WARNING TO BOYS | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 4, 1880

WARNING TO BOYS.

MR. J. H. WELLS, of Riverhead, L. I., and his wife went to church, leaving their two sons at home. About half an hour afterward the younger boy, having got hold of an old pistol that was thought to be unloaded, went out with his brother to the front of the house, when the younger boy mounted the car-block, and, pointing the pistol at his brother, said, in a jocular manner, "Stand, villain, or I will shoot." He then snapped the trigger, as he had often done before, and continued to do so several times. Suddenly, to his surprise, the pistol exploded, and he saw his brother throw up his arms and fall to the ground.

Realizing what he had done, the boy dropped the smoking pistol, and, throwing himself on the prostrate form of his brother, cried frantically. The elder brother was shot through the heart. Those who were the first to arrive at the scene had the body carried into the house. The news of the tragedy was then conveyed to the parents in church. The boy who caused his brother's death is fifteen years of age, and always showed a warm affection for his brother. The old pistol had been handled by the boys at different times previous to Sunday night, and no one suspected that it was loaded.