THE DEADLY RATTLER.

NZ Truth, Issue 76, 1 December 1906, Page 5

THE DEADLY RATTLER.

AWFUL DEATH OF YOUNG LADY. Bitten by Snake, lingers all Night m Agony! Los Angeles. "Times" of a rfceent date has the following pathetic story: Death sprang from the coils of a monstrous rattlesnake late Tuesday afternoon deep among the carUjns of the nibuntains bade of Cbvina, and beautiful Anna May Reichard, 22 years old, a pupil m the Los Angeles School of Art attd Design, died .m agony m the deep glen at Fish Canon early, yesterday morning, attended m the darkness of the night by two boys ana two gitls helpless to alleviate lifer dying agonies. Yesterday he"r father and mother, Mr and Mrs Daniel Reichard, frantic with the horror of the tidings Drought them at Oovina, starteel for the canon, 6h\f tt> meet m its narrowed Ways their friends, bringing m their arms tlie body Of their daughter. . : Tuesday morning a- happy party started from their camp at the moiith of Fish Canon over almost inacce'stsi^ ble trails to the canon ialls, f four miles into 1 )ie^t;of-ite./imwiit^iiis. In the party werje. Miss jfteidMrd of Ooviora, Miss Ras Ellliott;'he*r sister, Gertrude Eiliottj ii. years oid,, bc4ll of them heroines ; Miss, EJdiia 81 : 6c4y of Los Angeles,, and William Bishoff and Robert Reliar of Pasadena: ,-j ; Shoutmß to make the echoes ring from cliff to cliff the joyous party scrambled along the mountain si«fe, up naths framed m manHanits, down narrow trails above which hang the bendi>n<e ferns and flowers of the ei,iff sides. r In a. cool, sha"dv spot m .-jiU« bottom- of the canon near the singing waters, the hungry young people had their, lunch, and many a merry jest and laugh was their dessert; . ■ At last; just before 4 o'clock m the afternoon, the. beautiful fall* oi Fish Canon flashed their double, bridal veils of spra- to the yi«w~ oi the tired, but proud, young people. Forward the^ scrambled over driftwood and boulder Reaps to/ thfe edge of the clear pool, .How -■ beautiful it was; darkly cool below,, with thewesterihg sun flashing iipon sthe mountain tops, and 'glints of rainbows glimmerinn- m tflie mist of tlie leaping waters that filled the gleri with music. "How beautiful ! How/ lovely.!.'' cried Anna May Reichard; as she jumped from a rock among the tumbled jetsam of the canon bed. THE CRY OF THE STRICKEN. Then, drowning every pther '"sound, there rang out the agonizing cry of a stricken woman. In the hush which followed came to the ears of all the angry buzz of rattles from the death-dealing reptile. For an instant it was as though the blood of all those children had, been turned to ice m their veins. Ants crawled up and down their backbones m frenzy. Death lay before them beside the girl who crouched* bewildered among the stones. t ; ... Yet but a moment they . hesitated. Then the two boys, with a deadly fear clutching their hearts, but rage mastering it, ne w to the. rescue *. of their cdmta&e; r - ••: = ; . . . 1 v- . . -■But, .having dealt its stroke- of death, the-- rattlesnake sneaked away between the rocks, its, vengeance taken for a heedless step. Tenderly they carried Miss Reichajrd to the edge of the .mountain pool and bared her wounded leg, Rowing, .just . above her boot top four little ptmc-. tures— already turning blue. BRAVE UNTO DEATH. And Anna May was . brave and cheered her younger comrades, though with blanching lips. „ „ But something must Me done, but what? „. ;■ „ V., : ; .'. " - •One of the boys said that whisky was needed the most and vpliiiitieereid ! to go back the weary miles to. get il. ' ' Then ud spake, Gertrude Ellip-tt, 4.4- J Years old: "I will go/with you and 1 bring back a dootor .as soon ■as;X : can^ find one. I will take my Shetland" pony wlien I reach the camp antt gal^.i lop to the village."' ' \\ So, with one of thfe boys, Gertrude started back over that tSfrible trail.; they had trod -so lightly m the ffiorh,- " ma;. Hand m hand they went, .■ cheering each other otv with panting , breaths, struggling up the slippery' trails, clashiite: through the manx-ariit^. - bordered paths, taring their clothes, c their skins, but ever onward' over those four miles of the longest rpad two heroic children ever races to s>ave • the life of a dying gM. - • '■■ ' TRIP OVER WFAHY MILES. . '■: At last into the cdnp they staggered, /fainting almost from exertion. Only a little over . tw,o hwrs ■ we?e ■ they making this jourpey,. which had taken the joyous party of athe;, moming nearly a whole day* to traverse. . : At 'the caixip was Mrs Reichard as well as a feW others. The boy, somehow, somewhere, got a of whisky, and then without resting,, still paiitine;, almost falling, he sped back thro.ugh the da r kness , over that twice travelled trail, spurred by the words of the frantic mother to: "Reach het qiucklv awd save her.,": I {".-., But Gertfude mounted &W li^le pony ; ba^ebapked the. px>ny ,,; bareheadfed its rider, and' away they raced fop Azusa. Such a. wild ride it. \^as. for that brave little girl. For three-quar-ters of an hour they raced 'through fields and along roads and at last she reached the offices of Dr. Coulter and 1 told her tale. But she was at the lost of her strength, she could not show the way, i but she told where the dying girl lay. | Dr. Coulter, with Cornelius Smith, who knows every inch of the mountains, as a guide, started for the canon and falls. By this time it was j clark. ,md the journey was a terrible i one. When they reached the wool m; the p-loom of the early morning, just past midnight, they found there \\yas no hone. • And of these children left behind m the nvesence of that awfiii , death; steal m rr over Anna, turn ing her lips blue,, -twisting her ?ace m coriiortions of agony. CHILD SUCKS WOUND. Rae Elliott had plucked fear from | her brave little heart and applied her ps io the voisunous wounds, siuckinu

from them the putrid blood until/her*: self half fainting anil sickened, she was forced to desist. All they could do was to watch their stricken comrade, as the dark curtain of a moonless, starless nisrhu Rid from their sight the torturing a^ony of the moaning girl. They made her as comfortable asthey could, aad when the whisky, came '&t last they forced her convulsive jaws to open and poured it m. h§r mouth. But she choked ki- Xie fiery, stuff, her throat contracted, \\n\ eyes bulged, she could not breathe, and every gasp seemed death. But with the persistence of despair they forced the whisky down ; it had no more effect 'than so much water. thß poison of those" deadly fanss had already' relentlessly clutched her heart. .. AM then the doctor came m lime. Alas 1 ! only to pronounce the word' which releasect the pent up tears of all,. those-' who had fought their fight with death m that -lonely, dark and reptile-haunted canon m the heart of the mountains. • FALLS SING SAD MU&C. " And the sad music of the doubl 5 falls sails Anna May t<j sleep forever., Meanwhile Mr§ Re'ichard, m {he despair of a, mother whose darling is dvin?; "just tieyond" her reach, "follow ed that panting hoy into the wildernes&i, into the 11 dark mouth of the nafcrr(y# canbfll intent : upon holding m her loving; arms the daughter she adored. was- black; the trails were Harrow, -blind paths le"d to unknown deaths ; ah* they were despairing. ' Ail" night 'sKe*' wandered arttf called upon her little*gltl ; she talked to her thfl :ihfe edhbe's . aitswered. "She Void hef to hS df ttoM cheer, that her minima was- coming— doni ing ! ' "And tfie echobs answered ■: "Coin- ■ She babbled as thoudi once as-ain her Anna knelt beside her as a little girl to say her prayers. She tried m th 6 darkness to stroke the hdad of her vanished .little one. • Shepraydd 1o God -with a breakiryr heart and knelt nrhem"- . the rpeks and cried aloud m her affow, • ' - Thus tftev found her vest«rday, the n a rt;^ Wl resents, and took h«r "to her husband. -„- . Then, tose/ther. they went to meet' the"ir little girl— and found her.