A century ago - poor kid gets whacked by priests, dies soon after

   Gabriel Picotte died a century ago. Here's what happened.
    At the end of November 1908 Gabriel Picotte's schoolmasters, the Freres Maristes of Visitation Street, smacked him on the head with a stick.
   He returned home late, his face had a reddish hue and he had a big bump on his head and complained of being hit on the head by one of the brothers, Emile Bertrand.
   His father, a doctor on St. Catherine Street, phoned the school who admitted the punishment and apologized for the excess.
   His health went downhill in January and he died of what was described as tuburculotic meningitis in January. Medical science at the time wasn't clear or not whether the blow he suffered was the cause of death.
   A jury declared the school not responsible. The judge advised the priests to refrain from hitting children on the head.