Tragedy on a Whatcom County Farm
A young boy is killed by his older brother in a tragic, accidental shooting with a farm shotgun.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Little Eddie Stubbe, aged 8 years, was accidentally shot and instantly killed late yesterday afternoon by his 12-year-old brother Joseph, at the home of the family on a farm near Van Wyck station, a short distance from Whatcom. The two children were playing hunting in the dining room, the older boy having a shotgun which he did not know was loaded. He pointed it at his brother and pressed the trigger, and the little fellow fell dead. The lower part of his face was riddled by a charge of bird shot.
“The two children were playing hunting in the dining room, the older boy having a shotgun which he did not know was loaded.”
Accidental shootings involving children and unsecured firearms were a frequent, tragic fixture of rural turn-of-the-century reporting in Washington. Today, the prevalence of these stories continues to fuel debates over gun safety and storage laws in the state.
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