A Child’s Tragic Afternoon on the Flats

Grover Schmidt, the six-year-old son of H. E. Schmidt, fell into the harbor yesterday afternoon while fishing for crabs off Commercial Street and was drowned. His body has not yet been recovered. Accompanied by 10-year-old Herman Wren, the little fellow started out to fish for crabs about 12 o'clock. At certain stages of the tide, crabs run in great numbers along the mud flats in the neighborhood of Commercial Street. The boys threw nets into the water near the foot of Brunswick Street and in an hour’s fishing landed several of them. In his eagerness to land a crab which had crawled into his net, Grover Schmidt leaned out too far. He lost his balance and fell into the water. He came up and made a frantic grab at a pile, but the fast-ebbing tide carried him further away from help and in a few seconds he was beneath the water for the last time. For a time, Herman Wren was paralyzed with horror and unable to move. When he regained his self-control he gave the alarm, and inside of fifteen minutes half a dozen boats were out, each manned by two or three men. The receding tide must have carried the body out into deep water, however, for all efforts to bring it to the surface were unavailing. Among the searching party were two boys, one about 12 years old and the other about 14. They had appropriated a light Indian dugout and were paddling it around among the piles, when suddenly it tipped over and the younger boy was thrown into the water. He clung to the boat, however, and was soon pulled in. H. E. Schmidt, brother of the drowned boy, is proprietor of the European lodging-house and saloon, at 521 Commercial Street.