A Child's Dangerous Encounter in the Brush
A young girl is fighting for her life after a rattlesnake attack near the Teanaway River.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Last Friday afternoon, a little 5-year-old girl named Eleanor, while running around in the brush near her home on the Teanaway, fifteen miles northwest of town, was bitten on the ankle by a rattlesnake. It was an hour and a half before her parents knew what was the matter, as she simply told them she had hurt her foot. After examining it, however, they concluded it was a snake bite, and a short hunt in the brush resulted in the discovery of the reptile. They applied such remedies as they had at hand and early Saturday morning they came in for a physician. Dr. McCauley and W. V. Stephens went out and found the child's leg swollen to an immense size clear up to her body, and it was as black as ink. The doctor did what he could for the child, but had very slight hopes of her recovery. On Monday she was reported as having very high fever, and no hopes of her recovery were entertained.
“Dr. McCauley and W. V. Stephens went out and found the child's leg swollen to an immense size clear up to her body, and it was as black as ink.”
While rattlesnakes remain a hazard for hikers and families in the high desert regions of Washington, modern medicine has replaced traditional, home-applied remedies with highly effective antivenom. Stories like this were common in the 1890s, when distance from medical care and limited treatment options turned even common wilderness accidents into grave, life-threatening crises.
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