IT GAME OUT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13662, 28 March 1908, Page 2

IT GAME OUT.

(By Max Adeler). One of my townsmen, Mr inters, had the toothache some tim 6 ago; and he suftered so .much' that at last, he .resolved to have the troublesome tootli out. He had hoard that a tooth could be removed suddenly and without much pain by tying a string around it fixing the string to a bullet, and firing the bullet from a gun. So he got some string and fastened it to the tooth, and to a ball, rammed the latter into his mm, and aimed the ggn out of the window. Then, he begat to feel nervous about it, and he cocked and uncocked the gun about twenty times, as his mind changed in regard to the operation. , 1 . Tha last time, J&o gunjw^ocked he reaoWed not to take tKe tooth wit that way /and he began to let the hammer down.preparatory to cutting the string. Just then theliammer slipped, ara the next ininute Mr Peter's tootfr 'was flying through the air at the rate of fifty miles a minute, and ho was rolling over on the floop liowling^nd spitting blood. ' '" '" , , '.?,,. Aft'tfTMrs Peters had picked him up, and given him water with which to wash out his mouth, he went down to "thcHront window.* -While he was sitrting there, thinkhigrthat maybe it, y*as all for the best? hesaw some^Bien coming Jby carrying a body on a shutter. He asked what^was the matter, and Aleck Jones told him that Bill Dingus hacLbeefln murdered by somebody. Mr Peters thought he would put on his hat and go down to the coroner's offide to see what the nature of tho tragedy wa|« jW^®i he .goi JbhSre Mr. Dingus' has«<evfMl soraefrliafc, jwd he] told his story to the coroner. He was picking cherries over in Cooley s garden, when he suddenly- Jieard theVexplosion of a gun. and the neat mutate a bullet struck him in tho thigh, and he fell to the ground. He said he oouldii't imagine who did it. Then the "doctor examined the wound, and found a string hanging from it, and a large bullet suspended ngoh the string: When he pufied the string it would not ,"giv«" any, and he said it must be tied Ho some other missile still in the flesbi He said it was the most extraordinary case on record. -The ntodical-* | books reported nothing of the kind." [ • Tb,en the doctor gave Mr Dingus chloroform, and proceeded to cut into him with a knife to find the other end of tfcat string, and, while he was at works, Mr Peters began to feel sick at his stomach and to experience a jdeairo. to go home. , ' ' * y v Atyilast the doctor cut deep enough, and giving the string a jerk, out came a molar tooth that looked as if it mightf navefbeen aching. Then the doctor said the 6ase was more extraordinary than he lAd thought it was. He said that tootS couldn't have been fired from a tun," because it would have been broken to pieces; it couldn't have"\beftnVswat*fowe^l by Dingus, and tfeen > broken throtlgh and buried itself in his thigh, for tjien how could the string and ball bo accounted for ? *- ; ' - i "TJie occurrence is totally unaccountable upon any reasonable theory," said the doctor; "and I do, not know what jbo believe, unlesa^we are. to conceive

tha^tha,tootli and *b> ball were a-ealTy metedrio StjonesT that ='-sa*e" assumed these remarkable shapes, and beefe shdt down upon the earth with such: force as to penetrate Mr Dingus' leg, and this is .so very, improbable that we can hardly accept it unless it is impossible to find any other. Hallo I wfaatjs the matter with you, Peters? Your J»ot*fch and shirt are all stained withqtoodr' "Oh, nothing," said Peters, forgetting himself. "I just lost a tooth, "Just lost a . Who pulled it?" asked the doctor. "Gentlemen," said Peters, "the fact is I 'shot it out with my gun.". „,.,• r~Ttoen they pttt Peters under bait- for ~* attempted assassination, and Dingus saM that- as 'sbofl" as he got weft^he-; would bang Mr Peters with a club. When the crowd had gone, the coroner : ,, said' to -Peters : . * • ■ , >'? > ■ "Youcr^ia -mows, ehuokle-headed scrrt of a ro&ter, 7*d?" '• "Well, Mr Maginn," replied Peter*, , "I really didn't know Mr Dingus was tliere, and the gun went 'off accidental > J*r {Uiy wilY *? ' ' '" •('kijitlwi't^t/^sfra ihe coroneT "- Sit isn J t"tha#.u 1 • I dojn't mind ydpr .' shooting him ; but why in thunder ' didn't you kill him while you were'at ' it, and give me a chance? You want \ to see me starve, don't you? I wfeh v . you'd buried the tooth in his lung a»d w I the baJUUia> hi* liver, and then I'd a l*ad h Sy »e^ftmi*ifee%. JBut as it is I ha§» all the bother and get nothing. Yiu haven't got the generosity of an om. I'd starve to death if all men were #ko you." • ' Then'Fotei's went home. After this, swhen he has the toothache, he will hu^ifc up a regular dentist.