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Show ACCIDENTALLY SHOT. ALEXANDER R. MITCHELL MEETS DEATH IN A PECULIAR WAY. A Charge of Birdshot Tears a Hole Through His Right Cheek and Finds an Outlet Through His Left Eye-Death Was Instantaneous A iiua Which Has Went the Honls of Two Hen to Their Final Beck, onlng. The body of A. F. Mitchell of Draper was brought to this city this morning and is lying at the Skewes' undertaking establishment. establish-ment. Mitchell accidently shot himself yesterday yes-terday afternoon with a double-barrelled shot gun. Death was instantaneous. The particulars are very meager. It seems Mitchel had . been trouble by chicken; hawks stealing his best fow s, and he decided de-cided to rid the air of some of the thieving birds. Yesterday he was crouching near his house intently watching one of the thieves of the air as it sailed around and around high in the air above his barn yard. The gun which did such deadly work was standing stand-ing against the house, a few feet from Mitchell, and it i3 presumed that both triggers trig-gers were at fall cock. No one was with the deceased when the terrible summons came. The kitchen door, near where the gun was leaning, wa3 violently- slammed shut by a gust of wind. The jar caused the gun to fall, and when the muzzle wa opposite Mitchell's head the gun exploded and the chartre of shot entered the right cheek of tl unfortunate man. It tore away the flesh from the left cheek and burnt the orb of the left eye. Mitchell fell forward for-ward on his face dead. The orifice in the right cheek was terribly burned by the powder, pow-der, and the man's nose was brosen and his jaw-bone dislocated. The dead man never spoke after the report of the gun. A. R. Mitchell, or as he was better known as "Sandy," was well known in this city and had a host of friends, who learned of his untimely un-timely end with regret. For two years Sandy was manager of the Union Pacific coal yards of this city. On the 17th of last December, in company with Moses I. Morris, he purchased forty acres of land three miles 6outh and west of Sandy on Dry Creek and established a chicken ranch. Business prospered pros-pered with the two partners and they were in a fair way to a fortune when the fatal accident ac-cident occurred. Morris, who was inside the house when his partner was killed, hastened outside upon hearing the report of the gun. The sight that met his gaze froze the blood in his veins. Lying on his side was Mitchell. Bleed was streamiag from ghastly wounds in his face and a blue bare of smoke curled from the muzzle of the gun. Morris immediately hastened to his . nearest neither and rapidly related the details de-tails of 'tne ead occurrence,' and then' came on to Salt Lake after Alex R. Mitchell of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad. The Inquest. A jury was empaneled this afternoon, and after listening to the circumstances in the case, returned a verdict of accidental death from a gunshot wound caused through the nenjtence or carelessness 01 toe aeceasea. The body doubtless will be shipped to Milwaukee Mil-waukee for interment. A Gun's Second Victim. The man whose body lies cold in death at the undertaking parlors is the second victim of the gun which accidentally caused his death last evening. Two years ago Charlie Hempstead placed this same shot gun against his head and blew out his brains. The rash act was committed at the home of the self-murderer on Capital hill late in the afternoon. Young Hempstead was a "blood" in the fullest 6ense of the term and lived life at a rapid pace. Hs is said to have known wine, women and song to his sorrow and finally, wrecked in mind and depleted in purse, sought that solace in the quiet of the grave which the sonsrs of the siren cannot bequeath or the companionship of reckless revelers induce. Who will inherit the man killing gun aud will not look upon it with fear? |