Ou-u-ch!

Here’s another offering from the “City Sights” occasional column that was published in The Daily Oklahoman June 23, 1918.

 City Sights

It may have been the spark plugs or possibly the oil; the water in the radiator may have been aboil. Anyhow, she choked and missed and heaved a final sigh–Mr. Hess had tried to drive her up North Broadway in high.

She anchored in the asphalt. Hess dismounted with a cuss. He cranked but couldn’t diagnose the ailment of his bus. He thought * * * perhaps all gasoline his hell-on-wheels had drank, so he ventured to the rear and stuck his eye into the tank.

All was very dark within, no rippling could he hear. In curiosity he struck a match and held it near. Now, family doctors dressed his wounds; he may survive, they say. But the epitaph on Lizzie’s grave says: “Keep All Fire Away.”

While a search of The Oklahoman’s archives indicated there were Hess families living in Oklahoma City in 1918 and the Hess Rooms were located on North Broadway, I was unable to find any report of this event.

 

Mary Phillips

mphillips@opubco.com

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