Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1880 — A Warning to Parents. [ARTICLE]

A Warning to Parents.

Is it murder or an accident? The police say the former,-the shooter and the person shot say the latter, so a judicial investigation will be necessary to determine which it was in case the victim dies. The shooting occurred at No. 137 Fourteenth street, about halfpast five o'clock Friday afternoon. Though known to the neighbors, it was not until eight o’clock yesterday morning that Policeman McKinty, who travels the beat, heard of the occurrence, and, after inquiry, arrested John Edward Ryan, the boy who fired the pistol. He bought the weapon Christmas. It was a small, single-barreled breech-loader, carrying a ball somewhat larger than a buckshot. He got with it some cartridges, and amused himself by firing in the “wood-shed,” which is m the Dasement of his home. His mother did not “put her foot down,” though the lad is only thirteen. On the contrary, she gave him a popbottle to shoot at. Tuesday afternoon he returned home from Libby’s pack-ing-house, where he was employed. His mother, who is a widow ana works out, was not in. Soon after his arrival his little sister Mary, aged eight, came in and began putting tne dinner dishes away. According to her story. “Eddy was fooling with the pistol, and thought that it was loaded only with chips. He said: ‘Will you' let me shoot you?' I said yes, and he fired, and I said: ‘Oh, Eddie! you have shot me in the eye.’ ” The report was heard by Mrs. Smith, who lives in an adjoining room, and she rushed in and caught the child as she was falling. Mrs. McLaughlin, another neighbor, also rushed in. Edward, they say, was very much exercised, and beside himself with grief, crying out: “Murder! I have shot my Maiy.” The mother returned about this time, and at once sent over for Dr. Painter, of No. 697 State street. He found that the ball had penetrated the skull just over the left eye, but, as it had gone into the brain, he did not probe for it, since there was danger of doing harm, and no good would result. He took measures to avert inflammation, as death

was certain if that set in. . . As stated, McKinty learned of the shooting yesterday morning, and, as he says, people living in the house—five families reside mere—told him that they had heard the boy and girl quarreling; that the bov wanted the girlto give him a piece of bread and meat; she refused, whereupen he shot her. , The officer found the pistol in the store, a suspicious circumstance to his mind. He, therefore, deemed it his duty to arrest Edward and take him to the Police Court. At two o’clock in the afternoon he was arraigned before Justice Wallace, who committed him to the County Jail to await the result of his sister's injuries. The shooting and probable killing of the little girl Ryan by her brother adds

another to the already long list of, crimes that might properly be classified and punished as “ accidental mnrders.” Here was a lad of thirteen flourishing a loaded pistol which he had bought on Christmas, and the most charitable version of the affair is to the effect that, having forgotten there was a ball in the pistol, he asked his little sister: “ May I shoot yon?” and when she gave consent he puHed the trigger and sent a bullet crashing into her skull. Whether the child live or die —and there is scarcely 9 chance of her recovery—there is a crime in this ease which calls for something more than a verdict of “accidental shooting," and then the dropping of the affair. This lad of thirteen is old enough to know better than to fire a pistol rail in the face of his child-sister; he is too old to be held guiltless of her blood. The toy-dealer who sold him the' deadly weapon and the mother who permitted him to have it and to practice shooting at a mark both are guilty of a shard m the little one’s murder if she dies of her wound, and it is a defect in our laws that ought to be remedied that there is no way in which the two adult accoinpMies can be punished adequately. —Chicago Tribune.