Meant to Have His Life

1910

Vicious Attack by Australian Natives on Trespassers in Their Country

Men who venture into the interior of northern Australia are likely to meet with adventures at the hands of hostile natives. Here is a matter-of-fact yarn concerning one James Runine McPherson, engaged in pearl-shelling operations:

On July 18 he was fishing for trepang (sea cucumber or sea slug) at the mouth of the Liverpool river. He landed in a dingey on the east bank of the river, where a bush smokehouse for the curing of trepang had been erected. He dispatched a Malay with canoes and working natives to gather trepang around a distant point, while two natives who paddled the dingey went off to the lugger, which was anchored more than a mile out, with a load of fresh water. He remained at the smokehouse with three old Junction Bay natives, who assisted him in manipulating the trepang. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, feeling tired, he was reclining on the floor of the smokehouse, with a rifle across his knees, when he was startled by the loud swishing sound of several spears passing through the bough-covered enclosure.

McPherson immediately rushed out and saw seven or eight Liverpool river natives at the back of the smokehouse with spears shipped and with murder in their faces. Another shower of spears fell around him and he retired toward the water's edge and as he dodged one another long-barbed spear struck him in the hip. He felt no more, he says, than a burning twinge from the wound at the moment and instantly broke it off with his hand, leaving about eight inches of the barbed point buried in the fleshy part of his hip, The natives at this time were about forty yards away, having never shifted from their first point of attack near some thick bushes.

The man who had wounded McPherson was in the act of throwing another spear when McPherson shot and hit him. He then emptied his revolver at his assailants, who immediately disappeared in the adjacent scrub. Hearing shots, the two Daly river natives came hurrying ashore with the dingey, and conveyed McPherson to his boat, where he subsequently succeeded himself in tearing the barbed spearhead from the wound. Several barbs shaped like fishhooks were broken off in the process and remained in the wound.

The following day McPherson shifted his trepang gear and crew to another part of the coast and started for Palmerston to report the matter and have the wound attended to.

Doctor Sews Up Gash In Heart

Printed Jan. 1908

Negro Injured During Brawl, Subject of Remarkable Operation

New York. — A few days ago the remarkable feat of sewing up a cut in a man's heart was successfully performed by two surgeons, Drs. Blake and Dwight, at Roosevelt hospital. The patient, William Johnson, a negro about 35 years old, is still in the hospital, ill with pneumonia, but, so far as his heart is concerned, he is all right. It has healed completely.

Johnson was stabbed in the course of a saloon row with a long thin knife, which severed the fourth rib two inches to the left of the mid line, and entered the heart. He left the scene of the stabbing without telling anyone of it, and strolled about the streets for three quarters of an hour. The wound appeared to be a slight one, and, as it was not bleeding, externally at least, Johnson did not worry about it.

By and by, however, he began to feel drowsy, and sat down on the curb and put his head in his hands. Here an acquaintance found him, drew from him the fact that he had been stabbed, and telephoned for an ambulance, which carried him to Roosevelt hospital.

Dr. Dwight, the house surgeon, diagnosed the case, and at once telephoned Dr. Joseph A. Blake. Within an hour and a half after the stabbing Johnson was on the operating table. Dr. Blake performed the operation with Dr. Dwight assisting.

First the surgeons made an incision along the upper border of the third rib, cutting from the sternum outward to the nipple line, thence down to the lower border of the fifth rib, thence inward to the sternum again, along the lower border of that rib.

This cut was deepened to the ribs, and then the third and fifth ribs were severed at the nipple line, the fourth having been cut through by the weapon that caused the wound. The operation to this point had resulted in the cutting of a sort of a trap door, which was easily raised, and turned back over the sternum with the costal cartilage as a hinge.

When the trap door was lifted and the pleura exposed, the left lung collapsed, and a pint of blood was found in the pleural cavity. It was found that the lung itself was not injured, but a small wound was discovered in the pericardium, or shell which incases the heart, from which the blood was running. The pericardium was then opened, and the heart itself exposed. This exposure of the heart showed the exact nature of the wound.

In the right ventricle, close to the anterior coronary artery, there was a wound in the heart about one half an inch in length, from which, at every contraction or beat of the heart, a little stream of blood spurted to a height of four inches. Examination showed that the wound extended to the central cavity of the heart.

The heart was grasped in the hand to steady it, just as one would clasp a fluttering bird in order to examine a wound. Four stitches with silk thread were then taken in the heart, it being necessary to sew entirely through the wall of the heart for that purpose. The wound was then drawn together and the flow of blood entirely checked.

Since that time, over a week ago, there has been no further bleeding from the wound in the heart, which is apparently entirely healed. Nor has there been any sign of blood poisoning. On the morning after the operation, however, the patient had a high temperature, and signs of pneumonia appeared in the lower lungs.

Traces of this pneumonia still persist, and it is this, and not the condition of the man's heart, that is causing the attending surgeons anxiety. The difficult and rarely attempted operation of sewing up the heart has apparently been performed with complete success.

Search for Hungarian Makes Commotion, Discovers Garlic Scent

Council Bluffs, Iowa, 1908

FUTILE SEARCH AT MIDNIGHT

Austrian Grading Camp Near Transfer Raided by Police

Four members of the South Omaha police force and two detectives of the Council Bluffs station conducted a fruitless search Monday night for a Hungarian wanted in Omaha for stabbing another man in a fight Sunday night.

The affray is said to have taken place at the Kilpatrick grading camp three miles west of South Omaha. Two brothers, Dan and Ivan Detlich, were alleged to have badly wounded two other men.

Monday evening word was received by the Council Bluffs police that the Austrian who had done the stabbing was reported to be concealed in one of the house-cars situated near the former site of the Omaha elevator south of the Union Pacific transfer and that four South Omaha officers would be over in about an hour to investigate the report.

At 11 o'clock the Omaha men arrived and, guided by the Council Bluffs detectives, started out to look for their man. Upon arriving at the ruins of the elevator two of the men went to the home of the man who had sent the report. He pointed out to them the string of cars in which the fellow might be found. A thorough search of these produced nothing more than a great commotion among the Hungarians and a noisome agitation of the scent of garlic.

After satisfying themselves that there was no man there answering the description, the party plodded back to the transfer station, foot-sore and weary, and arrived just in time to miss the last car. They finished the remaining sixteen blocks on foot, humming cheerfully betimes, bars from "Forty-five Minutes From Broadway."

—The Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa, March 11, 1908, p. 5.

Housemaid Stabbed by Enraged Suitor

1920

Assault Follows Her Refusal to Attend Movie Show

BOSTON, Mass. — Agnes Logan, 24, a maid in the home of A. Glouchester Armstrong, Back Bay resident, was taken to the City Hospital suffering from multiple stab wounds which it is alleged she received when she was set upon by a male escort who became enraged when she refused to attend a moving picture show with him.

The girl, who is not fatally wounded, says she left the Armstrong home through the servants' entrance, which is on a public alleyway in the rear of the house. She met a man who wanted her to go to the "movies," but she refused to go.

It is claimed the man then drew a small penknife from his pocket and stabbed the girl in the neck, narrowing missing the jugular vein, and also stabbed her in the abdomen. Miss Logan tried to fight off her assailant and in the mix-up which followed he stabbed her several times in the hands. He then escaped through the alleyway.

Divine Healer Stops Flow of Blood Following Fight

Indianapolis, 1917
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A divine healer demonstrated to Sergt. Thomas and a squad of police Saturday night his power when he stopped the flow of blood from a number of stab wounds which Mattie Brown, colored, 715 West Thirteenth street, suffered. It is said the stabbing was done by Grant Lightfoot, colored, of the same address, who alleged the woman owed him 50 cents. The Brown woman ran to 416 Cora street where the police were called. Lightfoot escaped.

The woman was lying on a bed bleeding profusely from the wounds. The police said a young negro approached and asked to be permitted to see her. The crowd that had gathered around the woman was ordered back by the police and the negro approached and waved his hands over the wounded woman while he mumbled strange words. The police said the bleeding stopped in about a minute. When questioned by the police all the man would say was that he was a "divine healer." The woman was sent to the City Hospital, where it is said her condition is serious.

--The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, November 12, 1917, page 8.

Stabs Man of Same Name

Two Tony Precaros, One Wounded.
One a Fugitive.

Chicago -- Similarity of names and rivalry over an Italian girl caused a stabbing affray at 816 West Huron Street. Tony Precaro, victim, was sent to the county hospital, while Tony Precaro, assailant is being sought by the police.

The men are cousins and reside a few doors apart. Both are 22 years old, and both have courted a girl who resides close by. A missive sent by the girl reached the wrong cousin, and when the tangle was straightened-out accusations were made by the rivals.

They met in front of the house of the wounded man and engaged in a fist fight, which terminated by one cousin drawing a knife and slashing his rival across the breast.

--The Sioux City Bee, Rock Valley, Iowa, July 24, 1903, page 1.


Short Notes
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Laugh and the bunch laughs with you.
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Some men have an idea that heaven is one long pay-day.
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You are all advised to give vent to your mirthful feelings.
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Since the latest auto race in Europe the horrors of war do not seem too dreadful.
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When you get right down to the true inwardness of it you will find that a man's best friend is himself.
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When our shafts fail to hit the mark, we generally have a feeling that it is because the mark is too low.
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With Edison and Marconi working in cahoots, electricity may as well prepare to give up its remaining secrets.
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If a man should fall to hating himself and wanted to get even he should sit down and give himself good advice.
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The arbitration germ is doing well, considering the backward season, but is still a pygmy compared with the strike microbe.
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One preacher thinks the American people laugh too much. This is the worst case of trouble-seeking that we have ever heard of.
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All men want to laugh, but most of them are generally discovered because they have been laughed at for one thing or another.
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If the fish that a man catches would only get away and he could nab those that get away he would bring home more and larger fish -- perhaps.
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The humiliating fact remains that with all our losses and disfigurement, the flood record has not been broken. Old 1344 still wears the championship belt.
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A poet has been elected president of a railroad. Will probably have a grand career. A man who can work his way up through poetry must have great stuff in him.
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"Great divinities!" exclaimed the shade of Nero, watching the automobile race. "Could I have had a bunch of them what sights of royal carnage the arena would have been!"

--The Sioux City Bee, Rock Valley, Iowa, July 24, 1903, page 1.

Stabbed Over Penny

Attack Probably Fatal When Victim Decides Winner.

Philadelphia, May 25. - During a fight over a penny 15-year-old Abe Danzig was probably fatally stabbed by Herman Brown, age 13. Danzig and Joseph Fliegelman, it is said were pitching pennies and called upon young Brown to decide the winner. He decided against Danzig, who then attacked him.

Brown, according to the police drew a knife from his pocket and stabbed Danzig in the abdomen.

--Warren Evening Mirror, Warren, Pennsylvania, May 25, 1909, page 6.