A Narrow Escape

The Harry Cole house was the scene of no little excitement on Monday morning last, when the occupants of the house were startled by the report of a revolver. Upon investigation it was found that Mr. Bonebright who occupies a third floor room had been cleaning a 44 caliber revolver and in trying the action of the gun had slipped a loaded cartridge into the cylinder. In some way the trigger slipped and fired the cartridge which made its way through the floor and down into the next room below, occupied by Mr. Luhman who was still in bed. Upon following the course taken by the bullet after leaving the ceiling, it was discovered to have passed between Mr. Luhman’s legs, down through the mattress and springs and buried itself in the floor. Fortunately no one was injured.

“A Narrow Escape,” The I.S.C. Student. May 1905.

I love this story. In only four sentences, this piece has a wealth of information and a superb structure for its turn of the century-English storytelling.

During the 1904-05 school year, there were five residences in the ISC Student Directory listed as a Cole residence, and all were located on North Hyland Avenue between Lincoln Way and West Street. Three of them, tentatively, have a full name to which Cole owned the building, but which Cole house belonged to Harry Cole is unknown.

And I hope I’m not alone in thinking Mr. Bonebright’s story sounds sketchy.