Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-10
MEDAL HEROES.
Most Thrilling Rescues are out Of
Beaten Path.

| IuHu VI @u,OVUtVuV " pTONluc iC" "a Ao
! for valorous deeds in the saving Of hui
man life more than 700 persons have
! been honored by the Hero Fund Com
| mission.
Heroes and heroines-and number of
| them-have swum their way to medals,
| rescuing fellow creatures from what
! would have been watery graves.
They have gone into burning build
| ings by scores to drag forth human
beings that otherwise would have been
victims of the flames.
Thrilling rescues by the dozens have
been made where trains, moving at a
| frightful pace, were about to crush out
| lives, helpless on crossing or trestle.
Explosions, cav-ins, runaways--all
these have figured time and time again
| in real life dramas in which the finale
| has been the bestowal Of a Carnegie
medal.
| Yet there are Carnegie medal win
ners who have gone out of the beaten
paths.
1t was at Porters Lake Penn, that
Lucy E. Ernst, 20 years of age, saved
| Harry e. Schoenhut, aged 16, from
death from snake bite Miss Ernst,
though having a fever blister on her
| lip, repeatedly sucked the venom from
| a rattlesnake bite on Schoenhut s
shoulder.
Porters Lake is In the widest part of
Pike County, where the bear, the deer,
the black bass, the pickerel and tho
rattlesnake hold dominion. Miss Ernst
and young Schoenhut, who were stay
| ing in the vicinity, started out one
| 6r;. I'll, 10 81 -
nest. Flowing through the brush,
| Sehoenhut stopped besideafallen birch
| and reached down for a stick. From
| the leaves there came a shrill, singing
! sound. Then came a quick rush of
some sinuous thing, darling through
| the air, and Schoenhut Strengthened up
with the cry:
"A rattler's got me! He's struck me
OIL the shoulder
| The girls face grew deadly pale as
the man spoke, but she did not lose
her presence of mind or her courage.
Without word she grabbed the knife
! which the young man had dropped and
before he realized what she was doing
| she had cut away his sleeve and had
| pressed her lips to the two small black
| dots in the arm that showed where the
rattler's fangs had struck.
! The youth tried to push her away,
but Miss Ernst stopped further re-
monstrance by grasping him by the
| throat. She knew she had a fever plis-
| ter on her lip and she knew also that If
the one who sucks the twin punctures
through which the snake sends death
has a broken tooth or an abrasion of
on 1-;y,6 in tho tta
is as though the snake had thrust its
| fangs there. But she did not hesitate.
Rescuers found the two practically
unconscious. For week Schoenhut lay
delirious, and for week the girl lay
silent and STILL There had been enough
of the venom in the mans veins to
bring him to the portals of death.
| Through the little blister on the girls
lips enough poison had entered to bring
her near to the door of death, too.
For her act Miss Ernst received a
silver medal.
Then there was the medal for John
NJ. Delo, who tried to catch fellow
workman in his fall from en- electric
| light pole, and who was himself badly
! injured as a result. f8s ss5
! Delo, a 27-year-old electrician, and
/ Roy Yingling, aged "a, lineman, were
! working together on a job in Oil City,
! Penn, when Delo glanced up in time
| to see his companion, working at the
| top of a pole, stiffen from a shock re-
ceived on the wires Delo started to
clumb the pole in going to the rescue
! when to his horror he saw Yingling
start to fall. The body was coming
straight toward him. He could have
lodged out Of the way, but his only
| thoughts were of the terrible fall his
| fellow workman was about to receive
! He reached out his arms and Yingling
crashed into. them, the two being
| knocked to the ground. The force uf
| Yinglings fall had been broken and he
! survived. Delo survived. too. but for
weeks he lay i'll from fractured skull.
The commission recognized the act
with a bronze medal and $500 to re-
imburse for pecuniary loss sustained
on account of injuries.
What do you think Of fighting off
an enraged bull with no other weap
on than a pocket knife?
| Yet that was just what Clifford ".
Graves, Versailles, Ky. farmer did
one morning Graves was attracted
to his barnyard by cries to find Mer-
rift L. Brown, a negro neighbor, being
trampled and butted on the ground by
an angry bull.
Graves looked about him for some
weapon with which he might combat
the animal which was holding a hui
man being helpless beneath its fury.
Before he would have time to rush
back to the house for gun it would
be too late. The negro was calling
out piteously. Reaching in his pocket,
Graves found an ordinary pocket knife.
and with It, unmindful Of the danger
that would be transferred to himself
slashed at the angered bull.
The animal diverted its wrath to
ward the interfering Kentuckian, who
slashed at the animal, only to be
knocked down and severely butted.
Frantically he stabbed, each time
bringing forth spurts Of blood. but the
knife was a weak weapon at best.
Graves was beginning to fear that he
would not be able to survive the tor
ture much longer. He was no longer
able to make use of the knife. He saw
everything turning black.