Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1906 — SEVEN CHILDREN DROWNED. [ARTICLE]

SEVEN CHILDREN DROWNED.

Bis Perish While Trying; to Retcoc —$ Companion in River. Seven little girls are (lead In one household at Cedar Rapids, lowa. Four -of them are sisters, the other three cousins. All were <1 rqvvnod within a few minutes In the same fatal jswimhiing .hole .in Cedar River. Tie- youngest i> T years tdd. the oldest only 10. Heroism of an unusual character was the cause of the sweeping tragedy, for one by one the girls ru-lud into water to save the baby, who slipped off the hank while the ethers were playing near Tiy. Of a party of eight children who went out to wade ami frolic, in the sand only one survives. The dead are: Lucile Sweeting, aged 7; Hazel Sweeting, aged 14; Gladys SueetinS.’ aged 10; Josic Sweeting, aged 12; Both Coyle, aged 11 ; Cora Coyle, aged 9; Clara Usher. aged IG. Carrying baskets of luncheon, the seven “children, with Iluth KJersey making an eighth in the party, went out for a picnic. The spot chosen was a

grove iiy the Cedar River. When the picnic was it 1 most over Mis. Coyle began to worry aliout her' baby, who was ill at home. She left the children and hurried away, telling them to follow her ns soon as the luncheon dishes had been packed away in the baskets. Little Lucille then ran Intii the water, “Watch hie,” she eried, and ran out on. a sand-bar until she reached its narrowest end. with water eight feet in depth on both sides of lur. Then the sand crumbled beneath her feet, and in another moment she was struggling in the waiter. The other girls stood aghast for a few seconds, and Lucille’s curls sank out of sight. Then her eldest sister, Hazel, sprang out on the bar, leaning over to clutch her as she arose. The treacherous sand betrayed her also; with a sharp scream she disappeared. Ten-year-old Gladys next, then Josie, aged 12, each bravely trying to,rescue her sisters, splashed into the still pool. Lucille did not come to the surface, line the older girls came up to stretclT out their hands toward the bar and cried to their friends. Ruth and Cora Coyle ran out together, trying to grasp

a di ; oFthe flJi?ifing cur'is7 Cora lost her- footing, like the others, and Ruth was dragged off while attempting to pull one of the Sweeting sisters to safety. Clara Usher was left alone on the bank, but only for a moment. Then she joined the other victims of the river while doing her best to save one life at least from the deadly waters. A few minutes later Ruth Klersey rushed up to the Sweeting house, weeping and screaming that the children were drowning. Mrs. Coyle, dropping her sick baby upon the lawn, ran madly to the pool, to find its surface marked with bubbles and sun bonnets. Groping in the water with her arirs as she laid prostrate on the bar she caught held of two pinafores and dragged their wearers out. but they were dead.