A BOY HERO.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5173, 15 August 1885, Page 2

A BOY HERO.

A despatch from Littitz, Pennsylvania, of the 13th of May, says :—The full details of the suicide of Mrs Hiram Pfautz, and her determination to drown her five children, show one of the most heroic efforts to save life on the part of her tenyear'old son, Harry, on record in this section of the State. The mother, who was the wife of a rich farmer, and an educated woman, had become demented through religious madness. She wanted her seven children to go to a mill dam, a mile and a half away, to gather flowers. The eldest did not go, their father being away from home. Mrs Pfautz and her two sons, two daughters, and a babe went to the dam. The boy Harry led the way. They sat a while near deep water, when Mra Pfautz asked Harry to pick up a stick near the dam. He stooped to do so, when the mother swiftly and noiselessly rushed up behind and pushed him in. She then rapidly seized the other three children and tossed them in one by one, and then jumped in herself, babe in arms. Harry, an expert swimmer, quickly got out, and hauled his brother, aged 7, who had clung to a board, ashore. Harry then jumped in, and safely brought his sister, aged 9, ashore. Nothing daunted, he once more plunged in, and grasped his mother, who still held the babe. The mother exclaimed she wanted to die, but the boy bravely held on, and begged her not to resist.. By almost superhuman effort he succeeded in, getting tho mother and babe safely out of the eight feet of water to the shore. Meanwhile the other children stood speech* less on the bank. The next moment Harry dived in for his three-year-old sister, who had sunk the third time. Harry found the body at the first dive and brought it up and on to the bank, closely pressing the little one to his breast. He at once commenced rolling the body of the girl, but finally burst into tears when he realised that his little sister was dead. His mother, who stood shivering on the bank with the wet child* ren, implored Harry to run back to the farm to get a waggon to bring them home. Suspecting his mother, he implored her not to do anything rash. She promised not to, but the boy concluded to take the two children back with him, leaving the mother and babe alive with the dead child. The three children went home in their wet clothes and there told the horrified father what occurred. He quickly drove to the scene, but found no one. The moment that Harry and the children had gone, the mother seized the child and her babe and again leaped into the water, and sank to rise no more.