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Wairoa Bell, Volume XIX, Issue 174, 13 September 1907, Page 2

SHOT THE COOK. YOUTHFUL BUTCHER BOY. “Not this morning, thank you,” said Mary Richardson, a young cook in service at 4 Lisgar Terrace, West Kensington, on Saturday, when the butcher’s boy called far orders. The latter’s answer was to raise a pistol and fire, j Harold Hughes, the boy in question, appeared later in the day at West London Police Court to answer a charge of maliciously wounding, and further with carrying a pistol without a licence. Prosecutrix said the bullet struck her on the mouth. When prisoner saw her lip bleeding he rushed forward and said he was very sorry. The shot, a small leaden pellet, was found on the doormat. The pistol, a toy affair, and a box of pellets were produced in court. The witness said she and the prisoner had never quarrelled, and he was certainly very sorry far what he had done. She was not much hurt, because the shot struck her teeth, but It might have been serious. Detective-Inspector Collins asked the magistrate to grant a remand in order that the solicitor to the Police Commissioners might be consulted with a view to a prosecution against the seller of the pistol. These pistols, added the inspector, were powerful spring pistols, and were really very dangerous weapons. The magistrate adjourned the case for a fortnight, admitting the accused to bail.—“ Lloyd’s Weekly,” 28th April. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. The “Petit Parisien” has been collecting the opinions of some of the leading French novelists on the death penalty. Madame Marcelle Tinayre hesitates. If the abolition of capital ! punishment would not increase her j own peril of assassination, then she is in favor of its abolition; but. if not, not. M. Emile Fabre, the dramatist, is more j positive. Capital punishment, in his opinion, is “at once monstrous and grotesque.” M. Jules Mary takes the opposite view just as strongly. The - guillotine, he says, inspires terror; and “a salutary terror is the beginning of wisdom.”