For the good that it may do to others I will give an account of the healing from an accident which occurred to me on the nth of September, 1903, while working with a bridge crew on the Southern Pacific Railroad near Oregon City. It happened at noon while we were resting after having eaten our dinners. We were sitting around the hoisting engine, and I was leaning against the drum when one of the boys for a joke started the engine, which caught me and jerked me back into the gearing. As the engine continued to run, it caught my clothes and pulled me into the machinery, where I was repeatedly struck by the crank-pin, resulting in terrible injuries to my back. I at once asked to have my mother come to me, and one of the boys went for her while the rest put me on a handcar and started for Oregon City, about two miles distant. When we got there I was so weak from loss of blood and so distressed with pain that I was scarcely conscious. The surgeon there fixed me up the best he could and sent me to the hospital at Portland. My mother is a Christian Scientist, and as soon as she reached me, asked me if I wanted Christian Science help, and I told her I did, for that was the first thing I thought of after I was hurt. When we got to Portland the doctor would not let me know how badly I was hurt, but he told my mother that the case was the worst of its kind he had ever seen. He advised her to prepare for the worst, saying, "There is no chance in the world for him." They took me from the operating-room into one of the wards, still dressed in my soiled clothes, and when my mother asked the nurse why they did not change my clothes, she said, "It's no use; he can't live." My mother replied, "Yes, he will live;" and when the nurse asked, "What makes you think so?" mother told her of Christian Science, that it taught us that God is the Life of man and an ever-present help in the hour of need.
And I didn't die. I came out from under the influence of the ether and was not sick from it, but was in terrible pain from the wound. My mother had sent for a Christian Scientist, and when the practitioner came she asked if I wished to have Christian Science treatment. I told her that I did. After she treated me the pain left me and I had no more of it. When the doctors saw that I was not going to die, as they first expected, they told mother that if I recovered I would be helpless and would probably be an imbecile; but I continued to get better every day under Christian Science treatment, and in four weeks' time I was able to be up and walk around — almost as good as new. The doctors could hardly see how I did it, but I knew it was due to Christian Science. They told me afterward of the dreadful condition of my back, and one of them said to me when I left the hospital, "I guess that Christian Science did have something to do with your getting over this, for no power on earth could have saved you."
The nurses at the hospital in Portland knew the condition I was in, and the verdict of the physicians as to my chances of recovery, and they rejoiced with me in my healing through Christian Science. I am sure they would be glad to substantiate the truth of this statement of my case. My father and mother, who were with me day and night, can give a more complete account of my case, for the reason that many of the details were kept from me at the time, and they will be glad to furnish further information to any one who may be interested.
