The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-11-30
Aged Mrs. Meyer Of Yarmouth Will
Probably Die.
STRUCK BY A RIFLE BULLET THAT
CRASHED THROUGH A WINDOW.


The people of the village of Yarmouth
are very excited over the mysterious
shooting of Mrs. Meyer, woman of
seventy, Tuesday night. The attending
physicians hold strongly to the belief
that the victim will die.
The facts are as follows Mrs. Meyer
has lived for some time past with her
daughter who is the wife of a German
named Augustus Martis Prawda, a
section hand employed on the Grand
Trunk. The shooting took place at
Prawda's lonely little house about two
miles from the station and rather nearer
to the Cumberland station. 1t is a new
house, not quite finished apparently, and
is close to the road. Mrs. Meyer occupied
chamber, the windows of which look
out over the stretch of land going down
to the Grand Trunk railroad, and to
some extent the road for short distance
leading in the direction o.. the Cumber-
land station. Her window was closed
Tuesday night, and the curtain was
down. There was light in her room,
at least that seems to have been the case
as she supposed at first that her injuries
were caused by the explosion of lamp.
At about O'Clock, or not later than $50,
Tuesday evening, she stood between the
stand and the bed, when as she said yes
terday afternoon, she "felt something
strike her in the face" The something
was ball fired, SO the physicians say.
from a smooth bore gun of No.12 gauge.
The ball entered through the widow as
shown by holes in the glass and curtain,
struck CHANGING blow on her arm, and
then entered her face at the upper lip,
taking out two teeth, fracturing two
thirds of the upper jaw, and simply tear
ing one side of her face from the bones.
It was found necessary to take twenty
five stitches in the lace to close the
wound. The ball then struck the opposite
wall, where it flattened down.
DR.. H. G. Hanson, was first called, and
decided to call DR.. Burbank, seeing as he
did at glance the dangerous and
probably fatal nature of the wound.
He Seems to have acted with great
promptness, and to him is due the re-
covery of the ball. Last evening when
asked, Do you look for the recovery of
Mrs. Meyer" the doctor replied, II do
not"
There are two theories as to
the shooting. One is that the shot
was fred by some person stand ing
near the house who intended to shoot
either Mrs. Meyer, Prawda or his WIFE,
The fact that Mrs. Meyer intended to
move to the village might have ed
person outside to suppose that she had
already done SO and some other person
was in her room. If the shot was fired
with intent to do injury, it is probable
that Mrs. Meyers shadow on the window
curtain gave the gunner his mark. A
gun of the pattern which contained the
ball, was stolen from the team of
Clarence Moxcy some time ago, and has
not been recovered.
The other theory is that some person
fired gun, while passing through the
fields near the house or along the rail-
road track on the return from
cunning expedition, and passed on, slittle
dreaming of the mark his bullet had
found.
A visit was made in behalf of the
PRESS to the house of Mr.. and Mrs.
Prawda, and it looked rather more lone
ly in the night than it probably would
| under other circumstances. Mr.. Prawda
is a German, and at times rather at
loss for word, but he told his story
without reserve, and made no objection
to the telling of it when informed that it
would be published. He said in SUBJ
stance:
II went home tired out Tuesday night,
and after splitting up some wood, and
putting it there (here he opened a door
and pointed to a pile in the shed) went
in, sat down in chair, filled my pipe
and had a smoke. Ny wife was washing
dishes and baking pies at the time. At
about ten minutes to eight, said to my
wife that was tired out, and was going
to. bed. She said she'd got to stay up
getting through with her work. After
I was all through smoking I started to
90 to the she'd opened that door. there,
when my wife asked messto get her pail
OF water. one Sd1u she cOuluub go OUT
because she was in her felts l told her
I'd let her have my rubbers, and then
said I'd get the water. walked through
the shed to that door Ia distance of per-
haps fifteen feet, as he pointed out.) I'd
just got there when I heard a strange
sound, and went back here to the
kitchen. I said to my wife, has the
stove exploded?' She said, Matt it's out
side there Then we heard a strange
sound up stairs. 1t was like this. (Here
he gave an imitation of person breath
ing hard.) 1 said, My God, that's
mother Ny wife was frightened, and
she said, Take the light and run up
stairs I went through this room
(pointing to little room to the left) and
went to the stairs. Then my light went
out. said to my wife, Give me light,
my lights out. My wife br ought me
another lamp, and was soH excited that
it went out too Then / tried to find my
matches. 1 had some but was SO ex-
cited that could not find any, and my