The Vidette � January 31, 1895 Two Children Drowned Short, Miss., Jan. 21, 1895 � By request I send you a corrected statement and as near as possible the full details of the sad accident that occurred near here on Monday evening, the 14th inst. About 4:40 near the mouth of Indian creek. In the morning Mr. R. W. Busby and his little girl Ivy, aged seven years; myself and three of my children, Roxie, aged 10, Frank, aged 8, and Ellen, aged 7, all went down to the backwater. The children and I were on our way to school at Short where I am teaching. Mr. Busby went to assist us across the backwater which was frozen over. He had prepared a raft of two large poplar logs 16 ft long, for the purpose of carrying the children and myself across to school. We succeeded with about two hours hard work in breaking a road through the ice wide enough for the passage of the raft and we all crossed over safely. The children and I went on to school. Mr. Busby carried the raft back and brought over his two oldest girls, Lizzie, aged 16, and! Winnie, aged 14, who were not ready to start school when we did. They also came on to school. In the evening when we got back to the water Mr. Busby was waiting to assist us back across. He stepped on the raft first and walked to the front end; the children all followed and I went on last, eight of us in all. I pushed the raft off with a piece of plank, by placing one end of it against the foot of the hill first, and then by placing the end of the plank against the edge of he ice which was broke in gaps. When about 40 or 50 feet from land, all at once, with a sudden crash the logs broke apart and we all went between the logs into the water which was 10 r 12 feet deep to within two feet of the water�s edge, where we struggled between life and death for about 30 minutes trying to save the children. I spent most of the time in trying to keep the log from turning, so they could hold on the log and keep from drowning. The balance of the time, with the exception of what time I spe! nt in saving Roxie, my oldest girl, who came up partly under the log and partly under the ice, I spent in swimming with all who were holding to it, towards land. I had succeeded in getting within about 15 feet of land when Messrs. D Provence, T. B. Milligan, J. N. Busby, D. N. Wood and R. W. Provence, who heard our screams for help at a distance of about a half-mile rushed to our assistance. All were rescued except Frank and Ellen who had sunk to rise no more. I did not know they were missing until we were all on land. Those dear little ones were not found until 7 o�clock. W. T. Young --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage!