1908 - Little Boy Played "Buffalo Bill"

A shooting accident that came near resulting fatally occurred at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Coats at Mallets Bay Tuesday, when Gardner Bartholomew, aged 10 years, shot William Coats, Jr., a child of four, in the head with a ball from a 32-calibre revolver. The ball struck the boy on the side of the head near the right temple, making a flesh wound two inches in length, though not deep, as the bullet struck the skull and glanced off. No serious results are anticipated.

the pistol was owned by Chester Prim, a young man in the employ of Mr. Coats. Prim goes home every night, half a mile away, and as he had been told that he might meet a lynx or bear on the way he bought a revolver and had been carrying it for some time.

The day of the accident, the children at the Coats home were playing in the yard. Young Bartholomew found the revolver in Prim's coat which hung on a nail in the shed, and immediately set out to play "Buffalo Bill." He pointed the weapon at the little girl, sister of the Coats boy, and she ran away screming. He then pretended to shoot the boy, but the weapon failed to go off. The second attempt was successful, however, and Mrs. Coats was started from an earnest conversation with a neighbor on the front porch by the cries of her daughter, aged 7.