Woodlawn Cemetery, just outside New York City in Westchester County, was founded in 1863. Among its many tombstones is the odd tombstone of a 15-year-old boy, George Millitt, who had died on his birthday. The tombstone reads:
LOST LIFE BY STAB IN FALLING ON
INK ERASER, EVADING SIX YOUNG
WOMEN TRYING TO GIVE HIM
BIRTHDAY KISSES IN OFFICE
METROPOLITAN LIFE BUILDING
This confusing memorial is explained by a NY Times story from February 16, 1909, "Stabbed to Death in Office Frolic", which reveals how George Millitt died.
Yesterday he came down and remarked that it was the anniversary of the wreck of the Maine. He explained that he knew it because the ship had been blown up on his birthday and that he was 15 yesterday.
At once the girls began to tease him. They told him that on such an occasion he desereved a kiss, and every one of them vowed that as soon as office hours were over she would kiss him once for every year that he had lived. He laughingly declared that not a girl should get near him, and was teased about it all day.
As 4:30 o'clock came, and the boy's work was over, the girls made a rush for him. They tried to hem him in, and he tried to break their line. Suddenly he reeled and fell, crying as he did so.
"I'm stabbed!"
A blade used for scraping ink was in Millitt's breast pocket and caused the mortal wound.
2 comments:
Let's hope he had insurance - working at Met Life... We all know the Yanks didn't have health insurance in those days, but perhaps his employer had him covered?
Think the insurance company would say he was negligent, keeping the blade in his pocket like he did?
Perhaps the origin of the phrase "kiss of death"? I'm a bit of a geek for word origins :p
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