Evening star., 1900-08-18
SOME FREAK WOUNDS.


alty-harvesting time is on. c. L. c.
SOME FREAK WOUNDS.
Pearl-Jacketed Bullet and Car Seals
Missiles.
From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
"Ex-Policeman Evans. as you will re-
member" said the hospital surgeon. was
one of the wounded in the tragic siege of
Robert Charles fort on Saratoga street.
When we cut out the bullet we were aston
ished. Not only was 1t curiously 'mush-
roomed' or fiattened at the tip. but 1t was
covered all over with strange, pearly in
crustation, like little specks on the inside
of a seashell. None of US knew what to
make of It. Some thought 1t was one of the
dum-dum bullets we had read about in re-
ports of the war in the Transvaal, and 9TH
ers that it was composed of a new kind OF
alloy. To make long story short we sent
1t to the city chemist and he made a very
singular discovery. When Evans was
wounded he was wearing a shirt fastened
with large mother-of-pearl buttons. One OF
them was struck squarely by the missile,
and the force of the impact was so tremen-
dous that it was shattered to atoms and ut
orally fused into the body of the lead. At the
same time the blow had the effect of spread
Ing the head of the bullet and giving 1t Its
curious mushroom appearance. That fully
explained both points but 1t was certainly
remarkable Notwithstanding that
wouldn't happen again in thousand years:
The bullet has been preserved. and Is one of
the most interesting souvenirs extant OF the
great battle
This queer story drew out several remi-
nlscences. Years ago." said an old detec-
tive, shortly after went into the business,
the country was startled by very sensa-
many people still remember the killing of
Tom Davis. the green goods king by a
couple Of Texans who had gone on to buy
his wares. They shot him dead In his den.
and, oddly enough one of the bullets struck
a large diamond stud in the middle Of his
shirt front and drove 1t right into his chest.
Whether Davis was killed by the lead or
the diamond was an open question. They
made two wounds, eit'.er of which would
have been fatal The solitaire was cut out
at the post-mortem. and Is now the prop
erty Of a well-known theatrical manager.
Another extraordinary case along the same
line that l happen to know about person
ally" he continued, was the murder of
Lieutenant Governor Robinson of Colorado
in 1884. Robinson owned big mine in the
central part of the state, and for some rea-
son or other all his hands went on strike.
/ working for the Denver and Rio
Grande road at the time and was sent to
the place to guard some supplies. Robinson
arrived the same day and that afternoon
went out to take a look at the mine. He
was just entering the main tunnel when
somebody fired from the interior, and he
In his side, and the supposltion was that he
had been struck by load of slugs, but at
the autopsy 1t was found that the wounds
were made by four pieces of nail 1t seems
that the bullet had hit the shaft door
broken two nails and sent them off at
tangent and then buried itself in the wood.
1t didn't come within ten feet of Its victim
by indirection."
Speaking of queer missiles" said re-
porter In the group. II am inclined to think
that lead car seal takes first prize. Down
IN Guatemala the favorite weapon of the
native bandits and desperadoes is a sawed
off Misunderstanding shotgun of the blunder-
buss pattern and when they run short of
buckshot they sally out to the railroad and
steal a few dozen seals. which are simply
disks Of soft lead about the size Of quarters
Pounded into rough balls. they make pro-
jectiles by the side OF whi h a dum-dum Is
an angel of mercy. and " hen of their
bunderbusses goes off II generally kills
! everything in sight except the directly
| behind it. 1t was a handful of car-seal
| slugs that laid out Maj. AL Lalande, the
| Guatemalan chief of police who came here
| for surgical treatment about a year ago.
! He got Ave of them in the back. and how
| he survived Is a mystery. The scars were
| the most Notwithstanding things 1 ever saw.
| One OF the slugs had lodged under his col
! lar bone and was cut out by DR.. Matas
| When Lalande got out Of the hospital he
| had gold ring put in the lump of lead and
Wore it as a watch charm. The other four
| he carried around in his vest pocket and
when I asked him what he going to do
| with the collection he said he Intended to
| hand them back to Senor Rosa when he re-
| turned home. Senor Rosa the gentle
| man who perforated him. Lalande killed
| him with a sawed-off shotgun about a
| month afterward."
The symposium wound up with a story
| by planter from the Lafourche district
| Il have number of Italians working on
my place" he said. "and among them is a
| very industrious fellow we call Tony, who
! has cultivated quite a little garden patch
| his cabin Tony iS q TtaIIo
peasant. and. while he has lots of excellent
| traits, he is densely ignorant and corre-
| spondingly superstitious. He believes firmly.
| among other things in ghOuls, devils yam-
| pires and witches. One day about a wear
| ago 1 was passing his cabin and found him
| cutting up a silver quarter with hatchet
| 1t was not like Tony to destroy money, and
| greatly surprised. 1 asked what was up.
| He told me in his broken English that his
| garden patch was being visited and de-
| spoiled by an evil spirit. He had seen the
| thing several times. he said and 1t had al
| ways melted away right before his eyes So
| he had concluded to shoot 1t with a silver
| bullet, against which. every body knew
| witchcraft had no powers. 1t was for that
| purpose he was cutting up the coin
| laughed heartily and walked off and few
days afterward Tony told me confidentially
that he had vanquished the vegetable-lovins
apparftion. Wen the spook appeared he
| had blazed away with a load Of chopped
| silver. and, according to his story, it gave
an unearthly howl and vanished in a sheet
| VI p!uo hfe. DurlnS the grinding season
| about six months later, my foreman hap.
pened to notice that an old darky deacon
who had been hanger-on about the planta.
ton ever since the war. was walking very
lame. and asked him what was the matter
| 1 dunno, boss said the old fellow rollins
up his eyes; pears lake I've gotter bile
'er sumpin on my leg Let me lance it fol
you, uncle. suggested the foreman who Is
a great Jack of all trades. The darky con.
sented. and he made slight incision in tn,
infiamed spot: To his astonishment a small
piece of metal came out 1t was triangular
In shape. and looked like fragment of E
silver coin The deacon was unable to ex
plain how 1t got there. and l was careful t.
| say nothing about the matter to Ton,r