The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1922-03-16

the bush stands a gaunt and shivcring
hound hound AS they approach preach a, another ,,tleh
They bark, and as the two men APP
| proach still closer the barks change
i to. grow1s - ominous, threatening
/ growls that mean business. What is
that? There-protruding from the sur
| face of the drift upon the south side
| of the bush? A dark patch-the crown
and part of the visor of small cap.
/ Hodges stoops-only to draw quickly
back. With growl of fury the older
of the two hounds, Fannie sinks her
! teeth into his thigh. Luckily Hodges
is heavily clothed and the fongs but
| Craze his flesh.
Hodges draws back, and pulling the
/ untasted lunch from his pocket, un-
| wraps the paper, and feeds 1T to the
| starving dogs. And then, with tight
pressed lips, LaBar raises the muzzle
| of his gun into the air and fires. Dark
| figures dot the snow. The men OF Fife
| Lake are coming out of the swamp
| and hurrying across the bleak pine
plain. They have heard the shot. The
| search is ended.
| A mile to the northward of the farm
of Cornelius Glide long narror cedar
and west, with a north and south reach
| of a half mile to a mile. In this
.rwamp John Glide, aged thirteen, and
his brother Willie, aged eight had set
i d
| farm and the swamp a succession of
| cleared fields alternate with patches of
| hardwood timber. To the northWard
| of the swamp the devastated pine
| olation, mute but eloquent relic to
| the greed Of the lumbermen and the
| indifference and negligence of State
department
Shortly afternoon on Saturday, the
seventeenth of December, Mrs. Glide.
with her oldest son, Ed, and the
youngest, fair-haired little boy of
| three. started for town, leaving john
| and Willie at home. There were pur-
| chases to be made and Christmas pres
ents to buy, and these things the
mother must attend to. for during the
| winter months the father is employed
in a Grand Rapids factory.
day." warned the mother as she step
ped into the sleigh and cast a weather
wise eye at the dull leaden clouds that
sent forth a cold drizzling rain, in
| terspersed with squalls of snow that
| drove viciously before a fitful east
wind. Then the horses started. and
the sleigh slipped silently away over
| the sodden snow.
| Went to Inspect Their Traps
| For some time John and Willie bus
| led themselves about the farm. Then
| drawing on their ruber boots they took
| the shotgun from it's place, unclaimed
| the two hounds, Fannie and Trip, and
| started for the cedar swamp.
| A neighbor saw them cross the field,
as he remembers it at about half past
| two o'clock. The rain continued to
| fall and, with their backs to the wind,
| the boys headed westward, crossed the
road mile away that later the search
| ers from Fife Lake were to traverse,
and entered the swamp at point
| nearly half mile beyond. Two wood
choppers returning from a pulpwood
| camp located several miles away say
just before dusk. If so, they Were the
| last persons to see the boys alive.
1t was long after dark when the
Gildes returned from town to find that
the two boys had gone. In the mean
time. the wind had swung into the
north The weather had turned cold
er, and the rain Of the afternoon had
become a binding, driving snowstorm.
| So fierce was the storm, in fact, that
many farmers who had tarried late
night rather than attempt to reach
their home in the blizzard.
Believing that the boys had sought
| shelter in some neighborlng farm
until the following morning. On Sun
day the older brother, Ed and several
of the neighbors searched all day. The
weather had cleared, but the north
| to huge drifts. All Sunday night the
search was kept up, but not until Mon
day morning was a general alarm
sounded and the organized search be-
gun that ended at the foot Of the cher
| ry bush on the stump-dotted pine
| plains.
| From the time the boys entered the
swamp until their bodies were found
| by LaBar and Hodges, their movements
are, of course, matter Of conjecture
ground myself in company with one OF
the searchers, I know as well what
| happened as though 1 had been with
them to the end. A few tracks were
swamp-that is, under the new snow
They were recorded in the old snow
where, here and there, the boys in
their pitful wandering through the
| upon log in crossing it. Manifestly
| no tracing out of their course was pos
sible, but from the widely separated
points at which the tracks were found:
it is pretty certain that they wandered
| about the swamp for a good part of
Saturday night. Then at last they
| gained the open, emerging from the
north side OF the swamp onto the pine
plains.
They had left home with the wind
| in their backs, so they headed into the
wind and struggled on. The little TEL
| low, was worn out so his brother car
ried him, or at least helped him along.
This is the general belief Of the search
|
| older boy lay on his back with an
arm about the body OF the younger
| who lay on top of him.
BY the time they reached the bush
where their bodies were found it is
probable that they knew they were
| headed wrong. For they knew the
country, having trapped the swamp in
winter and herded cattle on the pine
plains in summer. Only to the inky
darkness of the night and to the drfv-
| ing snow can be ascribed their failure
| to realize their false direction sooner,
| for there are no stumps or bushes to
the southwark of the swamp and they
must have stumbled against many in
the half mile they travelled after gain
| ing the open. But it was too late.
Chilled to the bone. exhausted, they
stuck the gun butt downward into the
snow and lay down in the miserable
shelter of the struggling bush and
there the wind driven snow covered
the tortured little bodies. And there
also lay down the two faithful hounds
upon the opposite side of the bush,
where the trackless snow showed that
they had not stirred from the place
until the searchers arrived, and scorn-
| ing hunger and cold, faithfully guard :
ed the bodies of the friends and mas
| tiers they loved. Had they forsaken
| their post the bodies would have re-
manned snow-buried until spring. Ev-