PRIEST AND PUPIL DIE LIKE HEROES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 72, 24 March 1906, Page 13

PRIEST AND PUPIL DIE LIKE HEROES.

A TRAGEDY OF THE ICE

At Peru, Illinois, on February 3rd, Father Francis Gilbert Simon, a professor in St. Bede College, and Charles Reuter, a Chicago boy who was one of his students, gave up their lives in an attempt to avert a fatal termination to a students* skating party. Their sacrifice was in vain. Although between them they saved at least seven boys from (death, when the lice upon which they were skating gave way, two others were swept down the Illinois River and drowned. It was a last' desperate effort to rescue one of these when he himself was numbe_. and exhausted that Father Simon lost Eis life. Had it not been for the self sacrificing heroism of the priest and the Chicago boy who aided him while life pasted, at least a dozen of the boys would have been drowned. The boys had been skating while the priest watched their games. It was almost time to return to the col- j lege, when it was suggested that a group of the skaters pose on the ice for a photograph. ICE BREAKS UNDER GAY GROUP. About twenty of the boys -were grouped and the photographer was waiting until they got less 'boisterous and settled for a picture, when suddenly with a report, the ice opened up under their feet. In an instant the boys were struggling in ten feet of water. The ice was thinner than they had thought and broken into fragments as the struggling . boys grasped It. Father Simon was some distance away when the Ice broke. As quickly as he could he reached the hole: throwing off cassock and coat as he ran, he plunged Into the river. One by one he carried five of the boj _ to the edge of .the ice and held them there until the others pulled Them to safety '. CHICAGO BOY PROVES fA HERO. In all there were twenty boys in the water. Reuter, who was a senior, was.one of them, but Be could swim. It would have been an easy matter for him to have dragged himself on to strong ice, but the priest called to him to help those who could not swim. Reuter obeyed. Two of the boys who were saved owe their lives to him. When young Reuter bad rescued the second boy his strength was exhausted, but he tried to swim out* again for another, one of the two who were drowned. The effort was too great, however, and together Renter and the boy he would have saved sank. PRIEST'S LAST EFFORT IN VAIN. W r hile this tragedy was being enacted the priest was in the water p_Hing boys j to the .edge o? the ice and calling lnstrac- ' tipns to those who were pulling them to safety. When he had rescued five of the' ; bays. Father Simon clung for a moment to the ice. His strength was gone, and his ! pupils begged him to save himself. But 1 there was still one boy to save, and the j priest struck out again. He saw young ! Christie at the last gasQ far from the edge of the ice. and summoning the last ot his strength, tried to reach him. At the last he failed. Numbed and exhausted, he was forced to give up, and with a last glance toward the boy for whom he gave up his life he sank. By this time other priests had arrived, and, while the hrave priest and the Christie boy disappeared, with crosses raised high in the air, they "administered absolution and read the services for the dying.' Around them with bared heads stood the boys who had escaped and those who had beefl- attracted to the scene. The bodies of those who. were drowned were recovered and were taken to the college.