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Show ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE OF AGIN ELEVATOR BOY ADDS TO LIST OF GUN ACCIDENTS. Guest of a Hotel Narrowly Escapes a Flying Bullet Boy is Thoroughly Alarmed Over His Mishap. The Reed Hotel was the scene of a narrow escape from death by the accidental ac-cidental discharge of a gun this morning, a guest of the hostelry being be-ing missed by a huge bullet by the margin of only a few Inches. The man, vhy has been stopping at the hotel for several days, happened to be standing rm the second fioor looking into the lobby lob-by below when a tremendous report came from the floor above and, with a splintering of woodwork and a scattci-ing scattci-ing of plaster, a huge ,44-callbcr bullet bul-let sped downward, crashing into the floor at his feet. ( A few moments later, a white-faced elevator boy appeared In the hallway, carrying a big Colt six-shooter aud trembling with fear from head to feet. The boy. whose name is Vernon Hodge, turned" the gun over to Clerk Beckett and disappeared, evidently frightened out of a goodly portion of his wits. How tho weapon came to be discharged dis-charged is not explained. It is supposed, sup-posed, however, that Hodge, who has the night shift on the elevator, being timid, kept the gun about him on duty as a precaution against hold-ups, and upon leaing the elevator this morning to go to his room, the gun was accidentally acci-dentally discharged. It was a narrow escape for the guest on tho fioor below. be-low. The tremendous power of the weapon propelled, tt Jjullet through nearly two floors of the building, including in-cluding flooring, plaster, carpets, etc. The Reed guests were somewhat perturbed today to thing that they had been associating with a walking arsenal for some weeks. |