KinSource - Tale of the Week - Jackson Speeder Imperils Party

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Lakefield Standard, October 14, 1915, p. 4

JACKSON SPEEDER IMPERILS PARTY

Five Young Men Get Hurt and Scared

DID NOT SEE TURN IN TIME

Fairmont Sentinel Editor Roasts the Young Men in Caustic Manner as Follows:

Fairmont Sentinel: Out in Chris Duval's pasture near the Speckman corner on the Fairmont-Welcome state road, is a pile of wreckage. Close inspection reveals that the debris was once upon a time a five-passenger Ford car.

The ruins belong to a Jackson young man, one of those hair-brained drivers whose chief ambition is "to go like the devil." He did.

This young man feels that he has license to go some, for didn't he win first money at the Jackson county fair races, and hasn't he got a big figure "4" painted in white on the radiator of his one-time Ford, conclusive evidence that he was the real, genuine, original fast boy?

With four gay companions the J. y. m. left Jackson late Saturday afternoon to come to Fairmont, intending to take in the dance at the armory. They stopped at the wet towns enroute and to all external appearances, took on considerable tankage. At the last Welcome saloon they visited they inquired the way to Fairmont and were told to go south to the state road, then turn east and drive straight into Fairmont. This is evidently what they were trying to do, but would have found it much cheaper and safer to have turned the necessary corners.

The first inkling that an accident was about to occur was noticed by J. L. Palmer, a Fairmont auto livery man taking some people home from the fair. They passed him, as he expressed it, "like a bat out of h--l." That was about two miles west of the corner. A few minutes afterward when he came over the hill, about a quarter of a mile from the corner, he saw two bright lights shining toward the northwest. When he got there one of the men came slowly crawling over the bank and asked that he and his companions might be taken to Fairmont to have their wounds attended to. Mr. Palmer immediately stopped his car and went to look at the others who had not as yet made a move. One of the men had a long cut across the side of his face and throat. He was unconscious. Mr. Palmer and two of the other men, who were not seriously injured, helped him into the car. After being placed in the car seat he gained consciousness for a minute or two, then again lapsed into a deep sleep. Three of the men were not at all seriously injured. They were able to walk about as if nothing had happened. The other had bruised his shoulder quite severely.

After arriving at the Fairmont hospital they were patched up as well as could be under the circumstances. The man who had his face and throat cut, arm twisted, etc., had recovered from his stupor somewhat and was of a very cheerful disposition. All that could be seen of his face was a speck of his nose and a small opening was left for his mouth. Both hands, with the exception of two fingers, were completely covered with bandages. He managed to get a cigarette between [these] two fingers, and after finding his mouth gleefully exclaimed, "Gee! fellers, 'taint as bad as it might be. I've got these two fingers so's I can hold my cigarette; that's all I care about." He lost some of his cheerfulness before he got home however.

After all had been looked over by the doctors, they made up their minds that they would like to get back to Jackson before morning, and accordingly hired Mr. Palmer. They went to the place where their car had been left to get "things which might be stolen in case they were left. In place of finding the remainder of the bottles they could find but one bottle of whiskey. This they passed around among themselves. Even the cheerful fellow with the bandaged face managed to get a drink although badly handicapped.

None of the wrecked party seemed to know just how many times the car turned over, but judging from appearances it must have been at least twice. They were coming from the west. Both wheels on the right side were completely demolished. All that is left of them is the hubs. The left hind wheel is splintered but still remains attached to the car. The windshield is a total wreck, and the fenders will have to be replaced. The driver says the first sight he got of the corner was when he saw a fence post right in front of him. He quickly turned the car to one side in an effort to dodge the fence. Had he let the car go straight ahead it might have remained unhurt. The speed of the car was so great that it broke off a half dozen posts and tore the barbwire fence down for a distance of three rods on either side.

Jackson Boys in Auto Wreck

Jackson Republic: An automobile party consisting of five young men of this city started for Fairmont last Saturday to attend a dance. Those of the party were Jack Haddlestad, G. B. Peterson, Robbie Cady and Carl and Howard Johnson, the last named two are from Heron Lake and work on the telephone construction crew.

The car was driven by Jack Haddlestad and belonged to him.

When they were within about four miles from Fairmont they came to a sharp turn in the road and as they were going at a fast rate of speed could not make the turn. The moment the car left the road the driver tried to turn the corner and the car struck a wire fence in a glancing manner. The car went partly through the fence and struck it with a force that pulled up half [a] dozen posts and tore down the wire for three or four rods on each side. At the same time the car struck the fence it tipped throwing out the occupants, and rolled over and then stopped right side up.

The car was a mass of wreckage. Both wheels on the right side were completely demolished. All that is left of them is the hubs. The left hind wheel is badly splintered. The windshield is a total wreck and the fenders bent out of shape. All the party received a terrible shaking up. Robbie Cady [received] a cut on his neck which was lucky did not prove more serious. The other members of the party received minor bruises. Considering the fact that the car was demolished they were lucky that some one or all of them were not killed.