THE HAND OF FATE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 247, 8 March 1913, Page 9

THE HAND OF FATE

NARROW ESCAPES DEATH. There are many wisps on record in which "bullets that would otherwise have indicted fatal injuries were turned aside by the interposition of articles such as buttons, ornaments, bundles of letters, and so on. A man named Pritchard was recently taken to a hospital in New York. Pritcliard was eating in a, restaurant, when a man, who had not been arrested or even identified, found a slice of apple pie he had ordered not ijuite to his liking. The owner of the restaurant said that was tile best pie he. had, whereupon the aggrieved patron of the restaurant smashed it over mine host's head. The owner dodged behind a counter, and his erstwhile customer backed through the door. from the street he fired a, revolver at the owner. The shot missed liini and struck a spoon which I'rkehard field in his hand half way to his mouth. The bullet knocked the spoon from Pritehard's lingers with such violence that if cut them, and the metal was carried by (he leaden slug and llaftcned against the man's chest, merely making a deep llcsh wound. Had il not b»en for the spoon be would have been killed, the surgeons said.

While the contents of a man's pocket often save his life, there is at the same time a danger Ihaf (hey may make his • •use even more dangerous than il. would othenvi-e be. A surgeon Lolls of a man who ua- -hot in the left breast, (he bullet, passing through an old memorandum book in his upper vest pocket. "The leaves of (he book undoubtedly slopped lhe force of (he projectile" be •said, -and bad it not been for Iheni if would have pierced the. victim's heart.. As ii wa-. Ibe slug was deflected, and made a long llcsh wound, lint here was the danger. When (he Wnllct pierced Ibc leaves it carried with it bits of the paper. They wore ilillictilt to find, and several limes complications were threatened which showed that there was -till .-ouie of the foreign substance present. Ir was only after a long, hard light that: we saved (he man's life from the very agent which had in turn saved his life from the bullet,"

A surgeon who served in the I'nion Army in the Civil War tells of u man whose lit'o was saved by tlio leather visor of his cap—a marvellously flimsy affair to stand between a man and dealb. During the battle of the Wilderness this surgeon saw a man who stood near him crumple backward as though shot dead. Examination revealed a miraonloiw -late of affairs. Tim bullet had evidently been travelling in a direct line for the soldier's forhead. It struck the heavy leather visor of his cap at such an angle that even so penetrable a substance, instead of being penetrated, deflected the slug, which look- so freakish a course that it entered the skin just over the man's forehead, was in turn deflected by the skull, travelled through the sealp. cutting a furrow until it passed over the crown of his head, then sped on its course.

Steel stays have saved manv a woman's life. Xot long ago Mary' Henessy was taken to liellevue Hospital with a llesh wound in the side, and the doctor discovered that hail it not b.een for a steel stay which deflected (he bullet the wound would have been fatal, for the slug had been travelling towards a vital organ.

Ambulance surgeons (ell of many cases where a bullet lias struck a man's cigarette case a glancing blow, and not even so much as pierced the lining of the pocket in which the case was carried.

A machinist was once badlv bruised by a bullet striking a steel cast which he was carrying in his pocket. Had it not been for this, however, the bullet would have killed him.