Child Saved by a Dog in Quincy, Mass.

HN NOTE: I don’t know about you, but I consider my 90 pound 12-year-old terrier a clumsy, but otherwise remarkable beast, and have no doubt she would save a falling child if she could do so without making matters worse…

According to the Illustrated Police News (one of the region’s first tabloids), an alert fast-thinking large shaggy-haired canine successful saved a child from certain death right here in Quincy, Massachusetts, about 140 years ago, in 1876.

………………….

A Child Saved by a Dog

The canine race are notably great savers of human life, and sometimes they become heroes under peculiar circumstances.

A short time ago a party of ladies and gentlemen accompanied by a large shaggy-haired dog were visiting the granite quarries at Quincy, Mass.

Playing about the edge of the quarry was a little girl, the child of one of the laborers. The near approach of the party attracted her attention, and stopping play she stood up and looked shyly toward them.

One of the ladies noticing her, called for her to approach, but the little girl instead of advancing bashfully retreated backward.

A cry of horror arose from the visitors as they saw the little thing in close proximity to the edge of the precipice. This startled her and she backed still quicker towards the yawning chasm; in a moment she would have been over the edge and dashed into a thousand pieces below, but the sagacious dog seeing the state of affairs bounded forward, and just as the little girl was toppling backward the brave animal grabbed her frock in his mouth, and cunningly bracing back on his feet, withstood the shock of her fall and held her safely dangling from his mouth over the fearful precipice until assistance arrived and she was placed safely on terra firma [or solid dry land].

[In other news shortly after the above date in 1876]

PROBABLE MURDER

A Frenchman Stabbed on Prince Street, Salem – Arrest of the Assailant and His Accomplices – The Dying Man Recognizes the Assassin

Salem, Mass., Dec. 13 – A probable murder occurred in South Salem about half past 6 o’clock this evening.

The particulars of the affair are substantially as follows:

Last evening a Frenchman named Augustus Perizean had some trouble with a party of Irish boys on Prince Street, where they had a free fight.

This evening, at 6:20 o’clock, as Parizean was going along by the same place, a crowd of boys set upon him, and one of their number, a boy named Ward, struck his tall hat down over his face. He resented the indignity, and another fellow named Edward Clark kicked him in the abdomen.

Another Frenchman who was with Perizean attempted to drive [the attackers] off and also tried to defend himself.

[As Parizean was] stooped over Ward struck him in the back, just under the left shoulder blade. The instrument with which it was done has not been found, but is said to be a long sharp-pointed one. It penetrated nearly through the left lung.

The injured man [Parizean] ran up the street a few rods [a unit of linear measurement equal to 5.5 yards] with the weapon in his back, and then reached around behind him and drew it out, and threw it away. He then walked to his uncle’s on Peabody street and crawled up stairs.

As he entered the room he dropped on the floor, the blood flowing from the wound freely.

Assistance and medical aid were summoned at once; Dr. Carleton being the first on the spot. He examined and dressed the wound, pronouncing it a very dangerous one.

The cut is two inches in length and very deep.

The police were not notified until 7:15 o’clock, but at 9 o’clock the assailant and both of his accomplices were in the station-house, and the deposition of the dying man secured.

The assailant was a boy 18 years of age, named James Ward, better known as “Snaggley.”

[Snaggley’s] accomplices were Edward Clark and Edward Condon.

Officer Shortle arrested Ward on the strength of Perizean’s deposition; Sergeant Skinner and Officer Morse arrested Condon, and Officers Marshall and Morse arrested Clark. They were brought to City Marshal Hill’s office, where their several statements were taken. They were then taken to the house where the injured man was lying, and one by one brought before him in presence of the marshal, deputy, and several officers.

[Parizean] recognized Clark and Condon as having been there, but when Ward came in he said, “He is the one that stabbed me, sure.”

Parizean is 20 years of age, and is employed in the Naumkeag Mill, where the Ward boy worked also.

[Parizean] is a fine-looking young man, and is said to be very peaceable. His deposition, sworn to before Justice Walton, is as follows:

After relating the trouble of the previous evening he continues: As I was passing near the same place [tonight] the same crowd met me again, and one of them threw my hat down on my head, saying, “Dice box the hat,” and the deponent said, “What in hell are you doing?” and then deponent called on a boarder to help him. Deponent thinks the assailant’s name is Hall, son of the mill gate-keeper. He had large eyes and was deeply pock-marked. There is something peculiar about his face. The fellow stabbed deponent near the corporation house on Prince street; deponent came towards his uncle’s house on Peabody street and drew the knife out of the wound and threw it away in the street.

Ward answers the above description perfectly. He and three other boys admit that they were present and had trouble with the injured man, but deny that they stabbed him.

Ward is about 18 years old, and well known to the police as a tough customer.

At 11 o’clock [tonight] the injured man was very low and failing fast, so that the chances are that he will not live till morning.

The promptness of the police in arresting the perpetrators and securing conclusive evidence is to be commended.

[The above Illustrated Police News archives and drawings where obtained for republication with permission from the University of Minnesota’s literature research collection. HN made some minor updates by adding some notes here and there, which are inserted in brackets, and intended to make the account more readable to a modern audience of varying reading levels. Updates were also made in some slight instances of punctuation, but for the most part the copy was retyped almost word for word, as it was initially published by the Illustrated Police News Company; Boston, Massachusetts, 1876 – although its paragraphs were often deconstructed by HN, and often set apart by single sentences, etc…]

11/16/2016

Robert Bastille

CLICK here to ‘like’ and follow HN on Facebook

Follow @NewsHyannis

P.S. – Today’s HyTown Vignette is brought to you by Bach… [Press play… expand your brain!]