TRAGEDY AFTER A FEAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13390, 19 January 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRAGEDY AFTER A FEAST.

GIRL SHOOTS A BRUTAL FATHER.

Xi.w York. November 50. —Although in the custody of the law on a charge of murder a fifteen-year-old, flaxen-haired girl, Kthel Smith, is the popular idol of the Rhode Island town of Thornton. Yesterday wan Thanksgiving festival, when something of the. spirit of Christmas pervades family gatherings. Turkeys and plum puddings are eaten, and kindly int. pulses appeal, especially to children. Kthel Smith in the morning had discovered a poor woman and three little children in a state of misery which touched her heart. Her husband, Briggs, a drunken ne'er-do-well, had deserted her that tiny, and they had been days without food or fuel. The babies were crying for food, which the despairing mother was unable to give them. The little girl ran home and asked he." patents' permission to In hi;.' her protect to share, in their Thanksgiving dinner. The parents readily consented, and th« girl's discarded wardrobe replaced the children's lags. The pom woman was provided with a decent dress l.v Mrs. Smith, and when the party sat down to dinner the glow of a kindly action added to the pleasure of the feast. In the afternoon Mr. Smith and hi» wife went to call on some friends, lrav. ing their daughter with a. servant to entertain her proteges. Briggs, drunk and furious .it finding his wife" gone, arrived at the Smith's '.'ouse. and, demanding that she should immediately return, he threatened to kill her and the children. In terror of his brutality and for the children's sake the wife locked the door, and Ethel ordered him to leave.

Drawing a knife and shout in mad threats Briggs burst open the door. Trie wife, clutching her children, was cowering in a corner; the servant ran screaming from the room. But calmly confronting him stood Kthel, grasping with unshaking hand her father's heavy revolver. Unheeding her renewed quiet command to leave Briggs rushed across the- threshold. Ethel tired. The madman still came on. She fired again and again, five shots in all. The last bullet, went through Briggs' heart and he dropped in a pool of his own blood.

Kthel, strangely -.aim. and still standing over the man, shot- the still remaining bullet. The man again rose, but Briggs was dead when the neighbours rushed in. When the father, who is ,i, special constable, returned, after kissing his daughter. whom he greeted as "My little heroine,"' his duly was to arrest het and notify the authorities of what had occurred. Kthel was not taken to prison. The chief of police nominally arrested, her, but declined that the formalities of the law were sufficiently met if he took her to his house and committed her to the custody of his own children, who were her playmates. A procession of cheering townspeople escorted her thither, leading citizens competing for the honour of furnishing bail, which the chief of police dodined, saving he was not willing to be deprived of the honour of entertaining her. Flowers and presents of all kinds were sent to her nominal prison. This morning the girl was released on her father's bail.