Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1859 — Terrible Suffering on the Plains. [ARTICLE]

Terrible Suffering on the Plains.

News recently reached Fort Riley by two soldiers who came in on Express duty from Prairie Dog Creek, that two men who had started for Pike’s Peak were lying in a starving condition at one of the distant unocupied stations of the late express company of Jones & Russell. The soldiers reported that if adequate means were sent to their relief, it was still possible that they might be found alive, although they were left in a delirious and feeble condition. First Lieutenant Charles Griffin and two others were immediately dispatched with what limited means the Quartermaster at the post could furnish. The philanthrophic mission reached its destination on the third day. Both father and son were found even in a worse condition than represented. They had been at the station eight days before they were relieved by the small quantity of tea, bacon and bread, that the sergeant, who first discovered them, could spare, who gave strict injunctions to eat very sparingly else death would ensue—they being so weak that they could scarcely stand up without holding on to the door. It appears that they had lived on grasshoppers and mildewed corn picked up from among the excrements left by the animals which had fed at that station. Providentially, a few young shoots of corn were found to be springing up about the station, and a dried skull of a buffalo had been thrown aside. They caught from twenty to thirty grasshoppers every morning while the dew was still on the grass, until they became too faint to procure this scanty supply of food, which they had to husband, in order to make a stew of grasshopper, buffalo hide and

young corn stalks, in a small tin cup, to eat at night, to promote sleep and prevent delirium. Thus they sustained 1ife until they obtained the cupful of tea (about a quarter of a pound,) two loaves of bread and a pound or two of bacon, left by the sergeant. When found by Mr. Griffin, they were too debilitated to be immediately moved.—<Manhatten [sic] (Kansas) Express>. ---<>--- ----->A snow storm of fifteen minutes duration prevailed at Florida, Mass., on Wednesday, and nearly whitened the ground. ---<>---