Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-02-13
ODD ACCIDENTS.
Mr.. Rand's Flight from Home Into the
River and Other Happenings.

They may have been due to the eccen-
tricities of the season or merely to the,
wanton malevolence of luck, but not al
few extraordinary accidents have oc-
CURED in Connecticut within day or
two. Some of the casualties were at
tended with odd circumstances.
William Rand, of Groton, got out Of
bed in the most matter of fact way at
his home the other morning and STUN
bled into the kitchen to build the kitchen
fire as usual. He went in to touch it off
with naptha fluid, method he had used
hundred times before. He remembers
now that he had the naptha can in one
hand and was slowly tipping it to let the
fluid trickle into the stove. There may
have been a live coal in the kitchen
stove, or the naptha may have been an
unusually wicked kind Of fluid; at least
the next thing he knew with any lucid
ity was that one or two of his neighbors
were pulling him out of the Thames
river. @
AS the roof of Mr.. Rand's dwelling
had been raised some inches at the time
of his quitting his home, SO that he was
not obliged to be fired squarely through
it, and as he found himself suddenly in
the river, distant several rods from his
house, and as he recollects nothing about
going to the river in any way except by
a dim parabolic curve, it is reasonable to
infer, he thinks, that the naphtha can
exploded. He was very dangerously
hurt. s.-.
Homer Willis, a 12-year-old Whitman
tic lad, was lounging along the road to
school day or two ago when he found
an odd looking shell by the wayside, and
he picked it up. He scrutinized it close
ly, and his curiosity was excited. He
didn't know but it might be a new kind
of tropical nut. So he laid it down on a
rock, and, getting stone, whacked the
shell several times with great force.
| Then suddenly the air turned black, the
queer nut mysteriously disappeared, and
a moment later, when Homer had re-
| gained his right mind, he found himself
| on his back in the road. He discovered
| that couple of queer round holes had
been bored through his upper lip. The
surgeon who dressed the boys wounds
said he guessed the odd nut was dyna-
mite cartridge, and that it had belonged
| to Willimantic sewer men at work on
Valley street.
A man was sauntering along Main
street, in Hartford, the other day carry
ing long ladder on his shoulder, and
from the rounds of the ladder dangled a
paint pot and several crooked steel
hooks. Right behind the painter came
William Harper, who lives on Pleasant
street, who was walking quickly and I'M
guardedly, for he was going home to
dinner. The rear end of the ladder was
not six inches from Mr.. Harper's nose,
and in this queer procession the painter
and the other man strolled on for about
block at the same gait. Then sudden
ly the painter stopped to examine q
"bargain in wool undershirts" in an ad.
joining shop window, ''that were selling
for fifty cents less than COST" but Will.
/ lam Harper neglected to stop voluntarily
Instead, the ladder punched him foot
into the air clear of the sidewalk anG
flung him down on the sidewalk with &
smashed jaw and banged and bleeding
eye.
The man with the ladder squared
around in astonishment and awe anG
then helped Mr.. Harper into the drug
store of DR.. Root, who plastered ant
fixed up his wounds, and Harper wa!
taken home in hack. The painter say'
he fails to see how he is responsible fol
the mishap of man who pitched int
his ladder and was squarely knocked
out.
| John Welch, of Portland, met SINH
lar mischance, except that he was wal
loped by wheelbarrow instead of lad
der, and it was his own barrow, too. Fl,
was wheeling the barrow through hi
hardware shop when he stumbled, ant
then in a swift and unaccountable wa,
he got mixed up with the barrow, ant
before he could separate himself from
the legs and wheels and irons of the ma
! chine it had thrown him and broken hi
arm. The fracture was very bad one
and he will not be able to do busines
with wheelbarrow again for severa
months.-Norwich Conn., Letter in New
York Sun. ...r#r.e