A Gun Goes Off in a Passing Hand and a Fox Island Rancher Dies
Handing her husband his gun as he stepped into a boat, a Fox Island woman accidentally discharges it at point-blank range, killing him in front of her.
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.
Tacoma, Sept. 6. [Special.] John McPhail, aged 35, was accidentally shot and killed yesterday afternoon by his wife while getting into a boat at Fox island. He had just stepped into the boat, and, in passing him his gun, Mrs. McPhail accidentally discharged it. The charge struck McPhail full in the stomach, and, as the muzzle of the weapon was only a few inches away at the time, a ragged circular hole was made by the charge. The wife was horrified by the accident, and after dragging her husband from the boat she summoned help. McPhail lived only a few minutes. He had resided on the island ten years and besides his wife leaves four children.
“He had just stepped into the boat, and, in passing him his gun, Mrs. McPhail accidentally discharged it.”
Firearm accidents in the close quarters of rural life were a recurring hazard in the 1890s, when a loaded gun passed by hand on a boat landing was an ordinary part of a day's work. The brief, unsentimental notice leaves a widow and four children on a remote island — the kind of sudden loss that in an era before any safety net could upend a family overnight.
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