The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-12-25

did believe it will go over to the ma
jority, but 1 can prove it by two ply
slcians, both of whom set my leg, and
a third physician who reset it about a
week later when my bed fell down.
I was placed on a cheap bed and an
extension put On the leg-that is, a
piece OF adhesive plaster was put on
the sole Of the foot, and to this a cord
was attached which passed up over the
foot of the bed and over a pulley to a
couple Of fat irons which kept my
limb pulled out to its full capacity all
the time when the bone was knitting.
One day I heaved a sigh, and as 1 did
SO the bed fell with a loud report, leav-
ing my foot in the air.
Gosh, how it hurt!
A nurse and my fond wife were
there, but they could not pull me out
from the chaos of bed and shattered
legs. All they could do was to wiring
their hands and put cologne on my
brow.
1t was one of the saddest situations l
ever accepted. Finally my wife, who
is a woman of quick intelligence, sug-
gested that 1 could be slowly elevated
by an educational process. She got
two sets of c%yclopedia and some of my
own literary works, and with these she
managed to build up under my giant
frame as I went up on one elbow at a
time, 80 that when the doctor came 1
was resting, white and faint, with a
work on phrenology under my head
and a big octave on numbering in the
northwest under my lumber region.
The cyclone is a very quick move
ment of disturbed air in various direc-
tions and is injurious to animal life. 1t
is, as 1 may say, in almost every case,
acute disturbance of aerial particles re-
sulting from infamed climate.
The careful student of atmospheric
phenomena notices at first a small
cloud about the size of a mans hand,
but very soon it assumes the size and
blackness Of threatened tariff legisla-
ton, and before one can find the key
to his cyclone cellar he is twisted so
that he looks at the future over his
shoulder blades and tears of anguish
roll down over his eyebrows into his
ears.
When 1 rose on my good leg to go to
the assistance of my brother, the sharp
bones of the tibia and ibia cut through
the lacerated flesh, and also spoiled a
comp sratively new pair of pantaloons.
The green leaves of the forest had been
whipped to a mucilage by the wind
and hail and pIastered over fences,
houses and even horses, Our horse
was hanging by his breeching from a
lonely tree, plastered with green, and
the blood was all rushing to his head.
I moaned and sank into a pool of mud,
hail and rain-water.
My patience, how my leg did ache
mel
Help was miles away, but busy re-
lieving the distress of the injured and
comforting the bereft or searching for
the dead at Clear Lake. 1t was a mem
orable night. 1 lay on my back look
ing up at the alternate cloud rack and
the cold, unsympathetic planets. Now
and then it would rain some more on
my upturned spectacles. Nothing is
more annoying than ~spectacles in a
cyclone.
My brother paced the torn and di-
sheveled road near me, almost crazed
by the fear that his family had been
killed during his absence. Finally a
foot passenger came by on his way to
the village, and we sent for relief. I
asked for a stretcher, a physician, a
rubber blanket, a bottle of moxie and
an evening paper.
The accident occurred as the whistle
blew for 6 o'clock, and it was midnight
when relief came. I car recall the
circumstances almost without effort.
A kindly dentist pulled my leg and
then set it as one would set a hen-that
is, he fenced it in with pieces of fence
boards. He tied these to the shattered
limb as far as the fracture and then
stopped 80 that he prevented circula-
ton and yet gave no protection to the
agonized leg. By morning it had
swollen to it's full capacity, and 1 shall
carry down to my tear soaked grave
the scars of those diagonal blisters
made by the accursed bandages.
After "a hours I saw that I would
have to wear a hickory leg up the
golden stair, as things looked, and so 1
had six good healthy ~pallbearers take
me to the evening train, put me on the