Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1907 — A FEW ACCIDENTS IN RENSSELAER [ARTICLE]

A FEW ACCIDENTS IN RENSSELAER

The worst accident of the Fourth here had no connection with the celebration. It occurred about one a. m. of that day, and resulted while the electric lights were temporarily tnrned off to locate and repair a broken wire. Clifford Dayton, who is night man at the Babcock & Hopkins elevator, was the victim. It occurred while the lights were out, when he fell into the pit of a grain dump. He landed on his /ace and was pain folly cot and bruised. He received a deep, long gash over both eyes, requiring five stitches to close it; had both bones broken in his nose,' and one of bis legs was very extensively bruised. He will be laid out Irom work for some time. The second worst accident, and possibly it will prove the worst, occurred not on the Fourth but the morning after it—tho it was a fireworks accident Charley Britt, the 15-year old son of James Britt, of ten miles north of town, had a big cannon cracker cast oyer, which he was firing this morning. He laid it upon an elevation, and went away about twenty feet to watch it explode. When this occurred the bottom piece ».f the cracker struck him in the right eye, injuring it quite severely. Bow severely can not yet be told, but he was brought to town for treatment, and under the advice of the local physician was taken by his father, to Lafayette this afternoon, to consult an eye specialist. The sight of the eye is spoiled for the present, but it was thought by the physician here that the injury would be only temporary. An accident at the race track was exciting but nst serious. Four girls and one yonng man were rid ing in a single buggy and one of the girls driving. They sought to turn too quickly and the buggy so nearly tipped over that two of the girls were thrown out, one being the drive;. The lines dropped to the ground and the horse started to run at a lively rate, and matters looked serious for the remaining occupants of the buggy. But the young man justified the nerve he had shown when he monopolized four girls at once, for he' leaned way down behind the horse’s feet and picked up the lines and then brought the horse under control. Bussell Lesh, 16 year old son of John Lesh, was badly burned in the face and eyes by the explosion of a fire cracker dose to his face. The injuries are paiufaland severe, but the physician does not think any bad scars on the face or injury to the eyes will result. A young lady was burned in the face, in the court house yard, by a toy pistol which some boy carelessly discharged almost in her face. No scar or powder marks will result from the burn, which was not at all deep.