Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1898 — danger in newspapers [ARTICLE]

danger in newspapers

One Causes a Loss of Eighty Quarts of Milk. For several weeks the streets in the extreme southern section of the city have been littered with papers, handbills and other rubbish of all sorts and sizes, says the Philadelphia Record. The evil was due in a measure to the habit of certain merchants of the neighborhood who, to advertise their wares, have flooded the district with printed “dodgers” both large and small. This condition of affairs led to an accident recently which might have proved serious. A milk wagon drawn by a meeklooking brown horse was jogging peacefully along the street, when suddenly a double sheet of newspaper borne along by the wind swooped down upon the horse’s head. The paper stuck there, and twisting itself about the frightened brute’s head transformed the formerly peaceful animal into a perfect demon. With a wild flourish of its hind legs which shattered the dashboard of the wagon the horse, blindfolded as it was with the paper, tore furiously* down the street. The wagon struck a pile of stones, and, although it was not overturned, the milk cans were, and their contents poured into a mortur bed which lay along the south side of the street, where a row of new houses was being erected. At the same time the trees broke and the horse, floundering into a bed of sand, fell in a heap. Then another gust of wind came along, whisked the newspaper off the horse’s head and carried it over an adjoining housetop. The horse was captured and found to be uninjured, but the milkman bemoaned the Joss of 80 quarts of milk.