Monday Meanderings - 3.7.2016

Okay, I have a confession to make. I've devoted so much time to coffee on the patio this past week that no meandering took place. The only things that I can reliably comment on are the trees leafing out, the grass greening and the dandelions and sticky willy weed proliferating. It's been a hard winter in ATX.

But for those of you who might be inclined to think of this as an endorsement to move here, let me remind you that temperatures of triple digits, humidity in the 90's and the increasingly deadly mosquitoes are just around the corner. Enough said.

However, I have not been a total slacker this week. While doing a little genealogical research the other evening a link led me to transcripts of early editions of the Arlington Journal - a newspaper that began publication in 1897 and lives on today as the Arlington Citizen-Journal.

Browsing through issues published in 1904, I was struck by how tenuous life was for citizens of the day. Death was frequent and often tragic, and there seemed to be recurring themes.

For example a leading cause of accidental death seemed to be fire:

The little daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Tate, living in the Caddo Mills community, died Friday from the effects of burns received Tuesday by falling into the fire.

Monday afternoon the 16-year-old daughter of Fritz Marquot, living near Plum, was so badly burned that death resulted in a few hours afterward. She was burning cotton stalks in the field when her clothing caught fire.

Broeton Baker Bledsoe died at his home in Village Mills of the burns received from an exploded lamp. Mr. Bledsoe was born in Cobb county, Georgia, in 1844. He was a Confederate veteran.

Shreveport: Mrs. C. E. Parker was probably fatally burned Saturday as the result (of) stepping upon a match, igniting her clothing. She sustained severe burns upon her hips, right shoulder and back. Her condition today is precarious. This is the third similar case reported within the past two weeks, the victims in each instance being women whose clothing became accidentally ignited, resulting in burns that produced death.

It is reported that W. H. Johnson a brother to H. O. Johnson, former editor of this paper is reported to have lost his life in the great Chicago Theater fire.

Decatur: Mrs. Fannie Cooper of this place, who was reported as having her clothes burned from her body while starting a fire under a wash pot in the yard Thursday, died that night from the effect of her injuries.

Or by gunshot. Sometimes accidental, sometimes not:

Dallas: At Wilmer Saturday night D. H. Weaver was shot and killed and Osa Tyre, aged about 28, received a pistol wound through the fleshy part of his shoulder. Weaver, who was an elderly man, 53 years of age, was instantly killed, being shot in the breast above the heart. Another ball entered his hip, while a third cut a hole through his hat. Tyre was arrested and brought to Dallas.

Tuesday at Enterprise, I. T., Will C. Davis and Miss Lulu E. Smith went to the photographer to have their pictures made, carrying a target gun, which as usual was not loaded. In some way the gun was exploded, the ball entering the breast of the young man, and as a consequence he is in a precarious condition.

Fooling with a supposed empty pistol, Callin Jones, a Dallas negro, shot and killed Maggie Porter, another negro.

Police Officer Howell Cobb shot and instantly killed Robert O. Emma, a Mexican, at El Paso. Emma was resisting arrest, and after knocking the officer down, slashed him with a razor, inflicting ugly wounds.

Since there were few automobiles in 1904, trains figured prominently as a cause of death:

J. W. McNeal, a resident of Curtis, in Woods county, Ok., was struck by an extra Santa Fe freight train at Curtis and instantly killed, both legs and his neck being broken. He was a Civil War veteran.

Temple: At the Santa Fe stone quarries near Belton late Thursday afternoon Tom H. Lipscomb of Temple, a Santa Fe freight brakeman, was almost instantly killed by being run over by the engine attached to the train he was working with. The train was setting some cars at the quarry and Lipscomb was riding on the pilot of the engine for the purpose of uncoupling a car that was being shoved onto the siding in front of the engine. 

Hugh A. Mullen, one of the proprietors of the Sunday Philadelphia World was killed by being struck by a train. Among the papers found in his pocket was an accident insurance policy for $5000.

While crossing a track from his work, August Schoenberg, a cotton screwman at Galveston, was run over, necessitating the amputation of his right leg just below the hip. The chances of his recovery are doubtful.

And then there were the less common, but no less deadly causes of death:

Skeekity Tehee, a full-blood Cherokee Indian, while trying to ride a wild horse, was thrown violently to the ground and instantly killed.

Arthur Curry, a Cleburne youth, while walking a picket fence with a playmate, fell, sticking two of the pickets in his body. His injuries are very serious.

Bessie Dean died at the Sealy Hospital at Galveston from morphine poisoning, self-administered. She had been a resident of Galveston for several years and had led a wretched life for the past three years.

Frank A. Biggs, aged sixty-seven years, died at San Antonio Friday. He was injured December 23 by an emery wheel breaking while he was sharpening a chisel, a piece of the emery striking him on the forehead and fracturing his skull.

Waco: Sam Bell, a farmer, descended into a well near Hewitt, Mclennan county, to put in a blast, intending to go deeper to get a better flow of water, and was overcome and killed by carbonic acid gas, commonly called fire damp. His friend, Charles Johnson, descended to the rescue, and was overcome. A third man went down and got both men out, to late to save Bell, but in time to save Johnson.

And sometimes, it was a combination of tragic events:

Eagle Pass: The wife of Antonio Sanchez, a miner, was burned to death Thursday evening. She was cooking over an open fire, when her dress caught fire, and before aid could be given was mortally injured. Her husband was notified, and while ascending the shaft of the cage, swooned and fell, his head striking the wall of the shaft and his neck was broken. He was brought up dead. His wife lingered till midnight.