Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-04
A BOY AND REVOLVER
To Say Nothing at All of the Many
Redskins He Proposed to Kill,
FIGURE In AN ALDERMANIC CASE.
Charged With Selling Firearms to 9
Youngster.
HOW ANY CHILD CAN GET PISTOL

A yery peculiar case is held undee ADVISE
ment by Alderman King, of the Southside.
| 1t is that of EDWARD Royer, dealer in
cheap hardware at 622 Smithfeld street,
charged by F. J. S. Peregrino with misde-
meanor in having sold revolver to the lat
ter's son, boy of 13 years.
The law under which the information was
J made makes it misdemeanor to sell fire.
arms to a boy under 16. The case was
heard by Alderman King, and after the evil
dence was in, the decision was reserved.
The highest penalty of the law is $500 fine.
| There is no imprisonment clause.
Mr.. Peregrino also proposes to prosecute
the man who sold the boy the cartridges to
fit the revolver. He says he went to see
the men in the case, but they laughed at
him. He then told them they had not
heard the last of it, and began proceedings
against them under the law.
This is another case of boy becoming in
fatuated with the stories Of life in the West
by reading trashy novels of such character
as "Blood on the Moon; or, How Border
Bill Made Fifty Redskins Bite the Dust. :"
The boy decided to become famous, doubt
less thinking he would some day be a
modern Othello, and his name would float
down to posterity in the annals of history.
In other words, he decided that he would
food the Territories in blood from the veins
of his Indian victims
HAD TO HAVE A GUN.
Of course, to do this he must have gun.
A small boy with his head swimming in
tales of Indian wars would not think of
killing the dusky redskins with anything
else, and he decided that revolver was the
article with which he would do the terrible
execution. So, according to his story, he
went to Mr.. Royer and purchased an article
that suited his fancy. 1t looked all right,
and he perhaps didn't know whether it
would shoot or not, but he paid his cash and
started West to rid the country of the ''pesky
varmints" that never forgive wrong.
The boy didn't get very many miles away
from the city before he called council of
war with himself to devise ways and means
to beat retreat, and he soon returned home,
leaving the poor, terror-stricken' settlers In
the West to the merciless savages.
After the boys return home he told his
father where he purchased the revolver and
cartridges, and the latter went to see about
the matter, His reception, he says, was not
what he expected or desired, so he decided
to invoke the majesty of the law in behalf
of his misguided son.
This case is one of hundreds of a like ma
ture. Too many dealers have never heard
of the law forbidding the sale of firearms
to boys, and many that have heard OF it
disregard it. Boys have every opportunity
of getting trashy novels and firearms, and
often the publishers of the books give away
revolvers as presents, under certain condi
tions, and thus they uphold a lottery scheme
as well as furnish youths with firearms.
SHARES EVEN FOR BABES.
In store on Federal street, Allegheny,
is to be found a scheme whereby some one
will get double-action fve-shot revolver
for a nickel. There are 150 draws"
in box, which sell at cents
each, and, besides little trinket. worth
perhaps cent hundred, number is
given, emitting the holder to a chance for
the revolver These chances are sold to
little children, no matter of what age, and
when the box is sold out it is as liable to go
to a 7-year-old youngster as to man. Thus
two laws are disregarded, the law against
gambling and the law against selling fire.
arms to bows. There are other places as
we'll, especially in the suburbs Of the two
cities, where such schemes are worked on
the little ones.
The above is not the only gambling or
chance scheme that is placed before the
children by keepers of candy stores and
corner groceries in the suburban districts.
There are the penny cash butter-scotch
cakes that have a cent in about every so,
but it catches the pennies of the youngsters,
often those given them for their weekly
offering at Sunday school.
Said an Allegheny gentleman Yesterday,
speaking of this matter: SIN the grand
raids made on gambling, pool selling, etc.,
such schemes have been unnoticed, and
there is no game of chance in the city which
is more deceiving. 1t is worked on little
children, who have more reason to be pro-
tected than the man who knowingly bets his
money on a horse race and drops his little
roll"