The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-04
AGEDLADY |S'
 PR0STRA1ED. BY DRY RA|D'
Mrs. Lucy Ann Varin Tells
 How Police Entered Home
 Without Knocking And She
 Painted As They Searched HUSBAND DIED RECENTLY; ALWAYS PROHIBITI0NIST Officers Patton And McGill
 Sorry For Mistake-Say
 Man Whom They Do Not Know Gave Them Tip

From the bed to which she has been confined practically every day since the eve of Christmas, Mrs. Ann varin of sos North Forty-first street told Thursday afternoon the story of how a raid on her home for ardent spirits brought on an illness from which she has not been able to re- cover.
 Mrs. Varin, who is 54 years old and the mother of several children, and who has been closely identified with church, the schools and prohibition work for many years. suffered nervous prostration when Officers Patton and McGill came to her home with a John Doe" warrant. Seriously afflicted with a leaking heart and saddened by the death three months ago of her husband, Charles l.. Varin. a well-known paint CT, she collapsed when the agents of the police department served the paper which permitted them to search her premises. A
 "I was alone here," said Mrs. varin, land it was the afternoon of the day before Christmas. The officers came into my house without knocking and said they were going to search the on the table--I have it now, and 1t is served against John Doe
 Painted At Sight.
 They started looking about with out saying anything more, and when they began to go into the private drawer that my husband used to let f no one touch I just couldn't stand it any --Ioagsg and fainted. assa v >7't.57-'' .whene 1feyfved I asksd them to let me get a doctor; they said, you don't need any doctor and one of them pulled me up off the floor. The other one went on with the search of the house. Neighbors came in and helped me to bed. The officers ut terly ignored my condition, made no effort to help me and would not al- low my neighbors to do it for a long time.
 They told people around here later that they believed they'd got into the wrong house. At any rate. they didn't find anything. just couldn't stand the reflection on me and my family. Father and have been the most ardent prohibitionists all our lives; why, he even painted all the signs for the prohibitionist campaign.
 T have been active in work in
 the Cunningham school and in the
 Robinson school, too. We've been
 nere great many years, and all our
 neighbors know this"
 Daughter Indignant.
 Indignant and declaring that she would right the matter at any cost,
 Miss Wilder Varin, pretty auburn haired daughter of Mrs. Varin, told how she had been summoned home
 to the bedside of her mother by
 neighbors.
 Tt is the sort of injustice one
 shouldn't tolerate" she declared. Il
 wanted so badly to go down to MT. Cloe's office and tell him what his officers do in his name"
 officers Explain.
 Seen at their offices Officers Pat tensely sorry for Mrs. Varin, and
 would have done anything in the ! world for her.
 We feel all the sympathy in the | world for Mrs. Varin; we frequently | see women faint like that. and we didn't pay so much attention to her
 until we realized how seriously III chair. and McGill would have got a i doctor, only no one knew who to get.
 We gave her a glass of water. too. we went to the house with a John Doe warrant yes. That Is what the law allows us to do. It's just a
 blanket warrant; we serve them on everybody we suspect. We didn't know anyone particular at the Varin | house to make out the warrant against, and it is the usual practice
 to make it John Doe when you don't.
 An old man came into OUT office
 with the tip; we don't know who he is--wished we did. He said there | was whisky there. so we raided 1t.
 We don't. know anything about him, and we didn't know anything about the Varin people.
 we did what the law allowed us to do, and we did what we thought right: if we had known she was i'll
 we would have acted differently. 'If there was any liquor in the house she didn't know anything about it, we know now. She is one of the finest and most upright wom- en we have dealt with, and 1t grieves us to have caused her any harm"