Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1903 — LOST IN THE GRASS. [ARTICLE]

LOST IN THE GRASS.

There Is surely no country half a world away In which the Occidental traveler expects so much delight and ao little adventure as in Japan. Yet Ernest Foxwell has recently related a tale of terrible adventure experienced In Japan y ad Englishwoman btl a few days after her arrival. She was staying at n little country village among the hills, and had gone out In the morning to gather flowers. The path ran across the uplands, where there Is a wild and lonely stretch of country extending for several miles; and the beauty of some wild flowers growing In the tall grass led her to leave the trail unthinkingly, and press farther and farther Into the waving tangle. She was a short woman, and It reached above her head. ‘‘lf I had been a foot taller,” she said, In telling her story, “I should have laugl\ed and been out In a minute or two: but those few Inches buried me alive. “Almost Instantly I felt sick, as you do at the beginning of an earthquake; for although I must have been quite near the path, yet with the grass all round above my head there was no knowing what would happen. I might be going right away at that very moment, and the possibilities came like a shock. I believe I lost my head at once. I could not think, so I kept moving one way, then another. But merely pushing through this tall, tough grass is very tiring work, even if you are on sloping ground and can judge where you will come out; and when it is level all round, the heart is taken out of you from the feeling that every step Is probably burying you deeper. It was like being drowned.” It was not until sunset, after a whole day in the blazing sun, without food or water, constantly wandering, constantly pushing and tearing at stems so stiff nnd serrated that they quickly make the bands bleed, that she walked suddenly out on to open ground and fell fainting in a heap. When she recovered, stars wore shining, and she wns alone on an unknown mountainside. She slept from exhaustion, and the next day followed a winding mountain torrent over rocky land, her shoes and then her stockings worn from her feet, only to find, at sundown, that it had led her to a narrow gorge, without one inch of foothold or shore. The stream dashed through in a torrent that hopelessly barred the way. Light-headed with terror, hunger and weariness, she crouched for o time in despair. Then she suddenly waded into the stream nnd stood until after dawn waist-deep in water, while a rain-storm pelted upon her from above. Whim or instinct, she believed that by the cool rush nnd sting of the water her reason and strength were preserved. The next day she retraced her weary way along the watercourse back to the heights: thence, fixing anew the point to which she must direct her steps, she successfully mnde her way hack to civilization. When at length she reeled Into the hut of a kindly Japanese woman, she had been four days lost without food, and had walked until her feet were so torn and Inflamed it was thought she must havo them amputated; but she fortunately regained her health uncrippled.