High Stakes and High Caliber

This morning, Harry Fraser of the Northern Hotel was shot, perhaps fatally. The shooting took place in the barroom, done with a handsome silver-plated, pearl-handled, .32 Smith & Wesson revolver. The shooting was entirely unprovoked; the assailant, P.D. Page of Mitchell, vouchsafed no reason for the act, save for a case of 'high card,' and the gun went off. The bullet entered Fraser's back a little left and below the small of his back. Complications set in almost at once, and he lay on his bed in great pain. The shooting took place while several men were in the room. Proprietor Harry Fraser, bartender E.C. Mardin, and witnesses P.J. Ireton and A. Johnson gave their account: The stranger and Fraser had been playing cards at a table. They were having a throw or something like that, when all of a sudden the man reached for his pistol. Fraser sort of raised up in his chair and came right over close onto him with the gun. At this, the fellow brought his arm over with a swing, placing the gun muzzle close to Fraser's body, and fired. Johnson sprang forward and grabbed the pistol from the man's hand, and about the same time the bartender and I grappled with him and held him until Sergeant Sullivan and Detective Cudihee came rushing in and took charge of him. Fraser told the story of the shooting in the following brief manner: 'We had been playing dice and had had no trouble. He was a perfect stranger to me. I was not doing anything when he suddenly started talking about two sixes and fours, and followed it by some coarse language, and in an instant drew his gun and shot me.' After the shooter was placed in the hands of Sergeant Sullivan and Detective Cudihee, he commenced jesting with them. He jumped into the patrol wagon and was driven rapidly to the jail. He gave his name to Clerk Reed as P.D. Page, but refused to state his occupation or age. He was well dressed and had cash on his person. He was under the influence of liquor.