Show ENTOMBED TWO DAYS A THREE YEAR OLD CHILD FALLS INTO A WELL BORE ind Is rescued by willing hands after forty eight hours OAKDALE neb april 17 the people of oakdale and and their vicinities during the last three days have been intensely excited over an accident which happened on saturday last to a family by the name of detwiler living on a farm three miles north of oakdale Oak dalo mr detwiler had occasion to draw out the wooden tubing from a deep bored well on his place and had drawn out seventy feet of it leaving an unknown number of feet of tubing set in the well this left a hole about a foot in diameter during last saturday forenoon a three year of the family was missed and a search being made for him his hat was found near this hole the mother called down and the child from an immense depth finally replied the extreme horror of the situation can now be bettor imagined than described appeals for help were at once sent to oakdale and neligh and though all possible haste was made all the appliances ances for chinking a shaft down alongside the bored hole could not be got onto the ground and the work of digging begun until late in the afternoon saturday stratton well and diggers from oakdale and a firm of men in the same line of business from neligh under took the job and thare was no lack of helping hands but as the supply of air down in this deep narrow hole might bo insufficient to supply acho child ath air an iron tube was sunk down and a hand bellows was inserted through which fresh air was constantly pumped down during the forty hours while digging was going on from time to timae the childs cries could bo heard and often during saturday afternoon it called for mamma and for food and wat erThe process of digging went slowly during saturday night on account of lack of light and rapid diggers had at times to give place to slow workers all this time the father and mother were enduring untold torture of mind the former sometimes raving and gray hairs almost momentarily increasing on the heads of the distracted parents about 3 the child seemed to lose all patience and filled his narrow circular tomb with his loud crying it was a hard matter for strong men to endure the extremely distressing condition of affairs with anything like composure all the time day and night crowds of men women and children were standing around with faces white with horror and the hearts of the men digging in the bhart and those on the windlass on top were bleeding at the cries of the helpless babe imprisoned below during all of saturday and sunday night perhaps half the people who knew of the affair sleet little or none on saturday morning an unfortunate experiment was made in the way of grappling for the child with a wormer it is supposed that the cormor caught onto the tubing below and raised it a little when its hold released and something was hoard to drop then there was a now distress in the minds of the waiting crowd lest the wormer had caught onto and lacerated the flesh of the child or had inflicted bruises on it for its voice thereafter was less often heard and much weaker As the diggers down in the shaft went deeper they heard the child moaning in pain by sunday noon they had dug to a depth of about fifty feet and the child yet twenty two feet at least below them by nightfall the work was necessarily going an slower for more time was being consumed in hauling up the dirt besides the most delicate and dangerous part of tho job was now at band and will stenson and james St rallen of oakdale both experienced men in underground operations were sent dolc and they remained there from 11 sunday night until 9 monday morning when the awful was ended stenson as a minor and well digger had many narrow escapes in his lifetime and as ho was now down sixty five feet in a partially dry shaft with treacherous walls of earth above and aroundhim his situation was very perilous for no time could be spared to construct and sink down wooden curbing in the shaft soon after stenson and ahal len went down into the shaft at 11 sunday night they struck booso sand and gravel A few of the impatient crowd above urged stenson to dig on down through the gravel the remaining seven feet supposed to bo yet intervening between him and the child but he withstood them and began to tunnel in toward the circular hole right of this gravel bed so ho could have a firm clay roof to hia tunnel Hewa about eight feet to one side of the circular hole bo humbled in a few feet and then dug another shaft claser to the circular hole down to rebe thought the child might be lodged his object was to strike a spot underneath the spot where the child was lodged for it would I 1 have been fatal to have disturbed the earth wall of the circular hole above the child finally he tunneled toward the circular and tapping it was surprised to find himself yet above the child ho was ablo then to reach down and tie a i ope around the feet of mhd child and by the same device hold him secure there but ho dared not yet risk an attempt to draw him up for fear ho might break down the crumbling walls of the hole and of his tunnel and thus bury both himself and the child alive so he sank another and second small shaft down a few feet yet further until he knew he was bolow the child under these circumstances the work had to bo very slow stinson worked like a mole with trenches of sand all around him passing dirt out by handfuls to straiten in the first small shaft and len doing the same to sheriff elwood who was out in the main shaft the extreme peril of the situation at this time can be better imagined than described bed victor hugo might describe it but no ordinary pen can do it al this time stinson burrowed like a mole and literally working like a mole through so treacherous an ole ment could hear the child moaning faintly whenever a loose board rattled overhead he could feel the shock and he did not labow but the walls of the shaft were coming in on him and whenever the furious wind which was then on monday coming raging over the earths surface rat ted down loose earth and pebbles on iop of the child it seemed 10 feel it indeed the child seemed to be as sensitive to tho least jar as stinson was for it would moan the stronger and more piteously the three men by the horror of their situation worked and wept and the sun arose yet monday morning with these men handing out dirt by handfuls practically burned ashes and with no hand but that of god to trust lo 10 to ever bring them and the child to the earths surface again finally by the most delicate manipulations stinson was at last able to grasp the child and let himself and his precious burden into the main shaft at monday morning after the child had been in the betl forta eiehl hours about was hauled up to the lop of the shaft with the child in his arms A hasty examination of the i child was made when it was found to be not only alive but bright of eye and conscious though very weal wea L apparently it had slid down the circular hole slowly rump first but was found with its rump wedged into the top of tho circular tubing set in the hole its feet a little above its head and its hands extended upwards and some six or eight inches above its head when the child was brought up to the surface the scene was indescribable staggered unnerved and exhausted but very many of the people there sank to the ground prostrated by emotion there were no noisy demonstrations the hearts of the crowd of lookers on were too full for utterance although all the parties who helped so faithfully are worthy of unstinted praise yet under the circumstances it is natural that especially and his partners in the depths of what might have been their tomb should now be the heroes of the hour while is lying at hia home exhausted his fellow citizens are contributing to a fund for a testimonial to bo given to him |