The New York herald., 1922-06-09

FIREMEN SAVE BOY
FROM SANDY GRAVE
Two Brooklyn Lads Start to
Build Shack in Pit When
Slide Buries One.
LITTLE BREATH LEFT
Butscher's Family Works at
LITTLE BREATH LEFT
Butscher's Family Works at
Rescue Frantically Till
Real Aid Arrives.

Peter Butscher, who is IL years old
and attends st. Mary's parochiai school
at Twenty-third avenue and Eighty-sixth
street, Brooklyn. conceived the idea yes
terday that he and his chum, Harry
Hanson. who is 13, ought to have place
of their own in which to play. place
where prying parental and other eyes
could not reach them. So they went 10
the sand pit at Narrows avenue and Six
.y-eighth street, within block of their
homes in Colonial avenue. and began
to construct a shack at the bottom OF
the pit.
The sand pit is a big one. covering an
area of some two blocks, and at the
point where the boys began work Is
about thirty feet deep. They are not
very big boys and they had to carry
their boards and things down little at
a time. But eventually they got one side
of their shack up. and Butscher stayed
down in the pit while Hanson scrambled
back to the top to slide and carry down
some more boards. But Hanson had
just got to the top Of the pit when he
heard a rushing. sliding sound and then
a tremendous noise as of something
falling from a great height.
see his chum. He could see nothing but
a smooth, level expanse of sand where
his friend and their shack had been.
But he knew that his friend was UNDER
meath the sand, so he scrambled and
slid down into the pit again and began
scratching and digging with his fingers.
He shouted for help, too, and his cries
reached young Butschers home and
brought his father. his mother and his
sister. The whole Butscher family
dropped to their knees and began
scratching with their fingers in hope
less effort to get to the boy who lay
buried under twelve feet of sand, many
tons of it.
Young Hanson, after the Butscher
family had dropped into the pit and
begun to dig, climbed out again and
ran as fast as he could to the house of
Engine Company No. 241, Bay Ridge
boulevard and Bay Ridge avenue. He
told Capt. John Callahan what had hap
pened. and the Captain Immediately
dealt out shovels to five of his men, and
with them caught an automobile and
hurried to the sand pit. They found
the Butscher boys father, mother and
sister digging with their fingers and
their feet and with sticks they had
picked up, but making no impression
Whatever upon tne tofiS Oh Sdnu peneatn
which the boy lay buried.
Capt. Callahan. learning from Hanson
the exact spot at which young Butscher
was standing when the sand slide oc-
CURED, set his men to work. They dug
at top speed. and fifteen minutes after
young Hanson heard the sliding. rushing
noise and saw his friend disappear they
uncovered the body of the boy. Young
Butscher's eyes were wide open, his
tongue was hanging out. and his body.
had turned purple from the weight of
the sand and the lack of air. But Capt
Callahan Immediately picked him up in
his arms and hurried with him into the
Butscher home, while another fireman
summoned DIR. Thorne from the Norwe-
gian Hospital.
The surgeon found that the boy was
still breathing and he brought life back
into the body after a few minutes. He
said last night that young Butscher
would recover, but he said that the only
thing that saved him was the fact that
the recent rains mad made the SIND
porous, so that 1t did not pack tightly
when it slid down into the pit. Had it
been dry it's weight would have crushed
the lad besides cutting off all air.