Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1887 — A Dreadful Occurrence! [ARTICLE]

A Dreadful Occurrence!

Two Children Burned to Death. A heart-rending accident occurred ill Union tp. last Friday, Jan. 7th, in the family of Chas. Ilurns, a well known resident of that tp. Himself and oldest daughter were, in Michigan visiting relatives. On the above Jay the three oldest of the remaining children were at school and only ‘the mother, May, a little giij of four, a baby of 21 months and another of 4 months age, remained at home. About 3 o'clock Mis. Burns went out for a short time to water some stock, leaving the three little children in the house. Upon her return she found the cradle in which the infant was lying, all on fire. The pillows, sheets and other portions of the bedding in the cradle were entirely consumed or nearly so. The horrified woman thrust her bare hands into the burning mass and snatched out the body of the baby, burning her own hands terribly in so doing, carried it to the door and threw water upon it. But fife was already extinct, and some portions of the poor little 'form were burned to a crisp. Turning her attention to the other children, Mrs. Burns found the little girl of four years, standing near the stove entirely divested of clothing, her garments having been entirely burned while upon her person, or so nearly so that the unburned portions had fallen off of themselves. Over two thirds of the surface of the child’s body were burned over, and the cuticle destroyed. Dr. Washburn, of this place, was hurriedly sent for and reached the scene about 5 o’clock, or three hours alter the accident. He saw at once that it would be impossible to save the life of the child and all his efforts were directed with a view to alleviate her dreadful sufferings. At 9 o’clock the same evening she died. She was rational during the greater part of the time but could give no explanation for the cause of the accident except to say that “some fire dropped." Mrs. Burns remembers to have closed the stoye carefully upon going out* but there was a broken place from which the fire might possibly have fallen.

Worse and More of It. The cold season of the latter part of last week and the first of the present week will take rank as one of the coldest ever known in this vicinity, but. from the absence of wind and storms, it was not nearly so severe as many former seasons of much less frigid temperature. The artic wave reached its climax Thursday night, and early the next morning thermometers in different parts of the town indicated 32 to 34 degrees below zero. One resident of Milroy tp. reports that at his place the temperature was 40 degrees beloy. The gentleman himself is thoroughly reliable but we don’t believe the veracity of thermometer is above suspicion. Iluring the four days succeeding Thursday night the mercury scarcely got above the zero mark at all, ;except in protected places in the sun-shine, and the four succeeding nights were correspondingly cold. •

A Remarkable Case of Tasting Reports of a most remarkable case of protracted existence without food, 'have lately come from a person living a few mites from Marlboro, but over the line in Monon tp.» White county. The case isthat of Miss Mary Baker, step daughter of Lewis Winters, whois 18 years old and who, for several months, has been suffering from a •complication of diseases. For a long time she has been unable to take or retain any kind of nourishment and a number of reliable persons declare that up to the end •of last week sire had lived.seventyfive days without tood.

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