The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-03-11
SAY man HAS FORTY LIVES
Picked Up for Dead Two Score
Times Is Yet Hale
HAS ALWAYS BEEN FOOTBALL OF FATE
LIGHTNING AND TEMPEST, FIRE,
ICE HAVE ONLY GRAZED
HIM TEMPORARILY.
HAS ALWAYS BEEN FOOTBALL OF FATE
LIGHTNING AND TEMPEST, FIRE

SlXtletn street, comes the tale OF q OlSt-
ant cousin of his in Iowa who has been
I picked up for dead two score times,
yet is still active at the age of II.
This football of fate is Henry Walk
er, always total abstainer from liquor
and tobacco, Justice of the Peace, and
formerly Johnson county, Iowa. Struck
by lightning; frozen in snow drifts,
neck high; menaced by fire; legs, arms
and ribs fractured repeatedly by falls
and runaways; life imperilled through
somnambulism; kicked by refractory
| horses and stubborn mules; trampled
| by Infatuated steeds; endangered by
robbers and Indians; half choked and
starved on the alkali plains of the far
| west; the victim could be described as
hale and hearty today but for the fact
| that he is recovering from the effects of
second plunge down long flight of
stairs.
| The first plunge occurred only a short
time ago when he was walking in his
sleep, and it fractured his skull. Walker
| was picked up for dead, but that ex-
| perience has been his so often that he
spoke only jestingly of his then near
approach to death.
Walkers misfortunes began &C vars
| ago, when as a boy of IL he went from
his birthplace in Portage county, Ohio,
| to Iowa City.
Despite his manifold accidents his
| life has been energetic and fruitful, and
to this day he is as bright and clipper
when not in the surgeons hands-as
man 40 years his MINOR. He is we'll
to-do, and now occupies and constantly
cares for his LOO acres along the
shores of the Iowa river in Johnson
and Washington counties.
A Few of His Mishaps.
In a reminiscent mood he recently re-
| viewed his many mishaps, and among
them were the following:
Attack of black erysipelas-lost sight
of one eye.
Engaged in wrestling match-broke
| arm near shoulder.
| Fell out of hay mow-brOke several
ribs.
| Slipped while carrying water-broke
| more ribs.
Trampled on by herd of "A maddened
steers-broke three ribs.
Runaway mules attached to a string
plough dragged him across field
broke three ribs.
| Three horses attached to a sickle
dragged him through a hay lot and the
sickle passed over him repeatedly--cut
| and bruised
Mules attached to a hayrake dragged
him over a long field-broke leg at
thigh: this bone he set, dressing wound
himself.
| Lightning struck and killed cattle
near where he was working and
stretched him senseless among their
dead bodies-recovered unburned.
| While on foot driving 500 cattle to
a point 26 miles from his home, was
lost in deep snowdrifts and after being
found unconscious, was revived with
Acknowledgements and part of one ear
frozen off, nose frozen
A colt that he was breaking threw
him-both bones of his lower right leg
broken.
| Besides these accidents Walker re-
calls a score Of runaways in which he
came out unscratched. Many times he
was thrown, kicked and dragged by
fractions horses, and yet suffered no
injuries of a lasting character.
One winter night in the midst of a
fierce Iowa storm his house caught fire
and Walker. then in the seventies, clam
hered to the top of the ice-covered root
and fought the flames for an hour. I'm
aided except by those who attached
buckets of water to a rope he lowered
he extinguished the fire.
Went Down for the Count.
Later lightning struck, the house and
he went down for the count. He re-
covered unmarked.
Many time, when herding his stock
after spring freshet, Walker plunged
into the stream and swan to the res
cue of his f1ocks and herds.
| AS pedestrian ne Is very pfOnclent
Years ago he walked 120 miles to the
government offices to stake his claims
At the age of 20, when the California
gold excitement was on, he tramped
across the plains to that State, cover
ing the distance in seven months, ar
irving at the gold fields with one yoke
of oxen. He started with seven.
| No Use for Doctor.
On one memorable occasion his fami.
lly summoned a physician without his
knowledge. The doctor diagnosed hi:
illness as pneumonia and drove hin
to bed. On the next day the physician
called and found the old man waist
deep in water, at work at the bottom
no prescription.
; He always had his own ideas abou
the conduct of love affairs. Twenty
five years ago, while planting corn dur