The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-08
TWO FINGERS BLOWN OFF.
Williams Picked Up "a Bullet With
Disastrous Consequences.


Willis Williams a colored blacksmith
employed at Kehoe's Iron Works lost
TWO fingers of his right hand yesterday, in
m accident the incidents of which APP
nroach the melodramatic on a small
s,qIe the story bears a close family re-
-smblance to scene from one of the fur
oyercoat and wolf-hound Siberian dramas.
Williams had but just left his forge,
shortly after 6 O'Clock, and had started on
his way home when, lying on the pave
,,,7t i'm front of him, he saw what he took
10 he a bullet. It was of large calber
rifle size, but bore no external mark of
being dangerous. 1t was just a plain, com
mon. everyday sort of bullet, to all APP
nearances made of lead, and not seeming
likely to injure anyone. unless it were first
placed in a weapon and propelled in the
standard and orthodox fashion.
ii was in a spirit of idle curiosity only
mat Williams stopped and picked the OBJ
ieot from the ground, thinking to throw
II aside after a cursory examination. He
rad scarce got his hands closely on it
when the bullet, or whatever it was, eX
r,oded. Williams right hand was Sc
verely injured, and two of the fingers were
blown from their sockets. The other fin
gers We're mangled and torn and the whole
hand shocked and shattered by the force
of the explosion, that seemed altogether
out of proportion to the size of the object
whence it proceeded.
Williams was taken TO the office of DR..
Norton, where his wound was dressed, and
thence to his home. He is able to give
no clear account of the appearance of the
bullet or bomb, as he only saw it for
moment on the ground before him and
had no time to make a closer examination
after he had it in his hand before it ex-
ploded. The fragments of the bomb we're
lost in the explosion and none of them re-
NAMED close enough TO the scene to af-
ford an adequate idea of what it was like.
The whole thing seems somewhat
strange. Such accidents are witnessed
often enough in the Siberian melodramas
and may be in occasional evidence in ST.
beran real life, but in staid and unro
mantle Savannah they are altogether out
of place The force of the explosion, the
manner in which Williams hand was
shattered and the completeness with
which the fragments of the little internal
machine vanished show that it might
have done more serious or even deadly
damage had the opportunity afforded it
been a little better.
What the thing was doing, lying where
1t was in the street. who had placed or
thrown it there and what evil end, if any,
it had been intended 10 serve, are myS-
teries still. That there was a purpose be-
hind it seems likely, for the effects of
the explosion and the ease and rapidity
with which the explosion was produced
show that the machine was not of a char
acter to make it nice plaything for any
body. Nor was it of a chara cter to per-
init any well-disposed person to throw it
carelessly on the street.
1t may be that it was intended TO do
damage to some one other than Williams
and had been manufactured with this
special purpose in view. Conjectures as
10 its nature and purpose might be multi
Piled indefinitely, but no one of them IS
supported by a probability that raises il
above any other.