Popular Science Monthly 



101 



of accidents is greater in the cit^- 

 than in the countr>% and the 

 months of June, July, August. 

 September and ^larch in their 

 respective order, furnish the 

 greatest number. 



Examine the claims paid by 

 the insurance companies and 

 you get some idea of the limit- 

 less diversity of accidents, of 

 serious results from trivial causes, 

 of miraculous escape with slight 

 injuries, of the tragic and hu- 

 morous causes that would fill 

 five hundred pages without a 

 repetition. 



"I was asleep," said one 

 claimant, "and dreamed that a 

 wild bull was rushing after me, 

 when I kicked at the imaginary- 

 animal, striking the wall vio- 

 lently and breaking my foot." 

 "While assisting a lady to 

 board a train, the point of the 

 umbrella which she carried under 

 her arm, was accidentally thrust 

 into my left eye, destroying the 

 sight," complains another. 



A third has been around the 

 three times and never been injured, but 

 stepped in a bucket left on the cellar 

 stairs and fell, breaking both his legs. 



"Shoveling coal in a furnace when a shot 

 cartridge which was in the coal exploded 

 and the charge entered his right side," 

 reports an accident company of one case. 

 "Was walking in front of his house when 

 the wheel which had come off from an 

 automobile and rolled a block, struck 

 him, fracturing 

 both bones of the 

 right leg," reads 

 another report. 



"Stepped on 

 the tail of a cow 

 which arose and 

 threw him on his 

 head causing con- 

 cussion of brain." 

 It's true, too. 



"Slipped in the 

 bathtub and fell, 

 rupturing the 

 spleen." It hap- 

 pens more fre- 

 quently than 

 might be sup- 

 ix)sed. 



"While asleep 



£ Int. Film Sen-. 



Photograph taken during the Astor Cup Race, at 

 Sheepshead Bay, New York, recently. Ruckstall, 

 one of the contestants, is shown crawling out from 

 under his car, which turned turtle while rounding 

 a curve at terrific speed. He was slightly injured 

 but his mechanician and the car were unscathed 



world in a hotel the building caught fire. In 

 endeavoring to get out of bed, I was 

 caught in the bedclothes and fell against 

 a table, fracturing three ribs," 



"I was chasing a rooster with some 

 scissors to clip his wings, and fell, driving 

 thescissorsintomyownbody." Itsounds 

 absurd, but it happened. 



A Port Jefferson man was electrocuted 

 while taking a foot bath in a metallic tub. 

 He had one foot in the tub half filled 

 with water, when 

 his head came in 

 contact with an 

 electric light fix- 

 ture. 



One company 

 paid money (after 

 investigation) to 

 a man who 

 "crawled under a 

 bed for a stock- 

 ing; a needle lying 

 on the floor ran 

 into his breast." 

 Accidents oc- 

 curring at home 

 contribute in nor- 

 mal years twenty- 

 six per cent, of 

 all accidents. 



An instance of fires resulting from smut ex- 

 plosions in grain. Much valuable machinery 

 is destroyed in this way during harvest time 



