Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1908 — BACKED INTO BY AUTOMOBILE. [ARTICLE]

BACKED INTO BY AUTOMOBILE.

Wilbur Hart, who recently moved here from Illinois, though formerly a resident of Mt. Ayr, met with a mishap about 4:30 p. m., Thursday that might have resulted in a tragedy. With two small children he was driving down Front street with one horse hitched to a secondhand rural mail wagon that he had purchased from J. W. Knapp, the liveryman. When directly opposite Delos Thompson’s driveway, the letter’s boy backed out an automobile.

Mr. Hart did not see the auto nor the boy did not see him, and the machine run square into Han's wagon, throwing the latter out through the back of the wagon, breaking the rig up very badly and narrowly missing a move disastrous mix-tip. Mr. Hart had one child on his lap at the time, and he had the presence of mind to grab the other one as he went out through the back of the rig, pulling it out with him. The horse ran to the corner by J. J. Eiglesbach’s residence with the remains of the wagon, where it was caught. Mr. Hart's shoulder and arm was so badly hurt that he could scarcely raise his arm, one child was cut near the eye by a piece of the broken glass from the mail wagon, and the other one had a lump on its head where it came in contact with something. It was a narrow escape, as the occupants of the rig might have been killed or badly mained by the heavy ante.