Death By Eraser...

I didn't wake up this morning thinking about finding something ghoulish to grace the digital pages of my blog on a sunny, late Spring morning. But really, this is just such a prime and breath-catching example of "life is stranger than fiction" with perfectly macabre sidecar that I couldn't resist.

It seems that on the 15th of February 1909, on his 15th birthday no less, young George Spencer Millitt was trying to escape from a group of giggling girls who wished to bestow some innocently sweet birthday kisses upon his blushing cheek when he accidentally "ran a sharp eraser into his body" causing his death. This tragic event occurred, as luck would deem it, at his place of employment - the Application Bureau of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.



The photo of the headstone and the newspaper clipping is courtesy of flickr member jack_mord. He is also the fellow behind this intriguing and somewhat Gothic dark site - www.thantos.net.

By the way, if you were as curious as I as to what exactly a Victorian "ink eraser" was and how it could mortally harm someone, you'll find and example here...

http://www.tias.com/8600/PictPage/1922182527.html#images