Decapitated by Beer Barrel

Stocker's Brewery, on 11th Street in Reading

A century ago, it seemed that nearly every job could result in getting yourself killed, maimed, blown up, boiled alive, ground to pieces or, well, decapitated. Frankly, it's amazing that enough of our grandparents and great-grandparents survived in order to procreate and propagate the species, because when they weren't fending off mine cave-ins, train derailments or typhoid epidemics, they were getting their heads blown off by exploding vats of beer. The following comes from the October 23, 1905 edition of the Tyrone Daily Herald.