Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-19
VOICE FROM GREAT BEYOND
E1-Commissioner Kierstead Speaks as One
from the Other Shore.
MARVELLOUS ESCAPE FROM ELEcTRocUTloN
Prostrntion by n Current In an Un-
used Telephone wire Relieves
His system of Microbes
and Impurities.

| Although there was nothing sepC!cnral IN
its tones it was with voice as from the
grave that William l. Kerstead, ex-coun:y
| commissioner, was greeting his friends yes
terday. He feels as one who had been dead
and had come to life again. Few men pass so
near the edge OF the grave and escape its
! embrace as did Mr.. Kierstead last Thursday.
He realizes that he has stood upon the spot
/ mentioned by Ingersoll, where listening
| hope hears the rustic OF wing" and is con-
graduating himself and receiving the con-
| gratuations of friends over having lived to
tell what death is like.
1t had been raining more or less all the
| forenoon and the ground was soaked and
muddy Mr.. Kierstead concluded to take a
| car down town from his home 1920 Boule-
| ward avenue. Seeing car in sight he
stopped at a telephone pole, around which
| at an altitude easily within reach was coiled
| three or four times line OF disconnected
telephone wire, held in place by half
| formed hook at the broken end. Kierstead
reached up his right hand to lean against
the pole, and in doing so grasped the coil
OF wire On the instant he was racked body
and soul by torturesome pains, and peals of
\ thunder reverberated through his brain.
| Catches Hold of Live Wire.
BIN! bin! it came, and heard a thou
|
Mr.. Kierstead. Although writhing in
agony / could realize what had happened
knew that l had tackled an electric cur
rent. tried to let go, but l couldn't.
| tried to cry out, and thought l did. but 1t
| seems, as l learned afterward, that all
| did was to groan, for two women heard
| me groan and thought had been paralyzed.
Countless thoughts rushed through my
! mind, and 1t seemed to me that l was I'M
| paled by the current fully fifteen minutes
| Finally thought l was dead | remember
distinctly thinking to myself, now I'm
Dead The next thing I knew l came to
my senses and found two women standing
| near me- very much frightened They said
| they thought l had suffered a stroke OF
| paralysis. / had been unconscious fully two
minutes. My muscles were knotted and
sore, my right hand was badly burned upon
| the inside of the fingers, and the hair was
| singed from the back of it. l arose and
| walked with considerable difficulty.
"I boarded a car and went straight to
doctor. NY muscles were found to be drawn
I'm in hard knots, and l was troubled with
| excruciating soreness through the knees,
calves and hips. After having been treated
| by the doctor that afternoon / went in the
evening and took a Turkish bath, which
| removed much of the soreness, and now the
only annoyance is slight soreness in the
| right shoulder and arm.
81 was naturally apprehensve lest the ef-
! feet of the shock might result in disastrous
| after-results, but the doctor reassured me
| on that score. He said that 1t was a Won
derful thing that l was alive, but as l was
| alive I was better than 1 ever was before,
| for although l never was sickly every MI
| crobe or impurty in my system had been
| killed so that l ought to live 100 years.
And the fact is that outside of the soreness
J in my shoulder l do feel splendldly THIS
morning.
| How 1T Happened.
How did it all happen? Well there is
| located on an adjoining lot at Ames avenue
and Florence boulevard little old house in
| which a watchman was formerly stationed to
turn on the full current of water in case OF
| fire on the exposition grounds. This little
house had been connected by telephone wire
with the headquarters of the exposition fire
| department and the wire had been attached
| to this pole The telephone had been taken
! out a few days before and the loose end OF
the wire had been wrapped around this pole.
l saw the men taking it out myself aud saw
| them coil the wire around the pole and hook
it at the end. The rain Of the morning had
wet the ground, and you know water is a
/ good conductor OF electricity. Sherman G..
| Clayton foreman of the Ames avenue car
shops, afterward traced that wire back into
the exposition grounds, and right at the
Schlitz pavilion on the West Midway he
| found that it came in contact with an al
| ternating current electric light wire That
| is the kind OF a current that killed the four
fremen recently. When / stood upon the
wet ground and placed my hand upon that
| wire completed the circuit for just such a
current as killed those firemen Had the
/ wire been hooked at the end securely l would
| have suffered their fate, but it was just
| hooked sufficient to hold it, and when |
writhed about l broke the fastening and 1t
slipped down the pole and let dne fall. 1t
did not take it long to do 1t, for although
it seemed to me an intermnable period the
doctor says it could not have been longer
| than fifteen seconds, or / would never have
lived to tell my experiences. He also says
that it was fortunate that fell upon the
ground, for the latter being wet and my
hands being bare the earth drew the cleo
trcity at once out of my body and saved
my life"
|
To Ladies' Only.