American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-09-06
A Danburian in a Terrible Fix.

SINCE the unfortunate accident to Mr..
Coville while on the roof counting the
shingles, he has been obliged to keep
pretty close to the house. Last Wednes-
day he went out in the yard for the first
time, and on Friday Mrs. Coville got him
an easy chair, which proved great com
fort to him. 1t is one of those chairs that
can be moved by the occupant, to form
almost any position by means of ratchets.
Mr.. Coville was very much pleased with
this new continuance, and the first after
noon did nothing but sit in it and work
it in all ways. He said such a chair as
that did more good in this world than a
hundred sermons. He had it in his
room, the front bedroom up stairs, and
there he would sit and look out of the
window, and enjoy himself as much as
man can whose legs have been ventilated
with shot. Monday afternoon he got in
the chair as usual Mrs. Coville was out
in the back yard hanging up clothes, and
the son was across the street, drawing a
lath along a picket fence. Sitting down,
he grasped the sides of the chair with both
hands to settle it back, when the whole
thing gave way, and Mr.. Coville came
violently to the floor. For an instant the
unfortunate gentleman was benumbed
by the suddenness of the shock,
but the next he was aroused by
an acute pain in each arm, and
great drops of sweat ooZed from
his forehead when he found that the little
finger of each hand had caught in the
ratchets and were as firmly held as if in a
wise. There he lay on his back, with the
end of a round sticking in his side, and
both hands perfectly powerless. The
least move of his body aggravated the
pain which was chasing up his arms He
screamed for help, but Mrs. Coville was
in the back yard telling Mrs. Coney, next
door, that she didn't know what Coville
would do without that chair, and so she
didn't hear him. He pounded the floor
with his stockinged feet, but the younger
COville was still drawing emotion from
that fence across the way, and all other
sounds were rapidly sinking into in
significance. Besides, Mr.. Coville's legs
were not sufficiently recovered from the
late accident to permit their being profit
ably used as mallets. How he did de-
spise that offspring, and how fervcntly he
did wish the owner of that fence would
light on that boy and reduce him to
powder! Then he screamed again, and
howled, and shouted Maria" But there
was no response What if he should die
there alone, and in that awful shape! The
perspiratiOn started afresh, and the pain
in his arm assumed an awful magnitude
Again he shrieked "Marian' but the matt
ilcc dCGoSS tHc way oHly grew III NOlUme,
and the unconscious wife had gone into
Mrs. Conveys, and was trying on that
lady's redingote. Then he prayed, and
howled, and coughed, and swOre, and then
apologized for it, and prayed and howled
again, and screamed at the top of his
voice the awfulest things he would do to
that boy if heaven would only spare him
and show him an AK. Then he opened
his mouth for one final shrek, when the
door opened, and Mrs. Coville appeared
with a smile upon her face and Mrs.
Conveys redingote on her back. In one
glance she saw that something awful had
happened to Joseph, and, with wonderful
presence of mind, she screamed for help
and then tainted away, and plowed head
long into his stomach. Fortunately, the
blow deprived him of speech, else he
might have said something that he would
ever regret; and before he could regain
his senses Mrs. Coney dashed in and re-
moved the griefstricken wife. But it
required blacksmith to cut Coville
loose. He is again back in bed with his
mutilated fingers resting on pillows, and
there he lies all day connecting new
forms of death for the inventor of that
chair, and hoping that nothing will hap
pen to his son until he can get well
enough to administer it himself-Dan-
bury Netrs.