The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-03-10

Butte, March 8.-Michael Heating
miner employed at the Parrot mine,
was shot and seriously wounded about
o'clock yesterday morning by Mrs.
Edward Paver in the Yellowstone sa-
loon at the corner of Wyoming and
Galena streets after, it is alleged,
keating had made brutal assault
on the defenseless woman. Mrs
Paver is in the county Jail and Keat-
ing at st. James hospital
According to the testimony of wit
nesses to the shooting Mrs. Paver
acted only in self-defense, after she
had been struck with a heavy iron
cuspidor and beaten with the fists of
keating, who was drunk and noisy.
The woman was, she believes, in dan
ger of her life, and shot the man in
sheer desperation. no one offering to
aid her, although there were num-
ber of men in the saloon at the time
Shortly after the shooting occurred
Mrs. Paver, Keating and Mrs. Sui
livan were taken to the city Jail in
the patrol wagon and City Physician
T. j. Sullivan was summoned. The
doctor was soon at the jail and made
an examination of Keating's wound
and after dressing it temporarily sent
him to the hospital. Mrs. Paver, who
apeared to be badly frightened by
the shock and injured by the blows
she had received. was taken down
stairs and made as comfortable as
possible by Jailer Sol Levy.
Told Her Story.
When seen at the city Jail by re-
porter Mrs. Payer was lying on a
cot in the women's department suffer
ing from a severe headache and shock
OF her experience and evidently had
bad cold as we'll, for her voice was
SO hoarse she could barely speak audi
bly,.
According to her story, told in some
what broken sentences, Mrs. Paver
acted for her own protection when
she shot Keating. 1t seems that her
husband is at Philipsburg looking af
ter some mining interests he has
there
For several nights Mrs. Paver has
been attending to the bar and her
husbands partner, j. Petersen, has
been working the day shift. In addi-
ton to the saloon there is lodging
house which is really Mrs. PAYERS
lookout and the additional work of
the past few days has greatly wearied
her.
About O'Clock yesterday morning
just as she was getting through with
her work and was ready to retire,
Petersen having arrived, Keating and
two other men whose names are un-
known entered the place in the
noisiest manner and insisted on drink
ing. There were six or eight men
ind three or more women at the bar
at the time. Keating and his friends
insisted on the crowd having a drink
and wanted Mrs. Paver to join them.
She tried to excuse herself and said
she was tired and wished to retire.
Cornered the Woman.
The men insisted and finally Mrs.
Paver sought refuge in flight, but
they followed her and finally got her
back to the saloon where they began
treating her roughly and used vile
and abusive language. Strange to
say no one attempted to take the wo-
mans part and the trio evidently had !
the crowd "buffaloed," as the saying
goes, and no one went to her assis-
ance.
The men increased their violence
and twice the woman was struck on
the face and then forced into, a cor
ner at the east end of the bar. Then
it was that Keating, according to Mrs.
PAYERS story, picked up heavy iron
euspidor and threw it at her. Her
pack was turned at the time and it
struck her in the back. the blow being
sufficient to knock her down if she
had not been up against the wall.
Petersen had been at the other end