HUMAN TARGET ORDEAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 655, 6 May 1929, Page 10

HUMAN TARGET ORDEAL

TWICE SHOT, BUT MADE NO COMPLAINT REAL DRAMA ON STAGE On a music-hall stage at Rueil, near Paris, in a turn of the “William Tell” kind, a marksman fired at objects held by a young man named Peuplier. First of all, he held a ring between his fingers at arm’s length. Tmid tense silence the marksman, named Cherrier, standing about 20 feet away, took aim with a small rifle and fired. He mised the ring, and shot Peuplier in the wrist. Nobody noticed the accident, because Peuplier bore the pain like a Spartan, and smiled in response to the applause of the audience. Next the marksman fired at a toy balloon hung on a metal plate covering Peuplier's heart. Thesh ot missed the balloon, but pierced the young man’s chest. Bleeding at the mouth, he fell unconscious at the curtain was rung down. At the hospital, the wrist shot was discovered. Ou recovering consciousness, Peuplier said he would make no complaint against Cherrier, to whom he felt very grateful because he had rescued him from poverty and given him a place in his troupe. Peuplier added that the rifle must have been out of order.