WILLIAM TELL EXPLOIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20229, 13 April 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

WILLIAM TELL EXPLOIT.

UNFORTUNATE ENDING. A music- hall at Eueil, a suburb of Paris, has been tho scene of an exploit after the fashion of William Tell. It ended badly. The sensational number of the performance given by a strolling company was for the marksman to fire a shot ihrgugh a ring held by a man standing at a distance of eighteen feet, and to "follow this up by piercing a balloon suspended from the breast of tho human targetAfter tho first shot was "ired a groan escaped from the man holding the ring. Jt was seen that underneath his " makeup " Ins face was pale. lie was, in fact, wounded in the hand. But, never a complaint came from him. Stoically ne prepared himself for the second part of tho shooling feat. A steel sheet protected his breast and tho ballon hung from it. Tho marksman shouldered his ca'rbine, aimed at the man's heart and fired. But the balloon remained intact. As for the man holding it, his head fell on his shoulder. The bullet was in his breast. Tho man was taken to hospital, where it was found that his condition was not grave. The accident was hot, it is said, duo to tho clumsiness of the shooter, but to the fact that the carbine was out of order.