Death Ends Suffering of Boy and Vigil of Great-Grandfather.
Death this morning came to 11-year-old Walter Paul, of Summerhill, bringing to the end a period of terrible suffering that began in November, 1911, when the little fellow fell and was impaled on the sharp end of an alder sapling that had been cut off when some brush was cleared.
The visit of the Dark Agnel also brought an end to the vigil of the boy's venerable great-grandfather, W. W. Paul, who has been closer to him than any other companion in the long period of his affliction. In all of the time the little fellow has been a patient at the Memorial Hospital, waiting for an operation that the doctors finally found it would be impossible to perform, the aged gentleman has been near.
He roomed at a local hotel and spent all the time he could with the brave little sufferer.
The accident which finally cost Walter Paul his life was of an especially pathetic character. The school children were playing one day, when a little girl in innocent fun shoved Walter, a lively and active lad, from the low roof of a little shed on the school premises. There was a shout of amusement from the children when the boy tumbled over, but it was echoed an instant later by a terrible cry of pain. In clearing out the brush near the shed workmen had wielded a sharp hatchet, and a spear-like point was left on one of the clumps of alder. It penetrated the boy's abdomen.
Only temporary relief could be furnished by the surgeons, and although everything that medical science could furnish was done, the boy suffered, and every day there was a barely perceptible paling of his color and thinning of his frame. Two operations were performed at different times, but they were of no avail. It was for the third that Walter was brought to this city last Sunday. Fearing the worst, and realizing that the end was near, the boy's aged and faithful friend was near. He was with him when the end came.
The body has been turned over to George Bros., South Fork undertakers, who will prepare it for burial, likely Sunday. |
