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Show WOMAN WINS DESERT FIGHT S & & WITHOUT WATER 48 HOURS MRS. T. J. KENNEDY of Omaha, who wandered for forty-, forty-, eight huurs on the Great Salt Lake desert without food or water. R f ' ' $ t Y "t r v " , - f ' - - , ' - , I " ' I Mrs. T. J. Kennedy Tells Experiences on Wastes West of Salt Lake. THE thrilling story of a woman's brave fight against a horrible death on the Great Salt Lake desert, west of Salt Lake City, is told in all its details by Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Kennedy of Omaha, Neb., who arrived in Salt Lake last night and are registered at the Newhouse hotel. Mrs. Kennedy, who was lost for nearly forty-eight hours and who walked more than fifty miles over the desert without food or water, is not the type of woman, one would judge, who could stand such an ordeal. She is not frail looking, but ts of slight build and of delicate beauty. In telling her story Mrs. Kennedy said that at Gold Hill she and Mr. Kennedy, who were driving to Salt Lake, were told that they could save about forty miles by leaving the Lincoln highway and cutting across an alkali desert. They never thought of water, thinking that they had plenty, but on Monday afternoon the supply ran short and Mr. Kennedy left her in the ' car wniie he went to look for more. "I sat there for three or four hours," said Mrs. Kennedy, "and then I became worried, and I want to say that the only thing that saved my life were the few drops of water in the radiator of the car which I drained out into a bottle and drank. She continued: I then started out and walked all night. It seemed days and weeks to me. I would walk a short distance and then my heart would beat so fast and I would become so exhausted that I would lie down. My tongue became swollen and the cords of my neck ached. Could Not Eat. I had some food with me, but could not eat it because I had nothing to wash it down with and therefore could not swallow it. No human being be-ing can ever leam to love water as I do or appreciate it until they go through what I did, but I hope no one else ever will. After falling I would lie there for a while and at times t would decide that the best thing to do was- to lie right there and die. but something within kept telling me to go on. I don't know how I kept the direction, but something kept telling me to go east and when the sun would come up I would use it as a guide. It was the most desolate place in the .world that I came through and all of the time I was trying to find my husband or get help. For a while I "followed his tracks and then I lost them. All night I heard coyotes howling and, to add to the horror of that terrible ter-rible desert, day and nhxht I could see rattlesnakes and large lizzards running across my path. Saw Horses. It must have been about 11 o'clock "Wednesday when I saw before me a fence and some horses. I knew that I had reached civilization, but was so blinded and so dizzy- that I could see no house. I laid down beside the fence for a while. and then climbed a barbed wire fence into a corral. I then saw the house and went in. it was Shepherd's ranch. and Mrs. Shepherd met me at the donr. she gave me some, sironc, hot coffee, and I felt a little better. "When able to talk I told her about niv husband and my trip across t bo desert. She then got me all excited when she told me that I had covered forty miles on my trip and that if I had gone north that I would surely hLive- died. I became distracted for fear that Mr. Kennedy had gone north. I tVtt r or tain that he had zme that wav and that I would u--vor s. e him a i.n". 1 only rented at Shepherd's ha If fin hour, and t uen I hired a i.-a r to t - he me on a sea":.";: in:- m- h;:sb,,i..i. We went b;n-k some th;rtv ;::i;es or so and 'lie ear became s:aiie.l in d.'f-n sand. I zol out nf t!.e car ,ind w a I k ed ten m i : e s with the s a r c i i : ;z party ar.d then' frh exhausted. A mail earrier and s:a?e driver n:inud M rPon;i M pi.'ked me up and earri.M me two miles more, and t hero I met my husband. Had Given Up Hope. He had never e x p e ; e i to see rn e alive asain and I had lost ah hone of ever finding him. That our ir.i"-;-I ins was happy and ;i;a t we wt-ve. I giad we were both alive and safe ! goes without savins?. ! My husband and myself have traveled trav-eled all over the west in our car and 1 had just come from a trip to Yellowstone. Yel-lowstone. "We have ' been over the lava beds of Oregon, Skull valley in Arizona, the painted desert and the petrified forests of the latter state, and all over Imperial valley. I have never been in Utah before, and this terrible experience was my first in this state. Although we have traveled over wild country and desert wastes. I never dreamed that anything any-thing like this would have ever happened hap-pened to me; in fact, I never was afrntd. ; However. I do not blame Utah. I like its people and I like Salt Lake City. I think that Mr. Kennedy and myself will return to the staTe and that he will invest in some lands here. Husband Tells Story. The husband, T. J. Kennedy, told of how he walked more than sixty-five miles before he found that his wife was miss- I ing and of the agony through which he ! went on discovering that she was missing. miss-ing. Me said: j ! When I left the car for water I j warned Mrs. Kennedy to remain in it. I told her about the water m the radiator and intended to tell her to drink the cylinder oil that was In a can in the car if she began to suffer badly. I walked, according to what ranchers ranch-ers .down there told me, about thirty miles north, and there I found an unoccupied tent. In front of this tent was a small pool of water about two j feet in diameter. My tongue was ' thick and I was foaming at the mouth, but I was afraid to swallow i any of the water. I, however, tasted it and it seemed to be all right. On searching the tent, though, 1 found a ten-tiuart bucket filled with water, and some of this I drank. I then left the tent and walked about three miles north, looking for some sign of habitation, but saw nothing but the most vacant waste imaginable. I returned to the tent and filled my water bag, a bucket I carried, and took the water in the tent. This totaled about fifty-six pounds, and I carried it back that thirty miles to the machine and never spilled a drop. Too Weak to Walk. On reaching the machine I found that my wife had disappeared. I knew nothing of the country and couldn't track her. I was too weak to drive the machine through the sapd. so I took to ie trail and went about forty miles to the Lincoln highway high-way for help. On reaching the highway I met Jones and Bradley, drivers of two trucks for the Dugway Mining company. com-pany. I told them my story and asked their help. Bradley sarct that he was better fixed than anyone else; that he had 250 gallons of gas. twen-tv twen-tv gallons of water and unlimited food. Tie said he could stay out ten days and would search that long until lie found my wife, dead or alive. Bradley broke his crank case and I left him afoot with a bucket of water. A few hours later I met the searching party with Mrs. Kennedy, whom I had never expected to see alive atrain. On the whole. I think that she came through the experience better than I did, a n d w e a re mighty glad we are alive and in Salt Lake City. |
