A SENSELESS JOKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1921, Page 10

A SENSELESS JOKE.

AND A TRAGIC ENDING. Melbourne, May 22. A senseless practical joke played on George Day, 15 years of age, an apprentice at the Newport railway workshops, on Friday, had a tragic ending, the victim dying in the Melbourne Hospital from the effects of his injuries. Frederick William Losse, 19 years of age, a driller at Newport, was arrested, and charged with having murdered Day. As the result of their inquiries the police elicited the information that among a number of boys who are working at the Newport workshops and using hydraulic air pressure drills it is not uncommon for some of them to thrust the nozzles of these drills against one another by way of a joke. Ignorant of the pressure of air in the drills at the moment, one of the youths crept forward, and pressing the nozzle of the’ drill against Day’s body, turned on a small tap in the appliance for a second or so, and immediately withdrew the drill. The pressure of air, appeared to be greater than usual, and 1 is believed to have been 20001 b to the square inch. Day sprang to one side quickly and laughed at the prank with the joker. A few minutes later, however, he said to a companion: “My legs are going,” and he collapsed. Soon afterwards the compressed air which had entered his system apparently in a considerable quantity, began to. expand. His body immediately became swollen to alarming proportions, even his face being severely affected. On Saturday afternoon an operation was performed with the object of releasing the air from the boy’s system. Though the operation achieved its purpose the boy gradually sank and died.