The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1927-12-16

she might get caught in there her
self. She rushed into the house
crying that she must get her
babies out. She went into the
kitchen and then into the bed
room searching for them. Coming
out of the bedroom she saw them
lying on the couch, and scooped
them both into her arms, carry
ing them out the north door.
Mr.. Rygg helped carry George
to Ferguson's and was positive
that he was alive as he breathed
in a heavy choked mi several
times on the way over. The child
rem at the hospital, Rygg went
back to the Gross house. the
smoke had cleared somewhat by
that time and there was a small
blaze. He found some water in a
dish pan and threw it on the blaze
and then helped carry snow in to
put out the remainder. The fire
department got there three or
four minutes after they carried
the children out according to Mr..
Rygg.
Try to Revive Children
Mrs. Kirk had turned in the
alarm and tried to reach Mr..
Gross by phone. A few minutes
after that Mrs. Ferguson came
home and worked over Dorothy
but there was no response and no
sign of pulse or heart beat. The
children were brought to DR.. De-
Wane's office. 1t was 500 evident
that Dorothy was beyond help. !
Doctor DeWane and Doctor Lar S
son worked over George for more I
than an hour before they gave up t
the fight as useless. {
The story of the various wit '
nesses corroborated each other in a
nearly every instance, and as 1t b
would make too long a story to C
give the testimony of each in de-
tail. the events that led up to the ]
fire will be given as they were A
cleaned from the testimony. c
The Steam Engine
Going back of the day in quest {
ion. there was a little steam en-
CINE that Mr.. and Mrs. Gross had
bought for George for Christmas.
One night some time ago after the w
children had gone to sleep, Mr.. f.
and Mrs. Gross, Ole Olson, who Fl
rooms there, and Julius Warren n.
kamp who had been there for sup h,
Der. got this engine out and ran it. gi
The noise woke George ana ne M
rot up. The elders told him that
Claus had left the engine ba
here to see if it was the kind mi
e wanted for Christmas. George sb,
as delighted with the toy. AT on,
II he had gone to sleep once ha,
Iore the engine was hidden. ma,
ince then he has hunted and off
united for the engine. 1t is the ma
elief Of the parents that he was arl
uniting for it when he same up tn
n a box of matches hidden in pIi
bureau drawer. siz
That afternoon Mrs. Gross a TIL
elephoned to Mabel Nichol asking me
err to come over. She was going the
, show Mabel a new bed spread, if
lev were going to look at a cata- las
~ and then were going to take r.
re children down town to get y
,eir hair cut. Ole Olson who az
# the house a little after two, II
hid that the children were awake sw
hen he left. After getting the ~
., 1- - aIo1D NHrc GrnGG went IL
to Ferguson's across the al =,
ey to the south to borrow a Il
.atalog and to show Mrs. Kirk the "
new bedspread. 1t was about five G:
to three when she got to II
F%ergusons. She remained there y
perhaps 20 or % minutes and was IS
just ready to go when Mr.. Rygg N
came to the door. q
Boy Liked Fire II
The s~upposition is that little ~
George awakened after his mother 6
was gone, as he was not accustom- d
ed to mapping much in the day y
time, and began hunting for the Is
engine. He was crazy about light y
ing fires and the family had to d:
keep matches out of his reach. y
Coming upon a box of matches y
in his search, he probably got IS
down two candles from the top n
of the chfffonier and two from n
the library table and lighted them. 4
The candles were found on a chair y
near the piano next day. They C
had burned down about an inch II
from the top, and the outline of -
the holders stood out clean upon Is
the smoked surface of the blue n
chair. There was a fifth candle 4.
found on the couch near where Il
the children were lying, and a y
place where the nap on the cotton c;
blanket was scorched by the d
flame. Matches also were found =,
next day, part of them on the ..
floor and part Of a box on the Is
couch. 1t was thought that George II
probably ran around the room y
with the lighted candles in his Il
hand and may have touched var "
ious things with the candle. The C:
tar paper on the wall near the 81
stove probably burned with a eN