Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1901 — TALES OF PLUCK AND ADVENTURE. [ARTICLE]

TALES OF PLUCK AND ADVENTURE.

School Girl's Story of Galveston. MISS MAUD HALL, of Dallas. Texas, who was spending her school vacation In Galveston, and who passed through the atom, has written the following account of her experiences to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Emory Hall: “Dear Papa and Mamma—l suppose before this you will have received my telegram and know I am safe. This has been a terrible experience. I hope I will be spared any more such. lam Juat a nervous wreck—fever blisters over my mouth, eyes with hollows under them, and shaking all over. When 1 close my eyes I can’t see anything hut piles of naked dead and wild-eyed men and women. “I suppose I had better begin at the but I don’t know if I can write with any sense. Batu*day, about eleven o’clock, it began raining, and the wind rose a little. Sidney Spann and two young lady boarders could not get home to dinner. After the dinner the men left, and we sat around in dressing aacques watching the. storm. “All at once Birdie Duff (Mrs. Spann’s married daughter) said, 'Look at the water in the street; It must be the Gulf.’ There was water from curb to curb. It rose rapidly as we watched it, and Mrs. Spann sent us all to dress. It rose to the sidewalk, and the men began to come home.

“The wind and rain rose to a furious whirlwind, and all the time the Water crept higher and higher. We all crowded Into the hall, and the house, a big two-story one, rocked like a cradle. About six o’clock the roof was gene, all the blinds were torn off and all tbe windows blown in. Glass was flying in all directions and the water had risen to a level with the gallery. Then the men told us we would have to leave and go to a house across the street at the end of the block, a big one. Mrs. Spann was wild about her daughter Sidney, who had not been home, and the telephone wires were down. “The men told us we must not wear heavy skirts, and could only take a few things in a little bundle. I took my watch and ticket and what money 1 bad and pinned them in my corset; took off everything from my waist down but an underskirt and my linen skirt; no shoes and stockings. I put what clothes I could find in my trunk and locked it up. Tell Lillian the last thing I put in was he- gray skirt, for I thought if the trunk floated and It was on top It might not be Injured. “It took two men to each woman to pet her across the street and down to the end of the block. Trees thicker than any In our yard were whirled down the street; pine logs, boxes and driftwood of all sorts swept past, and the water looked like a whirlpool Birdie and I went across on the second trip. The wind and rain cut like a knife, and the water was Icy cold. It was like going down iLio the grave, and I was never so near death unless It was once before since I have been here.

“I came near drowning with another girl. It was dark by this time, and the men put their arms around us and down Into the water we went Birdie was crying about her baby that she had to leave behind until the next trip, and I was begging Mr. Mitchell and the other man not to turn me loose. Mrs. Spann came last The water was over her chin. It was up tp my shoulders when I went over. ) “One man brought a bundle of clothing, such as he could find for us to put on. wrapped up In his mackintosh, lie had to swim over. I spent the night—such a horrible one!—wet from shoulder to my waist and from my knees down barefoot Nobody had any shoes and stockings. Mrs. Spann did not have anything but a thin lawn dress and blanket wrapped around her, from her waist down. Nellie had a lawn wrapper and blnnket and Fannie had a skirt and winter Jacket Mr. Mitchell had a pair of trousers and a light shirt and was barefooted.

“The house was packed with people Just like us. The house had a basement. and was of stone. The windows were blown out, and it rocked from top to bottom, and the water came into the first floor. “Of course, no one slept About three o’clock in the morulug the wind had changed and blew the water hack to the Gulf—as we stood at the windows watching the water fall, we saw two men and two girls wading up the street and heard Sidney calling for her mother. “She and the young lady with her had spent the night crowded into an office with nine men In total darkness, sitting on boxes with their feet up off the floor. It was an Immense brick building, four stories high. They were on the second floor. The roof and one story was blown away, and the water came up to the second floor. It was down toward the wharf. “As soon as we could we waded home. Such a home! The water bad risen three feet in the bouse, and the roof being gone, the rain poured la. I hnd not a dry rag bat a dirty white skirt, hanging in the wardrobe, and an underskirt with it. My truuk had floated, and everything In it was stained except the gray skirt. We had not had anything to eat since noon the day before. All we bad all day Sunday were crackers at fifty cents a small box. We were all so wet we I new we could not get any more so.

and Miss Decker and 1 went duwS about ten o'clock. * “It was awful. Dead animals every* where and the streets filled whh falleq telegraph pole* and brick store* blowq over. Hundreds of women and ehlU dren and men sitting on steps erring for lost ones, and nearly half of them Injured. Wild-eyed, ghastly-looking men hurried-by and told of whale Hies killed. “I could not stand any more, and made them bring me borne, and fell on tbe bed with hysterics. They poured stimulants down me.but tbe on< ly effect It bad was to make my head< ache worse. 1 had about gotten straight ened out when a girl and a woman came to the bouse—re’atlres of Mm Spann—who bad lost tbelr mother and friend's mother and house and all they hail. They had hysterics, and everybody orled, and I bad another spelL “All day wagon after wagon paasetfc filled with dead, most of them without a thing on them, and men with stretchers with dead bodies with just a sheet thrown over them, some of them little children. We waited every minute, expecting to have tbe two bodies brought here. But they have not been found up to now, and all hope la lost There Is a little boy In tbe house that spent the night In the watet; clinging to a log, and his father and mother and four sisters were drowned. He Is all alone. “Last night Mr. Mitchell took Mtss Decker and me to another boarding house to find a dry bed. with nothing nnder us but a rug and a sheet, and I had to borrow sime'hlng dry to sleep in. The husband of the lady wbo lost her mother b"s from l*"nston. lie walked and swam all way. He is nearly wild, and she is jnst screaming. I cannot write any more. Am coming home soon ns I can. \ “MAUD."

To* Soon lltflrM. In the early days of Illinois life an old settler, named Jones, determined one morning that the family must have some venison. The rest of the story Is thus told by h!s son. In “Forty Years of Adventure:” He started on a little pony-built horse for a brush-patch about a mils away, a favorite resort for deer at that season. He dismounted, fastened his horse and walked softly throught the tall grass outside the brush. Them to his surprise, be found, lying In tb« herbage, a buck with an enormous set of antlers. In an Instant the old-fashioned squirrel rifle was brought to his shoulder, and the flint fell with a crash; but tbs piece did not go off. nor did the buck more. He was either trying to “play possum” or he was asleep. The hunter poured some powder Into the pan, took aim again and fired. The old flint-lock responded now, but still the animal lay motionless. Mr. Jones walked up and kicked him. with no effect Then be found the ball had struck the animal In tbe neck, and as he had, by chance, no bunting* knife, he could not take the extra! precaution of dispatching him ore* again. So he tied a knot In his horse’s bushy tall, fastened one end of the rope halter about the buck's boros, and tho other around the knot in the tall. Then he mounted and trotted briskly away, dragging the deer. Suddenly, when about half the distance was accomplished, he looked back and saw, to his horror, that the deer was attempting to rise; but as often ns he got on his feet the horse would jerk him down again. Apparently the ball had only grazed tbs cervical vertebrae, and the muscles had been temporarily paralyzed. The friction caused by dragging tbs animal over the rough ground had partially restored his circulation, and tnTwas rapidly getting into hi# normal state. The hunter began to “whip up" and his frightened horse flew over tbs trail with the double burden. It was Impossible to slacken speed for a moment, ns tbe deer was rapidly galulng strength, and if be had an Instant'g chance, would probably throw big huge antlers about, impaling both horse and rider. Meanwhile the wife, getting breakfast at home, saw her husband approaching at a terrible pace. Bbt heard his voice ring through tbe opening, although be was still a quarter oC a mile away: “The butcher-knlfel The butcher-knife! Tbe deer’s alive!” As be came nearer, he cried again} “The axel The axel The deer's alive!” Mrs. Jones snatched the great knlfs* from Its accustomed place.and reached the gate Just as the pony arrived there, dashing against tbe fence In bis excitement. The hunter seized the knlft in rushing by. but the pace of th« horse had slackened a little, and tbe deer was on bis feet. Close by stood a heavy farm wagon, loaded with wood, and round this Mr. Jones whipped the pony, and in dolnf It jerked one of the deer's horns Into the hind wheel and threw the animal on his side. In an Instant the a heavy woman, was upon the animal, and held him down while her husband jumped off the pony, came round cut his throat.