The Bartlett Tribune and News (Bartlett, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 21, Ed. 1, Friday, February 7, 1936 Page: 6 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Bartlett Tribune and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Bartlett Activities Center and the Historical Society of Bartlett.
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THIS BAJITLETT TRIBUNE
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By J. C FURNAS
Reprinted by Permission of The Reader's Digest
Like the gruesome spcc-
taclo of a bad automobile ac-
.cident itself the realistic
tdetails of this article will
nauseate some' readers.
Those who find themselves
'thus affected at the outset
nre cautioned against read-
ing the article in its entirety
since there is no letdown in
the author's outspoken
treatment o f sickening
facts.
J. C. Furnas author of " and
Sudden Death" was inspired to
-write the article by an editor
vho was jolted by the bloody
sight of an automobile wreck
bejug pulled into a garage. He
secured additional color from the
terror he experienced at the
dizzy speeds of others who bore
down past him on the highway
3 "by . contacts with garagemen
policemen ambulince drivers and
others who saw automobile vic-
tims with heads severed with
.slivers driven into their brains
-with broken bones and gaping
.gushing wounds. He figured that
one death might not be much
worse than any other in thi3
mpdem weapon of "destruction1.
SHis article has been reprinted
anany times as a caution to the
speedsters and in several in-
sstances Judges have read it with
tellingffect' before traffic vio-latorsm'.-yv
.
zing the total of motor-
ilWnjtirles almost a million
iteiBgm with 86000 deaths
V.; l&Eigets to first base in jarr-
' uitliemotorists into realiza-
ssfiwfoiJbE; the appalling risks of
itojing. He does not translate
ftOTstatistics into a
reality of
llpbd and agony.
i'&THm.vtr... roni.. i. : .j'wif;Tl snppri jitiI hnrl
isuico muuuc twc pa J ii uiuur"" -- .. -.v.
horror of savage mutilation
which means they leave out the
points that need to be brought
closer home. A passing look at
a bad smash or the news that
the fellow vou had lunch with;
last week is in a hospital with'cure. You cant ride an ambu-
a broken back will make any '. !ance or watch the doctor work-
driver but a born fool slow down inS n the victim in the hospital
at least temporarily. But what
is needed is a vivid and sustain-
ed realization that every time
3rou step on the throttle death
sets in beside you hopefully
waiting for his chance. That sin
gle horrible accident vou mav!As enthusiasts tell you it makes
liave witnessed is mo isolated
horror. That sort of thing hap-
pens every hour of the day ev-
erywhere in the United States.
If you really felt that prhaps
the stickful of type of Monday's
aper recording that a total of
29 local citizens were killed' in
week-end crashes would rate
something more than a perfunc-
-fory tut-tut as you turn back to
the sports page.
An enterprising judge now
land then sentences reckless driv-
ers to tour the accident end of
a city morgue. But even a mang-
led body on a slab" waxily por-
. traying the consequences of bad
motoring judgment isn't a
patch on the scene of the acci-
dent itself. No artist working on
a safety poster would dare de-
pict that in full detail.
That picture would have to in-
clude motion picture and sound
.-effects too the flopping point-
less efforts of the injured to
Stand up; the queer grrunting
'noises the steady panting.
' groaning of a human being with
pain creeping up on him as the
shock wears off. It should por-
tray the slack expressions on
the face of a man drugged with
hock staring at the z-twist in
his broken leg the insane crump-
led effect of a child's body af-
ter its bones are crushed in-
nward a realistic portrait ot a
hysterical woman with her
screaming mouth opening a hole
in the bloody drip that fill her
eys and runs off her chin. Mi-
juor details would include raw
end of bones protruding through
fk-nh in the compound fractures
ar.cl the dark red oozing sur-
faces whctie clothes and skin
With Death?
were flayed off at once
Those are all standard every-
day sequels to the modern pas-
sion for going plates in a hurry
and taking a chance or two by
the way. If ghosts could be put
to useful - purpose every bad
stretch of road in the United
States would greet the oncom-
ing motorist with groans and
screams and the educational
spectacle of ten or a dozen
corpses all sizes; sexes and ages
lying horribly still on the bloody
grass. -
Last year a state trooper of
my acquaintance stopped a big
red Hispano for speeding. Papa
was obviously a responsible per-
son obviously set for a pleasant
week-end wjith & family) so
the officer cut into papa's well-
bred expostulation: "I'll let you
off this time but if you keep on
this way you won't last long.
Get going but take it easier."
Later a motorist hailed the
trooper and asked if the red His-
pano had got a ticket. "No said
the trooper "I hated to spoil
their party." "Too bad you
didn't" said the motorist. "I saw
you stop them and then I pas-
sed that car again 50 miles up
the line. It still makes me feel
sick at my stomach. The car
was all folded up like an accor-
dian and the color was about
all there was left. They were all
dead but one of the kids and he
wasn't going to live to the hos-
pital." Maybe it will make you sick
at your stomach too. But unless
your a heavy-footed incurable
a good look at the picture the
artist wouldn't dare paint a
first-hand acquaintance with
the results of mixing gasoline
judgment
ougnt to oe wen wortn your
while. 1 can't nelp it if the facts
are revolting. If you have the
nerve to drive fast and take
chances you ought to have the
nerve to take the appropriate
but yo" c?n read
The automobile is treacher-
ous just as a cat is. It is tragi-
cally difficult to realize that it
can become the deadly missle.
"5 feel like nothing at all. But
65 an hour is 100 feet a second
a speed which puts a viciously
unjuaiuieu responsiDinty on
brakes and human reflexes and
can instantly turn this docile
luxury into a mad bull elephant.
Collision turnover or side
swipe each type of accident
produces either a shattering dead
stop. or. a crashing change of
direction and since the occu
pant meaning you continues
m the old direction at the origi
nal speed .every surface and an-
gle of the car's interior im
mediately become a battering
tearing projectile aimed square-
ly at you inescapable. There is
no bracing yourself against
these imperative laws of mo-
mentum. It's like going over Niagara
Falls in a steel barrell full of
railroad spikes. The best thing
that can happen to you and one
of the rarer things is to be
thrown out as the doors swing
open so you have only the
ground to reckon with. True you
strike with as much force as if
you had been thrown from the
Twentieth Century at top speed.
But at least you are spared the
lethal array of gleaming metal
knobs and edges and glass in-
side the car.
Anything can happen in that
split second of crash even those
luck escapes you hear about.
People have dived through wind-
shields and come out with only
superficial scratches. They have
run cars' together head on re-
ducing both t o junk and been
found unhurt and arguing bit-
terly two minutes afterward.
But death was there just the
same he was only exercising
his privilege of being .erratic.
ThH spring a wrecking drew
pried the door off a car which
had been overturned down an
embankment and out stepped
the driver with only a scratch
on his cheek. But his -mother was
still inside a splinter of wood
from the top driven four inches
into her bram as a result of her
son's taking a greasy curve a
little too fast. No blood no
twisted bones just a gray-haired
corpse still clutching her
pocketbook in her lap as she had
clutched it when she felt the
car leave the road.
On that same curve a month
later a light touring car crashed
a tree. In the middle of the front
seat they found a 9-month-old
baby surrounded by broken glass
and yet unhurt. A fine practical
joke on death but spoiled by
the baby's parents still sitting
on each side of him instantly
killed by shattering their skulls
on the dashboard
If you customarily pass with
out clear vision a long way ahead
make sure that every member
of the party carries identifica-
tion papers it's difficult to
identify-a body with its whole
face bashed in or torn off. The
driver is death's favorite target.
If the steering wheel holds to-
gether it ruptures his liver or
spleen so he bleeds to death in
ternally. Or if the steering
wheel breaks off the matter is
settled instantly by the steering
column's plunging through his
abdomen.
By no means do all head-on
collisions occur on curves. The
modern death trap is likely to
be a straight stretch with three
lanes of traffic like the notor-
ious Astor Flats on the Albany
Post Road where there have been
as many as 27 fatalities in one
summer month. This sudden vis-
ion of broad' straight road
tempts many an ordinarily sen-
sible driver into passing the man
ahead. Simultaneously a driver
coming the other way swings
out at high speed. At the- last
moment each. tries. to get. into
line again but the gaps are
closed. As the cars in line are
foroed into the ditch to capsize
or crash fences the passers
meet almost head on in a swirl-
ing grinding smash that sends
them caroming obliquely into the
others.
A trooper described such an
accident five cars in' one mass
seven killed on the spot two
dead on the way to the hospital
two more dead in the long run.
He remmbered it far more vivid-
ly than he wanted to the quick
way the doctor turned away
from a dead man to check up on
a woman with .a broken back;
the three bodies .out of one car
so soaked with oil from the
crankcase that they looked like
wet brown cigars and not human
at all; a man walking around
and babbling to himself obli-
vious of the dead and dying ev-
en oblivious of the dagger-like
sliver of steel that stuck out of
his streaming wrist; a pretty
girl with her forehead laid open
trying to crawl out of a ditch
in spite of her smashed hip. A
first-class massacre of that sort
is only a question of scale and
numbers seven corpses are no
deader than one. Each shattered
man woman or child who went
to make up the 36000 corpses
chalked up last year had to die
a personal death.
A car careening and rolling
down a bank battering and
smashing its occupants every
inch of the way can wrap itself
so thoroughly around a tree that
bront and rear bumpers inter
lock requiring an acetylene
torch to cut them apart. In a
recent case of that sort they
found the old lady who had been
sitting in the back lying across
the lap of her daughter who was
in the front each soaked in her
own and the others blood in-
distingnisably each so shattered
and broken that there was no
point whatever in an autopsy to
determine whether it was brok-
en neck or ruptered heart that
caused death.
Overturning cars specialize in
certain injuries. Cracked pelvis
for instance guaranteering
agonizing months in bed motion-
less perhaps crippled for-life
broken spine resulting from
sheer sidewise twist the minor
details of smashed knees and
splintered shoulder blades caused
by crashing into tho aide of the
car as she goes over with the ' with her head splashing splint-
swirl of an insance roller coast-jers all over the other occupants
er ana tne letnai consequences
of broken ribs which puncture
heart and lungs with their raw
ends. The consequent internal
hemorrhage is no less dangerous
because it is the pleural instead
of the abdominal cavity that is
filled wifch blood.
T
Flying glass safety glass is
by no means universal yet con
tributes muchmore than its
share to the spectacular side of
accidents. It doesn't merely cut
the fragments are driven in
as if cannon loaded with broken
bottles had been fired in your
face and a sliver in the eye
traveling with such force means
certain blindness. A leg or arm
stuck through Ube windshield
will cut clean to the bone
through vein artery and muscle
like a piece of beef under the
butcher's knife and it takes lit-
tle time to lose a fatal amount of
blood under such circumstances.
Even safety glass may not be
wholly safe when the car
crashes something -at high
speed. You hear picturesque tales
of how a flying body will make
a neat hole in the stuff with its
head the shoulders stick the
glass holds and the raw keen
edge of the hole decapitates the
body as neatly as a guillotine.
Or to continue with the de-
l.i"C 2.1.
capitation motiff going off the
road into a post-and-rail fence
ean put you oeyona worrying
about the injuries immediately
when a rail comes through the
windshield and tears off your
bead with its splintery end not
as neat a job but thoroughly ef-
ficient. Bodies are often found
with their shoes off and their
feet broken out of shape. The
shoes are back on the floor of
the car empty and with their
laces neatly tied. That is the
kind of impact produced by mo
dern speeds
But all that isroutine in every
5
s
fe
Why not buy that Home now? The "opportunity for
bargains has never been better.- Choice Homes in Ton
and choice Farms and Ranches at prices that look like
Santa Claus was calling on you.
213 ACRES 5 MILES FROM ROUND ROCK. 180
ACRES IN CULTIVATION BALANCE MESQUITE
PASTURE. HEAVY BLACK SOIL.
Improvements consist of one two-Story modern dwell-
ing one 1 ji story barn size 30x50 tool shed 30x30 gar-
age smoke and wash house tenant house well equipped
with new Aermotor windmill water piped to house and
barn. Fronting gravel road. Rural electric line on land.
Improvements well worth at present day values $7500.
Priced for quick sale $13000. Small down payment
balance liberal terms.
Also many real bargains in other farms ranches and
city property. If you want to sell and are willing to sell
at a bargain list -with us. If you want to buy a bargain
come and see us. Santa Claus doesn't come but once a
year but we are offering bargains daily.
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A. F. CZAROWITZ Insurance Agency 5
& DAY PHONE 103 BARTLETT TEXAS NIGHT PHONE 136 J
membcred individually and doc-
tors and policcemeh you have to
do something grotesque as the
lady who burst the windshield
of the car and then' as the car
rolled over rolled with it down
tho edge of the windshield frame
and cut her throat from ear to
ear. Or park on the pavement
too near a curve at night and
stand in front of the tail light
i as you take off a spare tire
wiiiuu win immuruinze yuu in
somebody's memory as the fellow
who was smashed three feet
broad and two inches thick by
the impact of a heavy duty truck
against the rear of his own
car. Or be as original as the pair
of youths who were thrown out
of an open roadster this spring
thrown clear but each broke
a windshield post with his head
in passing and the whole top
of each skull down to the ..eye-
brows was missing. Or snap off
a nine inch tree and get your-
self impaled by a ragged branch.
None of all that is scare fic-
tion. It is just the horrible raw
material of the year's statistics
as seen in the ordinary course
of duty by policemen and doc-
tors picked at random. The sur-
prising thing is that there is
so little dissimiliarity in the
stories they tell.
It's hard to find a surviving
accident victim who can bear to
talk. After you come to the
gnawing searing pain through-
put your body is accounted for
V. t Jl i -. 1 tl-T
uy learning tnai you imvu uuwi
collarbones smashed both shoul-
der blades splintered your right
arm broken in three places and
three -ribs cracked with every
chance of bad internal -ruptures.
But the pain can't distract you
as the shock begins to wear off
from realizing that you are prob-
ably on your way out. You can't
forget that not even when they
shift you from the ground to
the stretcher and your broken
ribs bite into your lungs and the
sharp ends of your collarbones
i slide over to stair deep into each
'side of your screaming throat.
I When you've stopped screaming
it all comes back you're dying
and you hate yourself for it.
That isn't fiction cither. It's
what it actually feels like to bo
one of tho 36000.
And every time you pass on
a blind curve every time you hit
it up on a slippery road every 1
time you step on it harder than
your reflexes will safely take'
every time you drive with your
reactions slowed down by a drink
or two every time you follow
a man ahead too closely you're
gambling a few seconds against
this kind of blood and agony and
sudden death.
Take a look at yourself as tho
man in the white jacket shakes
his head over you tells the boys
with the stretcher not to bother
and turns away to somebody1
else who isn't quite dead yet.
And then take it easy.
Baked
B a r 1 1 e t
BY
LAWRENCE BROTHERS
Complete Stock
First Class Equipment
Licensed Embalmer
Lady Attendant
For Quick Efficient Sym-
pathetic Service Call Us
Day or Night
I. O. Looney and
Hugo Friedrich
AT THE
BarUett Hardware Co.
Day Phone 33
NIGHT PHONES
L O. Looney 10
1 fr .u
In
Is 9
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Fox, W. W. The Bartlett Tribune and News (Bartlett, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 21, Ed. 1, Friday, February 7, 1936, newspaper, February 7, 1936; Bartlett, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth76413/m1/6/?q=big+bear+creek%2C+tarrant+county: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Bartlett Activities Center and the Historical Society of Bartlett.