The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1896-03-18
ON An lcseoaT.
The inexperienced MAJ Thought He Had
Cut "a Man's Head OF.

Cut "a MAnS hchu OH.
1t was on a large bay. The ice
wns now and literally as smooth as
glass from end to end. No ground
swells had worked in under it to
make cracks, and the feel of the
boat was more like flying than any
thing I have known since. All one
could hear was the crack of the mast
and the yard rs the puffs came hard
CT, and as the ice skate cut its line
in the green crystal it ohiseled out
q squirt of brittle fragments that
could be heard tinkling on the ice
like broken glass.
We were going exactly 30 miles
an hour, as timed between two har-
Dor buoys that were frozen in-they
being laid ~ miles apart-and there
were o few people crossing the bay,
here and there, on foot. We had the
wind a little forward of abeam, and
were heading on the port tack for
the clubhouse. But ahead of US,
and to windward, a foot passenger
was crossing. At first he was only a
speck on the distant ice. Then We
could see that the speck walked, and
that 1t had moving legs. Another
few moments, and we were nearing
him, when two other iceboats were
seen approaching with almost the
speed of lightning. thought I could
cross ahead of them, and still pass
behind the pedestrian. but the other
boats, being on the starboard tack,
had the right of way. We were ap-
preaching with almost the speed of
lightning. and as / dared not at that
time try to bear away ] pinched up
to clear them. This l just succeeded
in doing, though the second one
forced my course till I was flying
straight for the foot passenger. He
was then only n short distance
ahead, and had taken to run-of
course, in the wrong direction-and
then foil down in the course l hoped
to be able to take.
My iceboat IA going about a
mile a minute, clearing space at
about 20 yards q second, say 81 feet
a second. and l felt myself sioken
as / saw him fall. / dared not try to
bear away. for fear the craft would
not do so in time, SO I jammed the
tiller down and the boat took a
frightfully sharp curve that sent
two of the crew spinning out over
the ice to leeward. I felt the ice
skate, that is shaped like the blade
of the guillotine, tilt up as we flew
past something black on the ice, and
then, as the boat had reached into
the wind, l looked back along the
grassy green. The figure was still
stretched out at full length upon the
ice, and two feet ahead of him lay
something round and black that be-
longed to him, but was not separat-
ed from him, and I cried aloud, my
God, I haze cut his head off"
1t was a dreadful feeling. I
couldn't stir. OF what further use
was I to him?
And then l saw the figure move.
1t stretched along the ice. And in
the distance ! saw an arm reach for
ward and seize the detached head
and put it back in place. 1t was the
mans fur cap the iceboat had tilted
on. When he had fallen, this had
been thrown ahead of him a couple
of feet, and mighty glad l was to
give him the price of a new one to
call it square, Wemeasured the dis
lance to find out how far the two
fellows We're thrown who went over
the side at the time of the sharp
curve, We paced it off from the line
cut by the lee skate and found that
they had spun along the smooth sur
face $50 feet-almost 100 yards
! New York Tribune.