Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1881 — The Ball in President Garfield. [ARTICLE]

The Ball in President Garfield.

New York Special. A reporter called upon the Reining, ton arms agency to see what kind of a bullet was in the President. The tgen t in reply picked up a big cartridge an inch long. It was 44-caliber, weight 200 grains,and the charge was 18 graius of powder. “It is the largest size used ; in a pistol,” continued the agent. “The! penetration is something wenddrfui. The pistol used is a strong-shooting pistol. The cartridge is very destro- • ive, and the wonder is that it did lot kill the President outright.” * “I should think,” said the inquirer “it would have gone right thrdug 1 him?” “Probably it would if it had not been for the clothing, which is an obstruction to a bullet, and then it may have been obstructed by the ribs. It is supposed that, the bullet first passed through and cut the sleeve,; and then it passed through the coat. Bo much clothing always obstructs a ball. la the army, during the war, cases were found where a ball had cut a patch out of the overcoat and carried itright into the wound with it” “The ball was big enough,” said a yonng gunsmith at Peabody’s, on Seventh street, “to have killed an ox. The only thing that stopped it was the bones. Such a cartridge would drive a ball clear through an inch board twice as far as from here across the street.”