Year: 1875

In Blooming Grove, Pike County,


lives the family of man named Charles
Dunnlng, consisting Of himself, his wife
and three children, aged six, four and


two and half years. On Monday of
last week the children went out to play
IN the fields. After being absent some
| time the two Oldest returned weep
ing to the house and said they had
lost their little brother IN the woods.


Mrs. Dunning, thinking she could find
the child without difficulty, went out
into the woods and looked for soma dis
tance around, calling him by name.
| Being unable to discover any trace of
him she became alarmed and hastened
back to the village and spread the news
OF the child's loss. Blooming Grove is
composed mainly Of the dwellings of the
employees of Jacob Khenham's tannery.
and when the news OF the little boys
loss became general the greatest excite
ment prevailed. Business was stopped
at the tannery and forty men started to
scouf the woods in search of the child
All the rest Of the day they tramped
through the woods without finding any
trace of the missing little one, and all
| night pine torches flashed through the
forest aisles, frightening from their
perches myriads of night birds, which
answered with their shirll cries the shouts
of the men calling to the child. During
the night a catamount was shot, but
the morning dawned upon an unsuccess-
full party of sad-hearted villagers. After
| a short rest the hunt was again CON-
menced, and all day Tuesday and all
Tueaday night was prosecuted diligently,
but with no better result The opinion
now was general that the child had been
killed and eaten by wild beasts, which
still haunt the Pike County wilderness.
The search was continued, however, at
the urgent appeal of the mother of the
boy. Toward noon one of the party
started away in direction which had
not been investigated as yet. Passing
about a hundred yards through laurel
swamp two miles from the village, he
came out in an open space about thirty
feet square. The opening was walled
in on every side by thick growth of
laurel, and was well filed with large
rocks marked with crevices and large
seams, resembling an abandoned quarry.
The instant the man stepped into the
place, he was startled by the sound of a
rattlesnake, giving him warning to pause.
Looking down he saw the snake coiled
up about four feet away, in readiness to
backwoodsman had seen such things be-
fore, and, picking up a club, dispatched
the snake at one blow. He was not
prepared for the developements which
followed, however. Glancing about
him, he made the unpleasant discovery
that he had intruded in place pre- emp
ted by colony of rattlesnakes; in short
he was in a den Of deadly reptiles.
From crevices and creases in the rocks
and on the ground he saw numbers of
them lying in various positions, bathing
their Shiny proportions in the sunshine.
The man made up his mind that the
place had no particular charm for him,
and was about to beat hasty retreat,
when his eyes fell OH scene that trans
fixed him with horror.


On low flat rock, not more than six
feet from where the man stood, lay the
apparently lifeless form of the little boy
they had been looking for so long.
Stretched by his side, not more than three
inches away from him, was hugh rat
tlesnake, while near his feet two more
lay coiled up all evidently undistuT1ed
by the presence of the child. While
the man did not suppose for an instant
that the child was alive, he determined
to rescue the body from so horrible a
sepulcher, and with we'll directed blows
from his club killed the three snakes
that held possession of the child. Every
blow was responded by the blood -curd-
ling din of the rattles from the snakes
that lay near the rock. While he ws ex-
amining the ground between him and the
child to see if any of the reptiles lay on
that side, he was startled to see the sup
posed dead infant rise with an effort to
a sitting position, stare wildly about
with crazed, haggard look, and then
sink back upon the rock. The next in
stant the stout hearted woodman had
sprung upon the rock, and selzing the
child bore him away quickly from the
loathsome den, and in a few minutes
placed him in the arms of his distracted
mother, amid the general rejoicing of
the whole village. The child was un-
conscious, and is yet lying in a critical
condition, being delirious with fever


brought on by the unparalleled hard
ship and privation he suffered in his


wandering alone in the forest before


which the stout-hearted hunter would


have quailed. Jerpis (N, "
| Union.


ENGLISH Tourist Gin Ireland)-soTe


me, waiter, at what hour does the first


train leave for Clommel 2" Waiter


''Is it the furrst thrain, sor? I'm not
rightly sure. The nome thrain up used
to leave at half past noine-but faix it