Attempted Assassination of Lucan.

The Village Constable Fired Upon on His Door Step.

A REMARKABLY CLOSE CALL

The merchants and business men of Lucan have frequently remonstrated against the publication of items reflecting upon the conduct of certain individuals in that village, who have, by their wanton disregard of the laws of the land, brought disgrace upon the name of the village and its law and order-loving inhabitants, and injured very materially the business interests advancement of its denizens. The fault does not lie with the newspapers, as is wrongly supposed. Were a man or any number of men to attempt a crime, similar to that chronicled below in any other place the facts would be given to the public just the same as they are in this case. Until the neighborhood is rid of much base characters the village cannot be expected to prosper. The remedy is in the hands of the Lucanites themselves, and it behooves them to act promptly, yet judiciously, in any effort looking to the extermination of the members of a gang who do not scruple to outrage the feelings of a community by attempting the assassination of a peace officer after the manner following - Between eleven and twelve o'clock on Monday night Constable Everett, of Lucan, while entering his residence opposite Stanley's mill, was fired at by some unknown person from behind the corner of a wood pile some fifty feet distant. The charge of buckshot, ten in number, hit the door about three inches from Mr. Everett's breast, eight of which became embedded in the door, and the other two went through the thick lumber into the hall way. The constable, for the first time in many months, probably, owing to the clear moonlight, had not his revolver in his hand, but notwithstanding this he made for the direction of the assassin, and found to his great surprise that there were no fewer than three on the stampede from their lair behind the wood-pile Mr. Everett chased them for some time through Mr. Butler's fields, but they had got too much of a start at the outset, and escaped - not, however, before he had taken measure of their figures.

[...] The Constable may have made enemies while discharging his duty, but any man, or set of men, how could deliberately stand by and see his fellow man shot down like a dog, simply because his, or a friend's toes had been trodden upon, deserves to be lynched on the spot. Mr. Everett is full persuaded that the individual who fired the shot is one of the gang who were interested in the recent rescue of a prisoner from the lock-up, and we trust the law-abiding villagers will come to his assistance and endeavor by every means in their power to ferret but the perpetrator of such a wanton and bloodthirsty deed.

Source: Unknown, "Attempted Assassination at Lucan," London Free Press, March 20, 1878.

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