East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-06-23
CURIOUS AND HUMOROUS ACCIDENTS
(By Samuel w. HIppler.l

Nby samuel w. ftlppler.)
The most peculiar accident that ever
came to my notice happened to a COM
mercial traveller In Massachusetts,. He
had been out late, and In returning
to his hotel wandered beyond towr
limits, and before he realized It was
plowing through stubbly fields in inky
darkness. OF sudden he plunged
over bank and just managed to
throw his body around sufficiently to
clutch the edge of the earth with his
fingers. For hours It seemed, he
hung there. At last he could endure
It no longer and let go. He dashed
downtown about six inches and then
stopped. He had been hanging all the
the ground. In the morning they
pulled him out Of an unfinished well.
He was crying like a baby, and his
hair, that had been raven black the
night before, was white as snow. In
this, as In many other accidents, the
funny and the tragic were closely
blended. There was an old fellow,
for instance, who crawled into an
empty spirit hogshead to clean It and
was overcome by the fumes. Because
OF his fondness for alcoholic stimu-
lants, his friends said that he died a
happy death. And then there was the
fat, jolly woman who laughed so
heartily at joke that she broke her
stays. A piece Of steel pierced her
side and caused death. A broken
trolley wire in Buffalo fell into a load
OF hay and in less than II takes to tell
there was a merry blaze right In the
center of the business street. The
conflagratlon called out the members
of n near by fire company and large
crowd. Several ice cutters were at
work on frozen Lake Erie making an
attempt 70 harvest at least a crop
before the spring breakup occurred
when there was a loud bang and a
sheet of ice a quarter of a mile square
broke from its natural moorings and
floated down Niagara river. Three
men were carried on this strange YES
sci rapidly toward the falls, and were
going to certain death when rescued
by the crew OF a steam launch that
Tut out from the American shore. The
little dog shown in the arms OF a SOL
der in the accompanying picture was
the mascot that went with an Ameri- |
can regiment to the Philippines, He |
followed the company into an engage
ment one hot summers day, and was !
picked up by one Of the boys who |
was carrying him out of harms way
when a bullet shot him dead without '
touching the soldier Had the soldier /
boy not been carrying the dog the
bullet would have found a human
mark. A tiny tombstone marks the
dogs grave on the island OF Luzon.
A cat accident that had a disastrous
finale recently occurred in Ohio. a
Buckeye state farmer was moving, |
when in some way he ran over the
family cat, cutting off It's hind legs.
He started for the house to get his
shotgun to put the poor beast out OF
It's misery In returning he stumbled
and the gun went off, blowing the top
of his head to pieces and killing him
There is said to be actual
ly on the records of the claims de-
partment OF a prominent accident in
surance company claim OF Califor-
mia man who tried to collect $50 on
the plea that both his hands were
burned while he was trying to put out
a fire in his horses's tail that was
caused by a firecracker carelessly
thrown by small boy.
OF course. railroad men in all com- 5
ries have many freak accident stories
o tell Sometime last August in Geor- !