Pistol Discharged (1876)
For several years out town has been subject to a great nuisance, in the way of men and boys getting drunk and shooting pistols after night. On Saturday night last about two o’clock some party discharged a pistol in front of J. T. CATE’s livery stable, the ball lodging in the railing of a bed in Mrs. WOOD’s house just across the street. Mr. John WHITMAN was in the bed at the time, and had the shot went a foot higher WHITMAN would have been killed. This thing has gone on about long enough, and it is time the authorities were putting a stop to it in some way. Let the Mayor offer a reward of twenty five dollars, and bind them over to the peace; then the thing will stop.
Source: Weekly Herald (Cleveland, TN); 28 July 1876. Available online at Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.