HIS EYES SHOOT OUT - Herbert Mercer 1901

MERCER

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 12/8/2016 at 17:57:10

Dubuque Daily Telegraph – Feb. 2, 1901

HIS EYES SHOOT OUT
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Sioux City, Ia. Feb. 2 – Herbert Mercer, aged 16 years, son of Samuel Mercer or Correctionville, has been brought to Sioux City to undergo an operation by which it is hoped to give the young man back the power to discern between daylight and darkness. He is now totally blind, as the result of a distressing accident which occurred at the Mercer home. Young Mercer caught a load of shot which a companion aimed at a pigeon. The entire charge struck him in the eyes shooting out the sight of the left eye and frightfully tearing the right one. As he fell to the ground, ten feet below, he struck on his chin, broke one jaw, dislocated the other, and so seriously injured the shoulder and back that a portion of his left side is paralyzed. Sixty-one shot was counted in his face.