The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-24
WhiSkey Wrecks a Mont gOmery Home. FATHER IS IN JAIL Claude Sheets Will Lie in Pauper'S Grave. Houston Street Scene of Awful Deed whfie Church Bells Were Ring
 ins--Both Men Craxed
 by Drink.

the faithful of Montgomery to houses of worship at II o'clock yesterday morning, ringing out their glad mes sage of a Risen Saviour, William T. Sheets. 55 years old. glazier of 423 Houston Street, shot and almost En- stantly killed his youngest son, Claude Sheets. a painter, 24 years old. at the front door of the humble home, in which an aged mother and devoted wife was already weeping because of the misconduct of the father and son.
 The wages of sin! No more power- full sermon was ever preached from pulpit than the lesson found in this Easter morning tragedy of Montgom- cry. A father divested of his manhood; i; son devoid of filial devotion. Both slaves to whiskey; both bereft of req son. Cross words followed by profan- fty. A steel instrument of death drawn quickly; two shots, and-Death!
 William Sheets lies in a gloomy cell of the Montgomery County jail. His boy. his youngest boy lies dead in a morgue on South Court Street.
 Roses and Death.
 Roses. as red as the blood that was shed by Claude Sheets, are growing in the little yard that encircles the house on Houston Street wherein the Sheets family resided. The rose vines have clambered all about the humble porch on which Claude Sheets fell when he received death wound at the hands of the man responsible for his exist ence. The roses have a message. They tell of the artistic nature of the woman wife and mother-who saw her last born struck down by the husband of her bosom. The roses blossomed and bloomed as William Sheets and his son | passed in and out of the home that Ntwhiskey was wrecking: the home that ]. N,vhiskey has wrecked. The roses could Nell of one woman's sorrow, of the sanker that gnawed at her heart, be- cause the roses were dear to her.
 But the roses will not be cared for today. Their mistress has fled the scene of her greatest sorrow. She Is at the home of ftaa1ive near Pickett Springs. where it seems that all hope, all happiness has gone out of her life. Mayhap a cluster of the red roses grown in the garden yard of his moth CT on Houston Street will be laid upon pauper grave in Oakwood Cemetery today. For the income of the Sheets family has been spent for strong drink and Claude Sheets must be buried at the expense of the county.
 William Sheets will peer through the stern, repelling bars of the county jail today as a solemn procession passes through Washington Street escorting 4 the body of his youngest son to its pauper grave.
 Retribution has already struck the heartstrings of the errant father. He cries aloud that he did not mean to kill his son. He realizes too late that l.s taH, kr.IA I fu nIr with 1t his home, his wife, his son, his liberty. Perhaps, too, as he lies in felon's cell the thought comes that the same agency which stole his manhood and robbed him of his soul, may in the end bring him ignominious death. He is to be tried on May 4 when Justice I. N. Browder will determine whether he committed willful murder.
 Children at Awful Scene.
 The scene of the terrible tragedy, the humble home at 423 Houston Street is just where what is commonly known as the Red Bridge Road begins. The children of the neighborhood were re- turning from their Sunday School classes of the joyous Easter day. Chill dren passing along the street heard the report of the pistol shots and saw a man die at the threshold of his fath- er's door. They saw a father who had murdered his son close the door hur-
  leave his dying boy on the little porch that extends about the door. As the children stood. mystifed at the strange. unusual scene that befell their innocent eyes. they saw neigh bors go to the injured man as he sank k feebly to the floor. sneak to him. en- treating to say that he was not mor- tally wounded and pick him up in their larms. They saw the door opened and the prostrate body borne into the little home. Then the door was closed, shut ting out the curious. Had they been Inside they would have seen W. T. Sheets lay the pistol on a table and then go to the door and open 1t in re- sponse to the hurried knocks impa- tiently rapped on it's boards. They might have heard a father say, There's nothing the matter with him; he's fust drunk. He's been taking dope" They might have seen the deathly pallor that spread over the face of the speeches. young man whose hands were clenched to his side Probably they would have seen the ex- cited group of neighbors and the fath- CT place the body on bed and hur- riedly tear away the upper clothing in search of any wound. They would have seen an old woman-the boys mothSr-bent with trouble and with years. throw herself in loving Frenzy over the body of her boy and plead with him to speak-to speak to her
 Had innocent faces seen this sight, they would have seen a mothers heart break in agony over the death of her son for Claude Sheets was dead before sympathetic hands had barred his chest fin search of the pistol wound. In the small dark room a woman, whose tears wet the bedclothes about the form of a young man whose face bore resem- blance to hers, cried out her sorrow. The stoIid form of a man. apparently deadened in apprehension walked from the house on his way to town. No one denied him liberty and he strode away unmolested.
 Neighbors and curious persons gath cred in the little cottage and did what they could to soften the pitiful grief of the woman kneeling at the side of her dead Grim. gaunt death was in the little home and the grief of the wife and mother could not be assuaged.
 It was not long before Coroner Tice appeared on the scene. From the statements made to him by witnesses. be gathered enough infnEnaatton to see