FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS...

from page 47 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

He could see in his mind his mother with one arm shielding her eyes from the glare of noonday sun- bending rhythmically from the waist and laying her weight into steady pulls of the bell rope. She'd be singing, he knew, and he could make out like he could hear it now.

"Oh, it rained and it poured

And 'twas cold, stormy weather,

In came the landlord,

And drank up all the cider."

from the July 27, 1952 DOTHAN EAGLE:

MOSQUITOES BOTHER MALONE, INTERFERE WITH HIS SLEEP

by Wallace Malone

"It rained and it poured,

'Twas dark, stormy weather!

Along came the landlord

And drank up all the cider" ~ An Old English Ballad

"I used to go fishing with T.W. Palmer, and when it rained, he would hum the above verse."

Wallace Malone may have used T.W. Palmer's verse to open his Dothan Eagle article because T.W. had died earlier in the month that Malone's article was published. Just like Wallace Malone, I believe that Dougie Bailey had heard "An Old English Ballad" about a landlord drinking all the cider on a stormy night from T.W. Palmer or from a member of T.W.'s family and included the verse in his  novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD as a tribute to T.W. Palmer's son, William F. Palmer, who shot himself to death at age 41 inside his parents' 401 North Foster Street home in 1946. At the time, Dougie was living in Dothan and was writing DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. I believe Dougie was spending a lot of time at the Eagle reading old newspapers for research on his novel. That's where Palmer was working at the time of his death. Nat Faulk, Eagle managing editor and friend of Dougie, was a pall bearer at Palmer's funeral.  Dougie grew up one block away from the Palmer house at his mother's house at 500 North Foster. William Palmer was 8 years older than Dougie and had a degree in English from the University of Alabama and had taught English at various schools before ending up back home with his parents and working at the Dothan Eagle as a proofreader @ age 41.

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