Lou’s View 5/20

By Lou Bernard

A lot of these columns I write happen sort of by accident. Reading them, it may not surprise you too much to hear that. Often, I’m looking through old books, archives, or microfilm, and I stumble on something I didn’t plan on finding, but I figure it would make a great column. So I save it and write about it.

This particular one is another one of those. After all, how could I ignore the headline “Lost his Finger In Mysterious Manner”?

It almost goes without saying that this story came from the Clinton County Times, in 1903. The Clinton County Times loved strange, weird incidents, and 1903 seems to have been a banner year for them. This one ran on August 24, on the front page.

Paul Rice was an average guy, in his early thirties. He’d been born about 1868 to Charles and Juliette Rice of Lock Haven. His wife was the former Emma Howell, and they’d been married about ten years. Originally from Lock Haven, he’d gotten a job as foreman at the Harbison-Walker Brick Company in Mill Hall, and moved there to make it easier to get to work.

That made it a little difficult to explain why, after not showing up at home all night, Rice turned up on a Sunday morning in Lock Haven.

He was found near the railroad tracks along Henderson Street. Rice was described as being “in a dazed condition,” but he was conscious and alive. Witnesses decided that he’d been injured in “some unaccountable manner.” They assumed he’d been hit by a train, and you’d think that particular accident would be pretty obvious. But they couldn’t say for sure. And Rice himself was no help, because he claimed not to remember the accident.

He’d sustained injuries to his right hand. The Clinton County Times stated that the second finger had been severed, and the end of the index finger was badly damaged, as well. And also, the Times reported that he’d also sustained head injuries, which probably accounted for the memory loss.

So they did the obvious thing and took him to the hospital, which was at the time up along Susquehanna Avenue. His injuries were treated, and the police questioned him, but he never regained the memory of the accident. He could remember everything in his life up until the previous evening, but what exactly happened along those train tracks was a mystery.

“Mr. Rice was taken to the hospital,” reported the Times,”Where his injuries were treated, but he is still unable to tell how he came to be in such a pitiable condition.”

At a speculation, emotional trauma may have played a part in Rice’s mental state. Both his parents had recently passed away, which could have affected his memory when paired with the head injury.

His memory never returned. Another thing that never returned? His finger. The police did a search in the area where he’d been found, but the missing finger never turned up.

And the incident basically ends there. I mean, I’m sure that Rice was treated, probably had to stay a few days in the hospital, and was then released and went home to his wife, and back to work. But there were never any real answers, and no further coverage of it in the newspapers. The Clinton County Times carried on and reported on other weird stuff going on.

Rice passed away on July 6, 1935, and is buried with his parents in Highland Cemetery. At least, most of him is. I assume the finger remained missing.