Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-10-29
THE AIR GUN AGAIN

To the Editor of the Register.
S1r:-The little boy and his air gun
| is loose in town again, and he should
| be suppressed.
Every day or so an accident results
from the use of this dangerous in
! strument. A few weeks ago an air
| gun nlmrod ruined large plate glass
! window that cost hundreds of dollars;
tuesday another shot boy in the
head A few days ago in Birmingham
little fellow took his brother and
I played the William Tell act with him.
/ instead of knocking the apple from his
head, he blew the little brother into
| paradise.
! Ii there is no ordinance against this
air gun nuisance there should be-the
| BOY should be spanked, and the one
that furnished the gun should be fined
and jailed. The man who would fur
nlsh a child with an air gun is the
same man who will monkey with
/ buzz saw if there is buzz saw around,
or pick up live wire to see if it is
hot. His sprockets are out of gear
Children are not good marksmen,
consequently a gun is as dangerous in
the hands of good boy as in the
hands of bad boy. The good boy will
shoot at fence and hit a girl, while
| the bad boy may shoot at a girl and
| hit man-it is all matter of accident
what they hit
There was a dear, kind lady with a
! glass eye who had a little Lord Faunt-
/ leroy nephew. She bought him an air
gun because he was such good little
fellow. In half an hour he had broken
a ten gallon aquarium on the parlor
fioor by shooting at the gold fish,
and he covered himself with glory by
| shooting his aunt's glass eye out
When that lady in her righteous
wrath took him out in the woodshed
| her wisdom approached Solomon's. She
said: ANY one with no more gump-
ton than to buy an air gun for child,
hasn't much more intelligence than a
hobby horse" Then she sailed in.
That dear little child with the fluffy
| curls went ITO bed with the odor of
| arnica clinging around him, all on &C.
count of his kind aunt.
The use of these guns often engen-
derS feudS between neighbors who have
borrowed groceries from each other for
years. In case at hand man who
believes in children enjoying them
selves, even if they do shoot a person
| now and then, bought his boy a nice
gun.
Next day his mother gave it to him
with a bag of duck shot and sale,
Now, dear, go over in Smiths yard
and play with the children, and be a
good boy" He went, and in less than
fifteen minutes, he shot Smiths little
girl through the leg. Peter Families
Smith has not control of his temper
he never stopped to think of age, sex
or previous condition of servitude, but
with one kick he lifted that dear little
boy clean over the fence, and then he
broke the gun.
The boys father naturally bristled
up, and he told Smith that a man
wasn't half man who objected to
children amusing themselves, and more,
why didn't he pick on one of his size"
AS we said, Smith has no control OF
his temper. He laid that poor man up
for nearly week. Now they never
speak, all on account of that gun
The sooner the air gun is suppressed
the better, for its influence is not
healthy. The boy with an air gun will
be found a few years hence, standing
on the Market street curbstone, wear
ing a red and blue hat with a white
button on top, with cigarette in his
mouth, and the seat of his pants sag
ging down to his knees almost, on ac-
count of a big forty-five gun that he is
Juggling around in his hip pocket. He
becomes a dead game sport" and a
bad, bad man, and his career will prob
ably lead him before the throne OF
John Randolph Butts, thence to break
ing stone on the bleak sides of Mount
Shasta at McGannon's.
HU. MANITARIAN.