The Axe Slip That May Have Cost a Newport Boy His Foot
Will Scott, 15, was helping his father at a Jackson wood camp near Penrith when the axe glanced from a log, severing cords and crushing bone in his foot. Dr. Phillips dressed the wound.
Will Scott, the 15-year-old son of J. M. Scott, of old town, met with a severe accident this morning while working with his father at the Jackson wood camp near Penrith. In some manner his axe glanced from the log and struck one of his feet. The cords were severed and the bone crushed. The accident will probably cause him to be a cripple. Will had been attending school, but, as the scholars of old town have been kept out of school for over a week on account of the smallpox scare, he had gone to the camp to assist his father. Dr. Phillips dressed his wounds.
“The cords were severed and the bone crushed. The accident will probably cause him to be a cripple.”
The accident is a reminder that rural school closures and family income needs can push young people into dangerous work. In timber country, a single misstroke could then—and can still—change a life.
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