Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 153, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1913 — WASP STING MAKES MAN WALK [ARTICLE]

WASP STING MAKES MAN WALK

While In Bed Feels “Hot Needle” Pierce His Ankle—Leaps to Floor and Runs. St. Louis. —Charles Wightman, deputy county clerk at Clayton, told a Post-pispatch reporter how he had just been able to walk without crutches for the first time In 38 of the 42 years of his life. He fell when he was four years old and injured both'legs permanently. He said that a neighbor had told him a snake story just before he went to bed. It was a tale of a blacksnake ever so many feet long and an incredible number of inches thick, which the neighbor had said he had killed. Charles woke up in the morning with the story still in mind. He thought how comfortable it was to live in a country where one could sleep in peace instead of in one of those countries where, he had heard, snakes sometimes creep in and share one’s bed. Revelling in the thought, he thrust his right leg deeper under the covers. Then something that stung like a hot •needle pierced his ankle. "1 sprang out of bed and ran and stumbled 12 feet across the room," he said. “It was the first time I had taken so many steps unassisted since I was a baby.” “And was It really a snake?” he was asked. “No; it was a wasp.” And he showed the ankle where the sting bad swollen it