The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1923-10-02
WIFE NURSES HUSBAND
SHE SHOT THREE TIMES
NANCY PATE, REFOR MER,
MILKS, PICKS COTTON AND
BANDAGES EZZIE'S HEAD.
ENFORCED DEMAND WITH GUN


Abuse Must Stop in Her Mountain
Settlement. Good Effect Already
Seen in Shin Bone Valley.
ADMISSION, Ala.-Shin Bone Val
ley, in the Clay county foothills, is
placid today. Shin Bone dwellers are
milking their cows and picking their
cotton, in dread of new authority
the same being Mrs. Nancy Pate,
who, having proved upon the person
of her husband that she can shoot ac
cording to the best Shin Bone ira
ditions, has decreed as follows. for
the comfort and good heIath of all the
valley:
Moonshining must stop.
There shall be no more rum run
ming.
And above all, wife abuse and wife
neglect is ended.
Mrs. Nancy Pate issued her orders
from her farm house in cove at the
foot of a verdured hill, as she set
down a full milk pail on the porch
and turned to changing the bandages
about the head of Ezzie, her husband.
Bears No Grudge
She bears no grudge against Ezzie,
she said. For hasn't she taken up his
work in the corn patch-that corn
patch that hereafter will be turned al
together to the ends of peaceful mark
eting-and hasn't she undertaken to
milk the cows and tend the garden
truck-all of which is a mans work
in Shin Bone-until he is we'll of the
three bullet wounds in his head?
All this, even though it be true that
the wounds were inflicted by herself.
But that was merely to let Ezzie and
the rest of Shin Bone know who was
going to rule the roost hereafter and
what was what.
AS the story comes to Admission
Mrs. Pate, a magnihcently tall and
angular matron of Shin Bone Valley,
became weary of the process of corn
liquor manufacture in these parts, and
sent certain word to prohibition
agents in Admission. Federal Agent B.
TT. Crumpton and State Agent John
H. Draper drove out in their hivver
and held brief conversation with Mrs.
Nancy. Standing on her front porch
she pointed out to them a path
through the cove to a thicket by a
rustling branch. They went as she di
rected, and found there copper still,
quantity of whisky and several
hundred barrels of beer.
Arrest Husband.
There was little or nothing to show
who the outfit belonged to, and the
officers, returning to the house, SO in
formed Mrs Pate. Very frankly, they
reported afterward, she said that Ez-
zie, her husband, was the operator OF
the outlawed plant, and the agents
found Ezzie in his field and brought
him to Admission under arrest.
That was Monday. The next day
Pate, released under bond, made his
way back to Shin Bone Valley with
blood in his eye His wife turned in
former! Nancy Pate interfering with
the sacred prerogative of those who
dwell in the foothillsl
Nancy, the story goes, greeted him
casually from the front porch. Her
young son-Pate's stepson-stood Just
behind her skirts. Pate loosened up on
them the lurid expression of his
wrath. Silently the lady of the house
turned from him, entered her room,
and returned, less silently. A revolver
she had taken from her dresser draw
err began talking under the gentle per
suasion of her trigger finger
Shoots Husband.
The first bullet struck Pate in the
forehead, plowed its way under the
skin and emerged at the back of the
head. The startled farmer stiffened I'M
der the neck somewhat spelling the
target his head afforded, and his wife'S
second bullet struck him on the left
side of the mouth, passing through
his face and nearly severing his
tongue. Invective ceased perforCe.
Pate whirled with the impact. Re-
morselessly the leveled revolver spoke
again, the bullet striking the other
side of Pate's face, less than half an
inch from where the second had
emerged.
Pate went down and out. The part
ner of his joys and sorrows directed
her young son to fetch a pail of water
from the spring, and was at work
stanching the flow of blood when the
nearest neighbors, attracted by sounds
of the shots, came on the run to see
whether the disturbance was occasion
ed by the revenooers or was merely
the manifestation of domestic discord.
Returns Home.
After some talk over the matter
Sheriff Stewart, of Clay county, was
called. Relatives of Pate insisted upon
it, particularly after the information
of what Mrs Pate had told the pro-
hibition agents. She Was taken to
Lineville, but was released immediate
ly upon her promise to come into
court when she was wanted, if she
were wanted Returning home she
dismissed the neighbors and took
charge of things Before they left,
however, she issued her decree, con-
corning which nothing was said IN
way of contradiction.
Pate, according to physicians, will
get well, but it will be several weeks
before he will be up and about, and
longer still before he will talk. And
as to the substance of that talk, when
it is resumed, the general opinion
about Shin Bone Valley is that it VIII
be of the most tractable nature.