WILLIE FOUCH DEAD.
A Former Manning Boy Is Accidentally Hanged While Performing on a Tapeze at His Home in Rolfe.

Willie Fouch was born in this city fourteen years ago the 8th day of last April, and lived in the same town until the spring of 1895 when he, with the remainder of the family, moved to Rolfe; and the announcement of his sudden death in Manning on last Friday morning brought sadness to the hearts of those of us here, especially his former school mates, who had known him so well. Willie's death occurred on Thursday evening and the grief-stricken parents immediately sent a message to Rev. Z.W. Steele, their former pastor, notifying him to that effect and requesting his presence there as soon as possible. Accordingly, Mr. Steele departed for Rolfe on the 5:35 flyer the morning following; arriving at his destination shortly after the noon hour. He returned home on Monday morning, and in conversation with him one day this week, Mr. Steele told us that during his brief stay with them, the remaining members of the family Mr. and Mrs. Fouch and two young daughters, were almost prostrated over their loss. From a special supplement issued from the Rolfe Reveille office, shortly following the accident, we take the following telling of how Willie came by his death:

"This (Thursday) evening at 7 o'clock occurred a terrible accident in Rolfe. Willie L. Fouch, the 14 year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. D. Fouch, was strangled to death on a clothesline in the back yard at his home on Elm Street at the Rock Island crossing.

"Shortly before 7 o'clock Willie went out into the yard to play, and about ten minutes later his little sister Ellen, aged 5 years, ran into the house crying:

"Mamma, Willie is caught and can't get down!'

"Mrs. Fouch hastened back with the little girl and found her son hanging in a loop on the line. She ran to the house for a knife and cut the boy down, screaming for help. The two traveling photographers who have been here some time and Mrs. James Kelts responded and started to carry the body to the house, but Mrs. Kelts gave out and Mrs. F.G. Thornton assisted in getting the body into the house.

"Physicians were sent for and Drs. Ames, Leithead, and Beam were soon on the ground. They did everything possible to resuscitate the unfortunate lad, but life was extinct and their efforts were of no avail to bring back the life current:

"The accident is a very strange one. Extending from the coal-house in the back yard to a post is a wire clothesline and suspended from this, close to the coal-house was a rope about three feet long, the ends attached to the line about eighteen inches apart, forming a loop. The day before, Willie had been performing on this, using it as a sort of trapeze, and it is thought that this evening he must have slipped and fallen, the cord coming across his throat, this stunning him so that he was unable to help himself and strangled to death. The clothesline was so low he could easily have reached it standing on the ground, and the loop must have hung nearly to his waist when he stood erect."

"Later, an examination by Dr. Beam shows that the boy's neck was broken by the fall."