EXTRAORDINARY DEATH OF A LAD.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7125, 23 July 1888, Page 5

EXTRAORDINARY DEATH OF A LAD.

[from ocr correspondent] [By Telegraph from the Bluff.] MELBOURNE, July 18.

A very singular death of a, lad has taken, place at Clunes. Hβ was named William Bothwell, sixteen years of age, and died in ' the local hospital from a gun-shot wound in his right side, which he received under, singular circumstances. Kothwell is -the son of respectable parents residing in Clunes, and to Sergeant Nolan ha made the following statement:—"On Tuesday 3rd July I was doing fencing work for a man named Lincoln. A lad about my own age, carrying a swag and a un; came up to where I was working. We entered into conversation. He said he was going shearing. I left my woiik, and went into the blush with him shooting. He shot a bird, which fell under a tree. I went to pick it up, and he followed mc. When ap-> proaching mc a twig of- a tree caught the other trigger of the gun, which he held in his hand, and the gun went off and the shot hit mc in the side. He picked mc up, came, with ine to the .nearest road leading to St. Armand, told- mc to go, to the St. Armand Hospital, and then left mc. I don't know the young man , * name, and I did not ask him. I stayed' a night at Miller's hotel, at Morton plains, while there I went out into the yard , in the dark, and fell into an open tank Bft deep. The. fall hurt mc a bit. Afterwards I walked to Flandinere, twenty miles from where the accident occurred. I took the coach. from there to Donald, and then took the train to Clones. I arrived there on Saturday, night, and went home. I did not tell my mother what had happened till she made enquiries. I did not intend to say anything till Monday, when I intended to see a doctor. I don't blame the young man for shooting mc; it was purely an accident. I saw the twig catch the trigger. At first I did not think much of the injury I received. No one witnessed the occurrence or knew anything about it but our two selves." Tho strangest part of the youth's singular -reticence i 3 added to by the fact that on the way to dunes he stayed an evening with a brother in Maryborough, and left him at night under the impression that nothing was wrong with him. The wound would have been, merely superficial, but its neglect and want of treati ment developed serious results, tetanus having set it.