St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-29
ST. PAUL NEWS.
GORDON O. CLARK.
The Coroner's Inquiry Into the Man.
ner and Cause Of His Death.
The Facts Found to be Entirely the Same as
Given in the Globe of Yesterday.

At the coroner's inquest yesterday after
noon, for inquiring into the death of Gordon
o. Clark, the jurors were Chas. E. Dame
berg, John n Mothers, John Shortall, Joseph
Ellis, Stephen Burns and Edward II. Schlick.
The witnesses called were Earnest Lambrecht
and Philip Grathwoll, young men
who were playing pool with Clark
at the time he was killed. Adolph
C. Feise, proprietor of the billiard room, w.
Sammtleben, billiard table tender, Henry
Finley, attendant at the shooting gallery,
Joseph Commit, steam filter, P. j. McCar-
thy, a printer, and Charles Brenk, the pro-
prietor of the shooting gallery.
The witnesses did not differ as to any ma
terial facts, and their evidence may be sum-
married as follows: Clark, Lambrecht and
Grathwol were playing a game of pool in
Fese's billiard hall, and Clark
having just made successful
shot was sighting over the
balls for another one, STOPPING with his face
near to the border of the table, when his
companions saw him stagger and reel, but
at first did not understand why. Grathwol,
who was nearest him, thought he was look
proceeded to illustrate that twas not needed.
When he again looked up, an instant after,
Clark, clutching his cue to his body, was
sinking backwards. When he fell to the
floor Grathwol grasped him to lift him up
and asked him what was the matter but re-
ceived no answer. Poor Clark looked up
at him and moaned or groaned, but
was unable to speak. Grathwol had caught
sight of Finley, who had leaped mp and look
ed over the half partition separating the
shooting gallery from the billiard room, and
thought of Clark's being shot, but several
voices exclaimed that ne had tainted, and it
was not until Feise ran to the spot and loos-
ened Clark's clothes that the blood and the
fatal wound told the whole story. Finley
was sitting inside the shooting gallery, few
feet from the counter, with his back to the
partition and reading, while Brenk was load
ing a Stevens rife target pistol for persons
waiting to shoot it at the targets. When the
pistol was discharged, only few feet
from him, he felt the powder drive into his
face and that the bullet passed close by him
on the left. He saw the hole made by the
bullet in the partition, and, leaping up, look
ed over to see if any one was sitting on the
chairs on the other side of the partition.
Seeing no one there he dropped down and
moment after the commotion raised by Clark's
falling drew him and Brenk to the main
room. Even then Finlay did not at
first think Of Clark's being shot, for he heard
ordinations that he had tainted or fallen in
a fit, and had not thought of the bullet
reaching anyone at the opposite side
of the billiard room, where Clark stood. Mr..
Brenk exhibited the pistol, and explained
how he was handling it when it was dis
nh 10 haH inc Ha1 nd
and was in the act of handing it to the man
waiting for it, when it was discharged, be-
fore the waiting man had touched it. Whether
his hand, when withdrawn from the barrel,
touched the trigger, which is without guard,
and moves easy, or how the weapon was dis
charged, Mr.. Brenk did not know. He was
entirely sober at the time, and claims that
he never was drunk. He has not had any
previous experience in a shooting gal
lery, and handled the weapon so as
to turn its nozzle at the dangerous moment
in the one direction where its dischage
could do HARM but this appears
to be attributable to lack of cautious practice
rather than to anything like reckless dispo-
sition. There had been some firing in the
gallery ten or fifteen minutes before, and
none of those in the billiard room particu-
larly noticed the sound of the shot which
killed Clark, aud none of them heard the
bullet pass through the partition or strike
Clark. No one imagined Clark was shot I'M
til Fese opened his vest.
The gallery was finished Wednesday, hay
ing been constructed for Brenk under direc-
ton of Feise, by partitioning off part of
one side of the large room occupied by Fese.
The latter consulted persons qualified to
judge, and was assured by them he had taken
all necessary precautions to guard against
accidents. But when constructed, on ac-
count of the space occupied by the targets,
the iron lined part of the gallery was found
too short to give the desired length of
shots The shooters stand was ac-
cordingly moved back few feet,
and the iron lining was to have been extend
ed accordingly as soon as the mechanics
could attend to the job. TWAS not imagined,
however, that any danger was incurred by
leaving the upper end of the gallery without
ner yesterday show that the double sheet iron
used wauld not have stopped the ball which
killed Clark.
The pistol is a strong shooter and the %
caiber cartridges used are very powerful.
One bullet was fired by the coroner through
the wood partition at about the
angle on which the pistol was held
in Brenk's hands when Clark was shot, and
it passed through and then an inch deep in
to the solid oak bottom of a chair. Another
bullet was fired at an angle and another
point blank at the iron sheathed part of the
partition and both went through the two
sheets of iron and through the thin board
behind the iron and were lost in the billiard
room.
The jury after consideration of the evil
dence found that the death of Clark was the
result of pistol shot; the pistol being acct
dentally discharged while in the hands of
Charles Brenk; and, recognizing the danger
attached to the sport, the jury recommend
that all shooting galleries be licensed and be
held under the surveillance of the chief of
police. Further the jury does not attach any
blame to Major A. c. Feise, the proprietor of
the saloon.