The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-16
CAL DARNELL'S DYNAMITE.
What Happened to Cow Which Mistook 1t
for Salt-A Claim for Damages.

| A few days ago Cal Darnell, who wanted to
blow out some stumps on his farm. took lot of
dynamite and started for the country. Taking
the stuff from his buck board he set it down be-
side the fence and stopped to talk to neghbor,
who CHANGED to be passing The conversation
proved so entertaining that Darnell forgot mis-
dynamite and went to the house without it,
where he remained for half an hour. Sud
denly remembering his oversight
| he went to the place where
he had left it, and was perfectly paralyzed at
seeing cow, belonging to another neighbor. who
was complacently licking up the last vestige of
the explosive compound. evidently under the
impression that she had struck soft snap on
salt Darnell was genuinely angry at the beast
| for having appropriated his dynamite, and his
| first impulse was to kick her-in fact it
| is stated by eye-witnesses that he actually
| raised his foot to kick but the idea sud
denly occurred to him that the stuff
| might 60 off if he kicked her; and he reasoned
further that while the net result might have
been entirely satisfactory as to the cow it would
probably deprive him of time in which to enjoy
the beasts reward, and he withheld the foot.
No, on second thought, he would drive her into
the field with the stumps and touch her OFF IN
their midst. By this means he could
probably get rid of the stumps with
out any extra outlay for dynamite.
But how was he to explode the COW? Cal has
fertile BRAIN as his friends can testify, and he
| didn't have to study long before he hit upon
| plan. He had mule that kicked worse than
mugwump-woud kick hole in the armament
II there was nothing else 10 practice on, and Cal
| determined to turn the mule into the field with
the cow~Of course, the mule would go up with the
magazine when the explosion came, but with
| characteristic disregard for expenses Oar
| nell resolved to sacrifice mule
| and turned the COW into the field.
| just how we'll the scheme would have worked
| however, will never be determined for about
this time the dynamite took effect otherwise, and
| the cow after swelling up to the size of Jumbo,
| laid down and died, thereby rendering it impos-
| sible to carry out the experiment. Darnell says
| now that the only thing that made him at all
| mad about the entire affair was that the man
| $40 for her, the ground that she had been
| killed by eating his dynamite which had been
| left in fence corner where any COW,
in the absence of any indication to the contrary,
| would very naturally mistake it for salt and
| eat it. He refused payment on the ground
| that he had counter claim against the owner of
| the COW for the loss of his dynamite. ANY
fool COW ought to have known the difference be-
tween salt and dynamite" he argued, and he
estimated that inaSmuch the loss OF the com
pound prevented his blowing out the stumps,
which would have made his field worth at least
$40 more the two claims were stand-otf. The
other man refused to see the matter in the same
light however, and threatens to sue for damages
for the loss of his animal IL Tt;tfA is not
settled otherwise withsabT~a an appeal to the
courts