The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-07-01
SEVERE INJURY.
G. b. McAllister Drops to the Ground
and Escapes.

Ills SlOJucS duIe anu HIS lclJ leB
roasting against an electric ground
ed wire until he fell to the concrete
side walk below, a distance of 20
feet, was the fate of Jack Shearer,
lineman employed by the telephone
company Thursday a. m. shortly af-
ter 10 o'clock at the corner of Barre
and Main streets, near the Taft &
Odell coal Office where the linemen
connected with the local Office were
at work. But the worst of the whole
accident was the fact that the
plucky lad, conscious all the time,
was held in sitting posture on the
sidewalk looking down into a hole
four inches in diameter in his leg
just above the knee with the flesh all
around it roasted to a yellow COM
plexion for fully twenty minutes,
while futile efforts were made to
reach a doctor. They were all away
somewhere when the accident oc-
CURED and the first means Of relief
that came to the suffering boy was
the ambulance which took him to the
hospital. The first physician to ar
rive came five minutes after Shearer
had been carried.
The accident happened a few
minutes after 10 o'clock and the
whole pitiful sight was witnessed by
a few. Fred Gates, the Standard Oil
representative here, saw the man
fall and when Hiram Odell looked
out the man was all ablaze on the
wires finally falling to the ground.
Shearer is young man about %
years of age and has not been work
ing long for the company here. He
is a clean-cut appearing young man
of dark complexion. His friends
Strengthened him out on the side
walk, and C. B. McAllister, one of
his fellow workmen, held him so
that he was in sitting posture and
bathed his head with water. His
nose was bleeding slightly but he
was conscious and bore his suffering
bravely while waiting for a physi-
clan to arrive. The wound bled but
slightly for the leg was so badly
roasted that there did not appear to
be much connection above the knee,
and the flesh on either side was of
yellowish hue.
The peculiar arrangement of the
various wires at the scene of the
accident made it somewhat perilous
for lineman to work on the pole,
as there are two electric light wires
of the Consolidated Lighting COM
pany running alonside it to another
pole about ten or fifteen feet away.
Shearer and McAllister were on the
pole carrying the wires of the tel
ephone company, fastening new
wire which had been carried
over the M. &. w. r. depot from
Berlin Side, McAllister being a
short distance 0below Shearer
when the accident occurred. In
some way the climbing spur on
Shearer's right foot came in con-
tact with ground wire which was
on the pole at the same time when
his left foot swung around and
touched the electric light wire, thus
forming a circuit. the whole current
passing through his body. He was
held by the wire for about a minute
before falling, but when the flesh on
his leg was burned through to the
bone, dropped, striking the other
wire, and tearing out the insulator
to which it was fastened on the
other pole. Striking on his feet on
the sidewalk he sat down, making
no outcry whatever, the Only words
he spoke being. "I am caught,
which he said to McAllister when
the current caught him. McAllist'
err, when he saw the plight Of his
comrade, dropped to the ground
from his position on the pole, about
% feet in air, as he could not pass
him without getting a shock, and die
not dare to touch him to pull hin
away because he had no rubber
gloves and would have been injured
by the strong current. In some
way, however, he got slight shocl
on the pole at about the same time
that Shearer met his accident, the
flesh on his right leg being burned
but not severely, and across the rim
of his straw hat is burned streak
showing how close the wire came t.
his face.
Shearer broke no bones in his fal
to the ground and sat quietly whil'
McAllister and others threw waite
in his face and endeavored to reviv,
him as much as possible until I