FOUR DAYS IN A CUPBOARD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2318, 20 August 1921, Page 1

FOUR DAYS IN A CUPBOARD.

CHILDREN’S NARROW ESCAPE,

A seven-year-old boy and a live-year-old girl escaped death from starvation and confinement by the narrowest margin, when they were released recently after being locked up in a small dark cupboard in an empty house at- New Jersey, New York, for four days and nights. Harry Fai’ber and Bella * Wiener, while playing hide and seek, squeezed into a cupboard six fe'et high, four feet- long, and sixteen in-i-lies deep, and closed the door which has- an automatic lock on 1 the outside. Little Harry, from his hospital cot, told newspaper report-

ers that- he was not particularly frightened when he found the door

locked, although he admittedVrying a little when his small companion lost consciousness, or, as he termed it, “went- to sleep.” so that, lie could not awaken her. In their waking moments the children kicked the door and shouted, but they gradually became weaker, and their efforts more feeble. Harry says he knew the difference between night and da v only by the noises in Ihe

street. To pass the time away and help cheer up the little girl, who

constantly cried for her mother, the hoy sang nursery rhymes and told fairy tales, but the “hole in his stomach” got worse, and he remembers dropping off to sleep, and nothing more until he was rescued. The parents and neighbours were meanwhile searching high and low, and dragging the river, until the brother of litjlc Bella" thought of a visit- to the empty house. He heard moans in the cupboard, and discovered the little ones . unconscious. Physicians declare that the children arc too young to suffer any menial torture over their horrible experiences, and will remember only the physical strain of crumped limbs and lack of food and water.