The Shafting Took His Clothes, Not His Life
Ralph K. Kennedy was caught in the mill shafting at Dalkena, stripped and badly bruised before the machinery could be stopped. Weeks later he came home from a Spokane hospital calling himself lucky.
R. K. Kennedy, of Dalkena, returned last week from Spokane where he was in a hospital for several weeks as the result of getting tangled up in the shafting in the mill at Dalkena. Ralph had all his clothes torn off and was severely bruised up before the machinery was stopped, but considers himself lucky to get off as well as he did.
“Ralph had all his clothes torn off and was severely bruised up before the machinery was stopped, but considers himself lucky to get off as well as he did.”
Mill and factory workers still trade safety for a paycheck, and this 1908 accident reads like a modern workplace-safety report with the language filed off. Kennedy’s luck was real, but the machinery that stripped him was not unusual for its time.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.