Bellows Falls Times

JAMAICA.

AN EXCITING RUNAWAY.

On Saturday evening, Feb. 26th, as J. O. Lanphear was driving on the South Hill road from Jamaica to Wardsboro, his horse broke off the road in a deep drift near B. Brown's woods: Mr. Lanphear dropped his reins, as he supposed, over the dasher, and stepped out of the sleigh and trod a path for the horse to come back into the road, which he did and Mr. Lanphear stepped into the sleigh as it passed him without stopping his horse, supposing his reins laid over the dasher where he could easily take them up. On reaching for them, however, he found they had slipped from the dasher and were dragging in the snow under his horse's feet. The horse instantly discovered that he had no driver, and broke into a furious run. Mr. Lanphear clung to the sleigh and managed to keep it right side up, and finally quieted the horse by talking to him, so that he slackened his pace and Mr. L. sprang out of the sleigh, caught the reins and stopped him just as he was passing Matt Snow's house, on the river road from Wardsboro to Townshend, the horse having run something over two miles and passing entirely through Wardsboro village. When just above M. L. Boynton's house, Mr. Lanphear saw a team in the road and cried to them to get out of the way. It proved to be Mr. Geo. M. Ruby, and with great presence of mind he drove entirely out of the road and sprang from the sleigh just as the runaway team passed him, the shafts of each sleigh grazing each other as they passed, but doing no damage to either. Soon after passing Ruby the tugs became unhitched from the whiffletree and the horse ran more than a mile with only the thill straps hitched to the breeching. It was a close shave, but no damage was done except one tug broken, but J. O. thinks very much as Josh Billings did of "biled crow,"—"don't want any 2 times."