Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-01-29
The Aurkrille &uqnirer.
YORKVILLE. s. c.:
THURSDAY MORNING, JAN. 20, 1885.
JOKING WITH THE PISTOL.

whose name will be handed down to pos
terity not only as the pioneer in new and
hitherto untrodden path of practical joking,
but also as an innovator-in the broadest
sense of that word-in the art and mystery
of pranking with the pistol. 1t has always
been the privileged custom with the pistol
fend, when he desired to inspire his COM
panions with terror, to point the pistol
usually an unloaded weapon-towards one
of them, and in playful manner threaten
to shoot. Of course, there is no special
harm in this mode of diversion, and as the
pistol is never loaded no criminal intent
can reasonably be imputed, albeit by some
mysterious and inscrutable means the
weapon almost invariably discharges just
at this, the least expected time, the fatal
result being no less surprising to the
festive joker than to the innocent victim OF
his captivating sport. Without desiring to
be too personal in our remarks We may re-
fer to the fact that we now have in our
county Jail an alleged joker of this descrip-
tion. In playful manner he put his un-
loaded pistol to his companions head and
pulled the trigger. Result: an explosion;
a dead niger; great CONSERVATION on the
part of the practical joker, who "'cla'd TO-
de lawd he didn't know it was loaded"
But this order of pranking with the pis-
tol has been reversed by the Charlotte
darkey First, he knew the pistol was
loaded, and secondly, he chose himself as
the subject of his sport, intending thereby
to victimize his companions. According
to the account Of the affair given by the
Charlotte Observer, his name is Charles
Goode, and he is by profession a performer
on tn, bass viol. The band-composed of
colored artists-of which he is member,
received a call to play for dance one night
last week at Mount Holly. They arrived
at the place before nightfall, and to while
away the time intervening between their
arrival and the hour for the music to strike
up, the members of the band decided to
repair to a neighboring distillery. The
potations, if not frequent, were at least ex-
hilerating to Goode, for when the party
started on their return from the distillery,
he drew out his pistol, and, as the Observer
expresses his actions, concluded to have
some fun with it. He had supplied him
selfwith two kinds of cartridges, blank and
ball, and when he drew his pistol it was
loaded with three blank and two ball cart
ridges. He had told his companions that
he intended to shoot himself, and his idea
was to discharge blank cartridge, but in
novel and highly effective manner. The
Observer tells the story as follows:
drawing his weapon, Goode cooked 1t
and placed the muzzle in his mouth, clinch-
ing the barrel between his teeth. He called
1x<1 of hic fn
that he was going to commit suicide, and
pulled the trigger. He reeled, and as he
gasped for breath smoke rolled from his
mouth and blood trickled down on each
side of his chin. He had moved the cham
Der of the revolver a little too far bringing
a loaded cartridge under the hammer. The
pistol was 80 calibre and the ball tore an
ugly hole in the back part of Goode smouth.
At the time he fired, he had about an inch
of the pistol barrel in his mouth, and his
head was thrown slightly backward. The
doctors say that it is the most marvellous
escape from instantdeath on record. Wound
ed as he was, Goode returned to Mt Holly
and PLAYED the base fiddle for the dancers
until past midnight, when the bullet began
to made itself felt in his head. His mouth
is badly burned by the powder and this
gives him more pain than does the bullet.
His case is exciting good deal of interest
among the doctors, ana announcer eHOrC VIII
probably be made to reach the bullet. 1t
doesn't seem to inconvenience Goode more
than an ordinary sore throat would do, and
the doctors state that the greatest danger to
be feared is that blood poisoning may set in.
He is quite sure that if the doctors ever
succeed in fishing that piece of lead out of
his ethmoid, he will never try to shoot
blank cartridge down his mouth again."
1t would certainly be an exacting code Of
ethics in the joker's manual that would re-
quire him to repeat the experiment, but it
is not without its lesson. AS the empty
pistol, when pointed at some body else, is
almost invariably sure to go off, so is the
joker, when intending to shoot himself with
blank cartridge, liable to become the vic
tim of ball though making himself the
target is an example worthy the emulation
of all who are thus inclined to joke.