ROSSER MEET WITH A TERRIBLE DEATH

While refilling pipe shotgun goes off accidentally tear insides out.

CHARGE SHOT IN ABDOMEN

Lives Several Hours With Gaping Wound and Hand Torn Almost Off             

Conscious to Last

John Rosser about 20 years old died at St. Elizabeth's hospital Monday morning at 9 o'clock the result of a gunshot wound in the abdomen, Sunday afternoon at 5 o'clock near Westville where he had been hunting.

Rosser was hunting at a place where some trees had been felled and he mounted to the top of a stump to refill his pipe with tobacco. He was in the act of striking a match when the gun slipped out of his hand and sliding down the side of the stump exploded. A full charge of birdshot entered Rosser's abdomen and passing through his intestines lodged in his body. Although horribly wounded Rosser retained his senses and holding his intestines in with his hands and screaming for assistance started in the direction of the nearest house. His cries of distress attracted some men who were in the vicinity and he was taken to town, where his injury was temporarily dressed, after which he was brought in the miners ambulance to the city. At the hospital Dr. H. F. Becker did what he could to save the man's life, but he did not have any hope in the beginning of being able to do so. The intestines had worked there way out of the gapping wound until there was an armful of them laying on the injured man when he was operated upon at the hospital. The wound was closed and a drainpipe inserted, but it was on no avail. Rosser was conscious to the last but was too weak to talk. Besides the terrible wound in his abdomen His right hand was hanging to the arm by strips of mangled flesh and ligaments. The bones at the arm of the wrist were shattered and the arteries cut. The hand was amputated. One man, whose name was not learned, said at the hospital that he was near Rosser when the accident happened. He said that he was informed that the wound was inflicted which Rosser was in the act of striking the match as he stood on the stump. He had seen him get on the stump, the report of the gun being heard in a min or two afterward. He was one on the men who hastened to the injured man and assisted to bring him to Westville and afterwards to Danville. The body was taken to the morgue of Turner and Gilmore. Corner Cole made arrangements to hold the inquest Monday afternoon. Rosser was a brother of Paul Rosser a car repairer at 1114 Tennessee Street.  Rossar is said to have been working in one of the coal mines near Westville and boarding and rooming in town. He was an enthusiastic sportman and had been spending a great deal of his time in hunting. He was usually careful in the handling of firearms and his friends find it difficult to understand his seeming recklessness with the gun Sunday afternoon

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