Injured Man Sews Wound in Own Arm

A sarcastic account of a man who gets into an altercation with machinery at work but is able to save himself by sewing up the injury.

Chester, PA-- Gazing affectionately at his right arm, James Cassidy had the satisfaction of knowing it was because of his own fortitude he still wore it, to say nothing of the fact that he was still in the land of the living. Cassidy had the arm, and there was a Cassidy to have an arm, because with his left hand he clumsily but effectively sewed up a wound in it through which his life blood was pouring at an alarming rate. Medical men said it was one of the best bits of basting they’d seen in a long time. With practice, they added, Cassidy easily might learn to decorate himself from top to toe with hemstitching and embroidery. It would not astonish them to see him in the convalescent ward setting insertion to his cuticle or adorning his ears with Hamburg edging. “He’s so handy with a needle,” they explained, admiringly. Cassidy was earning his pay in the Eddystone print works when his right forearm became involved in an altercation with part of the machinery, and the next moment it was spurting a ruddy fountain.
“Get me a needle and thread, quick, or I’ll bleed to death,” he cried. A needle was threaded and placed in his left hand. Both needle and thread were dipped in an antiseptic solution that stood at hand. Swiftly and steadily Cassidy took stitch after stitch in the ugly wound until he closed it. Then he asked his friends to rush him to a hospital, saying the surgeons could finish felling the seam.

“Injured Man Sews Wound in Own Arm,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/130.