : dare leave all the water we had or they would have gulped it down, they were craving so with thirst.
 Tt was pitiful and seems when you consider how close they were to water as if Fate just directed the whole course of things"
 Mrs. Rudy, a pretty little woman. slender but sturdy, was Miss Effel Hamilton of Kirkland before her marriage. She left Prescott yester- day for Skull Valley.