Show tad adventurers CLUB i u HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF Fl 1 A ride with death H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY mary billard of lasalle la salle ill is distinguished adventurer and she wins that distinction as well as the well known ten bucks with one of the most terrifying yarns ive seen in a long time it happened in 1913 when mrs billard was miss mary blanch a girl of twelve and mary says the la salle papers called me a heroine at the time and it was all quite exciting for a girl of my age but it lost its thrill when I 1 thought of my mo mother ther lying in a hospital in a critical condition fighting the dangers of gangrene and lockjaw you can see from that statement of marys that there was tragedy in that episode as adventure and it started with nothing but a common ordinary bugg buggy ride there so many automobiles in those days and most of the streets were mere unpaved dirt roads marys dad had bought a horse that had spent all its life on race tracks and was hard to handle when hitched to a buggy it had run away twice and marys mother drive it any oftener than she had to but there came a day when she felt she HAD to drive that horse they had just moved into town and mary was finishing a terni term at a little country schoolhouse three miles out of la salle marys teacher was coming back with her that evening so mother hitched up the horse and started out to get them mother been feeling well all that day but she made the trip to the schoolhouse without any trouble they were all on their way to town with mary in the middle between her mother and the teacher when wit without hout warning mary felt her mother fall away from her mary looked around and saw her mother she looked around just in time to see mother topple from the seat and pitch headlong into the road she had fainted but that was only the begin beginning beginner nir ag ol of a disastrous train of events mother had fallen out with the imes still clutched in her hands the sudden jerk on those reins caused by her falling frightened the horse it gave a leap forward and with that leap says mary there started the fastest ride I 1 had ever remembered in all my 12 years we were horrified at the situation the horse was plunging along at a fuu full gallop and my mother was being dragged face downward over 1 I pulled and jerked at the reins until I 1 brought the horse to a stop stones and gravel in a way that struck terror into my heart the teacher and I 1 were helpless we called and screamed to mother pleading with her to let go of at the lines but all our screaming was useless for mother was in an unconscious condition clinging to those reins with a death grip while the tha horse dragged her along and for half a mue mile mother dragged along beside the reeling wagon in imminent danger of rolling under the wheels while up in the seat mary alary and the teacher sat paralyzed with fear trying to hang on to the swaying reel reeling ij buggy mary says that buggy was running on two wheels a good part of the time and at other times it seemed to be flying through the air with nothing under the wheels at all several men along the road had tried to stop sop the horse but do anything with the crazed animal at last at the end of a half a mile mothers hands loosened on the reine rem sand and the lines were free they got between the horses front legs and that only served to frighten the tha poor animal more I 1 the careening carriage flew down the road still the reeling careening carriage flew on they had covered more than a mile and now they were within a short distance of a narrow culvert just outside of the business section of la salle there were pillars on either side of it and it would be a miracle if the crazed horse got through that cramped space without wrecking the buggy the teacher was the first one to think of that culvert she screamed to mary alary that it if the horse be stopped before they reached it they would both be killed and with her voice still ringing in my ears says mary she rose to her feet stood on them for on the swaying floor of the buggy and jumped I 1 shut my iny eyes as I 1 heard her body hit the road and thought that surely she must have been killed and now mary was left alone in that speeding buggy she knew that somehow she had to get hold of those reins that were dragging down there beneath the horses feet just a little way ahead now was the he culvert and even if the buggy did get through the culvert it was certain to crash into something in the business district two blocks beyond so while the buggy reeled and swayed mary began climbing over the dashboard onto the horses back it was a desperate chance time and again mary almost lost her hold in that precarious trip the horse wai was slippery with foam and perspiration and only by bracing her feet against the shaft did she manage to keep from being thrown into the road 1 I reached the horses head she says and the feel of my body on her seemed to frighten her all the more and make her go faster than ever but I 1 got the lines from between her legs and started inching my way back to the buggy 1 I pulled and jerked at the reins until I 1 brought the horse to a halt she says and it stopped just a few feet in front of the dreaded dr e ad e d culvert A boy ran up to hold the animal and I 1 left the buggy and ran into town to get a doctor tor for mother she was still unconscious when they brought her in and to this day she carries on the right side of her face the terrible marks of that horrifying experience mary says ashes glad the horse and buggy days are over because well because she want any of her children to have such an experience released by western newspaper union |