The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-01-14
TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
A YOUNG GIRL KILLED BY ONE OF HER
SCH00LMATES.
Gun Accidentally Discharged Blows Her Skull
to Pieces Accident Occurred at
Taylor Place.

On the Jesse Taylor farm, a mile
northeast of this city, yesterday after
noon, occurred one of the most horrible
accidents Raleigh has known in many
day.
Go this morning to the cottage on Pace
street, next to PAGES store. on North
Person street, and you viii find dead
child. Mr.. and Mrs. Seaton Weathers
live there and the child is theirs. Pearl
was her name.
A bright child she was, school girl,
and no more sunny-haired, happy hearted
scholar was to be found in the Murphy
graded school. Diligent and studious in
the school room, she was also full of
life and fun upon the play ground.
One more month and she would have
been just 10 years old, but so well
grown and developed was she that one
would have guessed her twelve or thir-
teen. She was great fayorite among
her playmates, but there was one, Nan
ME Bell, a close neighbor and school
mate, whom she was specially fond
Then there were Annie and Allie Gill,
who lived at the Taylor place in the
country, but came to the city to at.
tend the graded school, passing each day
by the doors OF Pearl and Mamie. They
too, were her friends.
So yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock, as
the children were returning from school,
it was decided that they should go home
with the Gill girls TO spend the after
noon playing in the woods and fields
Permission to do this was so6D obtained
from their parents and they started /:
Mamie Bell and her little sitter May,
daughters OF Mr.. billiard Bell; Pearl
Weathers. daughter OF Mr.. Seaton
Weathers; Chas. Hicks, son of Mr.. Dan
Hicks; Annie and Allie Gill, daughters
of Mrs. Laura Gill.
But they never reached the Taylor
nome. They were merry enough on
their way. No children could have been
happier as they romped along with
prattle and laughter. The grim monster
cast no shadow upon the fair young
head, brought no soberness to the pref
ty laughing face of little Pearl.
1t was just in the edge of the field,
near the house that they met some boys
hunting. Hubert Gill laid mis- gun down
on the ground to have a chat with the
girls. Annie picked it up.
Whose gun is this?" She asked.
Nobody replied.
Here Mamie let me put it on your
shoulder" No sooner said than done.
Then there was report that re-
sounded through the woods and over the
hills. And Pearl Weathers lay dead by
the mound upon which she had been
sitting. The muzzle Of the gun was
but five feet from her face when it was
discharged.
The shot struck her forehead, little
to the left side and the whole top ot
the head was blown off. Pieces OF the
skull were scattered over the ground and
the blood and beafns were spattereG
upon those standing and sitting near
A most horrible occurrence it was; and
nobody knew just how it happened; no
body could tell how the gun happened
to be discharged.
The accident occurred about o'clock
but it was an hour later before it was
known here. The news spread a deep
gloom over the whole city. The body
was not brought to the city until
O'Clock last night.
1T is not often that death steals sc
quietly upon SO innocent and fair vic
tim, and mangIes her with such feroci-
GUS cruelty.