New-York tribune., 1907-12-30
YEARS OF ACCIDENTS.
Il Unique Record of Narro7c Escapes
from Death. Fate of Mrs. Wall.

A diving chapter of accidents is Mrs. Helen moore
WALL Daniel Webster's private secretary. and
now in her old age, residing alone in dirninutive
cottage In Savin Hill. Dorchester. Boston.
Mrs. Wall has always had remarkably good health
yet she has paid the doctors many thousands of
dollars for attendance upon her, for from her
sixth year, at which early age she fell and broke
ankle Mrs Wallis life has been succession of
fallings breakings, maiu1ings and brusings. There
is hardly, II is said. bone in her body that has
not been brok some time or other, and not
year has gone head since that first fracture
of her ankle that has not been marked by some ac-
cident to her much afflicted body.
I've been in every sort of accident that can hap
pen 10 person." she said. except I've never
been by an automobile. I'm expecting
that any day. and should think IL ought to be the
end. And though she is not in the least lugubri-
Gus. but very animated. and often laughs merrily
when she tells the long story of her misadventures.
people who know her know that in her heart she
hopes the end will not be long in coming For she
is seventy-six years Old and her husband to whom
she was devotedly attached is dead
Mrs. Wallis many accidents have been no fault
of her own 1t is merely that Fate has led her
under the planks that fell into the trains that
wrecked. in front of the horses that ran away
Her first railroad wreck happened ffty-four years
ago. when a train which she chanced to be,
going out of Cincinnati. into drove of cattle.
in the smashup Mrs. Wall thrown against the
window with such force that her head broke the
heavy pane of glass, and itself in badly
broken. That time she required only surgeon.
Several other railroad wrecks have besprinked her
life with more or less serious consequences Once,
years she penned in burning building
in Boston. and rescued with difficulty, and not
long afterward she rescued, all but drowned.
from the waters of the Potomac. into which she
was preciptated by the overturning Of a boat.
At another time janitor nearly wrought her
destruction. quite without meaning ii. He turned
off the gas as she was descending the stairs in
public building in Washington. and she made
false step and fell to the bottom. njurng one leg
badly. bruising her body and altogether making
herself subject for two surgeons that time
Horsecars have likewise contributed to the excite
ment of her existence. One started suddenly
she boarding IT, and threw her from the plat
FORM fracturing her kneecap- Her next mishap
befel her in Boston. She walking along the
street when two carpenters and heavy plank got
mixed I'D with another, and tumbled down
a flight of stairs at the foot of which the combina
tion struck Mrs. Wall. breaking her arm at the
wrist She was Just recovering from this accident
when a large dog. coming rather hastily around
a corner, into Mrs Wall and knocked her down.
She got along with one surgeon that time
The marks of her next accident have remained
with her all her life. 1t happened as she COM
ing out of bakeShop- The heavy door closed upon
her hand with great force. crushing the bones so
fearfully that the hand has been crippled ever
since. The very next year Mrs. Wall thrown
from trolley and badly injured. Just at pres
ent she is recovering from n1ishap which befell
her her hearthstone- She tripped and fell
against stove, fracturing her hip
Another casualty, from which Mrs. Wall has
recovered. though IL happened years ago.
encounter with pension sharks. They bled
her rather severely, and she was discouraged
that she gave up her attempt TO secure pension
and has never renewed It, friend succeeded In
getting s. a month for her. however.
Not much but memories and keepsakes of the
past has Mrs. Wall In her old age but she has
plenty of those. Her husband, Joseph Wall, an
Englishman of line of brave His
father fought with Nelson In the Battle of the Nile
Wall himself shot in the head while leadin
charge at Petersburg. and there received injury
bullet In the head-which resulted in his death
in 1879
As for Mrs Wall her memories would fill
volume and bound up with them the names of
very famous For years she Daniel
Webster's private secretary. handling all his
script. When he was candidate for the Presi-
Dental nomination she had charge of all the
terial used in booming him. and she keeps of
the literature still She has letters. too. letters
bearing the autographs of men renowned in the
annals of statecraft and she has curos and fur
niture that many years old. In the days from
which these date Mrs Wall lived in Washington.
Her husband a painter then. but after he
hurt in the war-through which ne went a cap
tain of colored troops-he was never able TO use
the brush again But for long time he was
professor OF languages and painting In Frank San
borns famous school at Concord, where Emersons
children and the young AIcotts were pupils
Though Mrs. Wall lives alone she has had five
children. and two of them living now. One OF
them is Anna Theodore Wall. who makes her home
in Japan sometimes this country to
lecture. The other is the wife of Brooklyn cler-
gyman. Marrying clergymen has long been habit
with the women of Mrs. Wallis family. For three
hundred years her people have never been without
minister in the family.
Mrs. Wall numbers the Rev. John Cotton among
her ancestors. She has a few other titles dis
tinction, but none unique her tendency to
accidents and her faculty of coming through them
alive.