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Pages
- Identifier
- wwu:29282
- Title
- 1866-01-23 Letter from M.L. Stangroom to his mother
- Date
- 1866-01-23
- Digital Collection
- Stangroom (Marc LaRiviere) Papers
- Type of resource
- Manuscript
- Object custodian
- Center for Pacific Northwest Studies
- Related Collection
- M.L. (Marc La Riviere) Stangroom papers
- Local Identifier
- stangroomletter18660123
- Text preview (might not show all results)
- Transcript: Stangroomletter18660123 [Page 1] San José 23rd January 1866 My dearest Mother I have just received yours of the 24th November. A week ago today I met with an accident which proved very slight but from which I could not expect to escape alive once in twenty times. I was always lucky in th
- Transcript text preview (might not show all results)
-
Transcript: Stangroomletter18660123 [Page 1] San José 23rd January 1866 My dearest Mother I have just received yours of the 24th November. A week ago today I met with an accident which proved very sli
Show moreTranscript: Stangroomletter18660123 [Page 1] San José 23rd January 1866 My dearest Mother I have just received yours of the 24th November. A week ago today I met with an accident which proved very slight but from which I could not expect to escape alive once in twenty times. I was always lucky in that way and have more reason now than ever to consider myself so and to be very thankful. I was on a hand car, which is a light railway carriage worked by two men turning a crank and which we use to travel rapidly over the Line. I was turning the crank for the sake of exercise and we were going very fast (about 25 miles an hour) when my foot slipped on some mud in the bottom so as to let my body fall forward onto the crank handle. That threw me over, making me turn a complete somersault and strike on the top of my head 12 or 15 feet ahead of the car which then of course passed over me and ran on some hundred feet before they could stop to come back to me. Everything was in my favor: 1ᵒ that my head struck on soft ground between instead of on one of the wooden ties or sleepers, which are only 21 inches apart and lay between them until the Car, which is only 10 inches high, passed over it and struck me across the thighs. My legs must have been bent like this [diagram of accident], but both my boot heels tore [Page 2] off so as to let them straighten out without breaking. The whole result was two dislocated ankles, one [ditto] elbow and wrist, one broken rib, two badly bruised thighs, and general soreness all round. I was carried to bed and kept soaked in whiskey for four days and nights and yesterday was brought downstairs. Today I can travel round on crutches and have little doubt but that in a week I shall be all right again. Isn't that almost too much luck for one man? You may remember that I have very strong muscular legs, in fact the muscle on my thighs is greater than I almost ever saw and the Doctor remarked that that only had saved me from two broken legs. I have had very little pain and have only to keep quiet. My relations with my employers are pleasant enough in every respect but that of getting my pay, and that is more than I can accomplish just now, but I intend to make a stand for it before long. The Contractor, like the sneaking bully and coward he is, after apologizing and professing all possible friendship, has lately been working again to get me discharged although I have done everything in my power not only to be but to appear reasonable; but such a bitter feeling exists between him and my employers that they would retain me to spite him if for no other reason. We are now of course open enemies, and I have made public his entire course towards me, viz. [rest of letter missing]
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