LOST CHILDREN.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2645, 14 May 1923, Page 5

LOST CHILDREN.

SEARCH FOR TWO DAYS, POUND IN BRICK KILN, Four-year-QiJd Davis Gaskill and three-year-old Stanley Taylor, went out to play at Chorlton, Manchester, on Wednesday afternoon. They were seen at a brickfield at 4.30 p.m., and then disappeared. A search began in the evening and increasing numbers joined until over 100 were assisting the police. There was little doubt that the dhildren had fallen into one of several deep ponds about the brickfield. These were dragged, but without result. The fire brigade pumped out the water and still there was no trace. The superintendent and inspector of police who had been searching continuously for 48 hours, thought it use'lesa to try longer, believing that the children had somehow been taken out- of the district.

Then a workman heard dries from a kiln 50 yards from the children’s homes. The brickwork was demolished, and the missing little ones discovered in all underground passage screaming for their “ mammies." They were uninjured, but very hungry. One lay on the clay holding the other’s hand.

They must have penetrated the narrow flue during the temporary withdrawal of the damper, and fallen asleep in the darkness. They must have waked often in the 48 hours but the darkness must have deluded them until hunger made them cry.