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HOW MR. LANGFORD
WAS HURT
He Was Doing Work He Considered Too Dangerous to Ask Another to Do. The Chicago Tribune of Sunday tells in detail how George Langford lost his left arm. Mr. Langford has a great many friends in Kansas City, who will hear with pain of the accident that nearly cost his life. They will not be surprised to learn that his in- jury was the result of his own heroism. Mr. Langford was one of the greatest oarsmen that Yale college ever produced. When in Kansas City he was superintend- ent of the McKenna Steel works, and he left about a year ago to take charge of the McKenna works in Joliet, Ill. It was at the plant there that he received his in- jury last Tuesday. The Chicago Tribune says: "Owing to the newness of the machinery, accidents in the works had been numerous. So many of the mechanics had been injured that Langford resolved to undertake per- sonally all future risks. At 5 o'cluck last Tuesday the gear wheels of the great roll got out of order. The steel bars were com- ing white hot from the furnace. Midway of the big structure the heavy rollers caught them. Into the maze of the glowing iron, so hot that the air of the place quivered, crept Langford. At the disordered machine he rose, and stood examining a pair of cog-wheels, so close to the hot ralls on either side that a slight movement would have seared him to death. |
"Just
before the bars enter the rolls, streams of water are turned upon them. When the water was turned on, a dense cloud of steam rose, and completely en- veloped Langford. Knowing that the steam would continue for some moments, he at- tempted to grope his way out. He put for- ward his hand, and tho cogs which he had just examined caught it at the finger tips, and drew in hand and arm to the shoulder. "Langford retained not only conscious- hess, but presence of mind, and, throwing his weight to one side, gradually worked the arm to the wheel and extricated it. Then creeping out, he rose and walked quietly away, with the arm hanging limp at his side. He fell exhausted at the theshold of the factory, but did not lose consciousness. When relief came he di- rected the method of binding up the arm to stop the bleeding. He revived enough to walk part of the way up the hill to the Silver Cross hospital. Drs. Edwin J. Abell and John Bliss Shaw of Joliet performed the amputation. Langford refused to take an anesthetic, and for the success of the operation the physicians were obliged to administer chloroform by strategy. His mother and brothers were summoned from St. Paul, and no hope of his recovery was entertained till after midnight." The story of the accident says further: "Langford's nerve is the wonder of all who know him. Yesterday at the hospital he was reminding sympathizers that it was only his left arm he had lost, and that a superintendent is hired for headwork, any- |
way. The saddest
part for the young has has been the knowledge that the ath- letic life is now forever past. Less than a month ago he received a letter from Ru- dolph Gehman, the coach, who is in Eng- land aking him to row stroke on a British all-star crew to be sent to the Paris exposi- tion, and he though he had reached no de- cision in the matter his friends were urging him to accept." Langford is only 23 years old. He is 6 feet 3-1/2 inches tall and is straight and lithe as an Indian warrior. His mother lives in St. Paul, Minn. His father who was a wealthy mine owner of Denver, Col, died in 1885. George Langford was gradu- ated from Yale in 1897. Throughout his college career he held the position of stroke of the Yale crew, and in his second year he coached the crew along with pro- fessionals who were paid for it. During the season of the Henley regatta he over- shadowed all others, connected with the American Board of Athletics, and he con- tinued to be the foremost oar among col- lege athletes in the final event of his senior year -- the regatta of Harvard, Yale, and Cornell in 1897. His stroke was praised in published articles by Coach Courtney and Coach Lehman called him a "mighty won- der." Although for several hours after his in- jury it waa thought that Langford would die, his splendid nerve and constitution won, and he is now gradually recovering. |