"The sting of a hornet"

[DdlR]

http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/20...-self-defence/

A new article on Bartitsu.org detailing the humble hat-pin as a secret weapon of womens' self defense during the Edwardian period.

[Craig Jenkins]

And ever since, all Craigs have been insolent cads ;)

On a more serious note, one might expect it to be more seriously painful than fatal.

Attached a link to an article in the 28 Feb, 1910 NYT covering the issue of whether long hat pins should be banned, and mentioning that women wanted to continue to have them for self defence.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...659C946196D6CF

PS it passed - my apologies - there appear to be a significant number of stories (899) in the NYT archives on this topic
http://query.nytimes.com/search/site...&more=date_all

[DdlR]

On a more serious note, one might expect it to be more seriously painful than fatal.
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Early 20th century journalistic hyberbole ...