Not-so-good old days

This week’s selections, from 80 years back, are not as dramatic perhaps as the last few weeks, nor as prophetic of events that were, then, unforeseen. They do, however, demonstrate that even in 1931, the depth of the “Great Depression,” Mainers were still prone to stretch the law from time to time and the police and wardens didn’t turn a blind eye to all offenses.

The March 27, 1931, issue of the Norway Advertiser reported:

Deer Killed in Closed Time

Three Offenders Fined by Judge Dow of the Municipal Court

Three respondents charged with killing deer out of season were brought before Judge Robt. B. Dow, convicted and paid fines and costs as follows:

Alton Payne of Albany was convicted Friday, of killing a deer on March 14, 1931. A fine of $100 with costs, $18.25 was imposed. Case was continued 30 days for sentence. The complainant, Game Warden Wm. R. French, was aided by Warden James Walker in this investigation. Stanley Milliken of Lovell was convicted, Saturday, of killing a deer in Lovell on March 12, 1931. He paid a fine of $100 and costs of $51.75. Warden French was the complainant, his aids were Deputies John Meserve and Charles Davis.

Howard Smith of Lovell was the respondent, Monday, who was convicted of killing a deer in Lovell on March 12. A fine of $25 and costs of $24.75 was paid. The same officers as in the preceding case worked up the evidence in the investigation.

County Attorney E. Walker Abbott assisted the deputies in the Lovell deer killing investigations and his interest and personal activities were greatly appreciated by the warden.

In the Lovell cases the wisdom of protecting deer with strict laws for a closed time was brought home to every good sportsman. The two carcasses found after a long search were does, each were waiting a few weeks of producing young, one would have dropped a pair of fawns, according to the investigator.

An attempt to pass “rubber” checks was noted in the same issue.

Passing Bad Checks

Pleaded Guilty to Bad Check Charge

Sheriff W. O. Frothingham and Deputy Sheriff Cummings of Bethel arrived in South Paris, Wednesday, with two men alleged to be the pair wanted for passing bad checks. They were arrested at St. Johnsbury, Vt., after passing through Oxford County into New Hampshire.

The sheriff started for St. Johnsbury, Vt., to get a man said to have been driving a machine he bought of Peter Gray of Lewiston, and which was equipped with Gray’s dealer plates 702-B. Instead he found the man walking the highway toward Lancaster. It is claimed he had swapped the car for a Star touring car at Meredith, N. H. The prisoner, who used the name of Harold Stevens of Canton, admitted his name is Leonard Cole.

At St. Johnsbury, Sheriff Frothingham took into custody James Santhy of Rumford. Santhy is said to have tried to pass one of the Bethel bank checks at the Army and Navy Store, only to be arrested by police when the proprietor became suspicious.

Both men were arraigned in the Norway Municipal Court before Judge R. B. Dow, Thursday morning and pleaded guilty to the charge of uttering forged blank checks. They were bound over for the Superior Court in May, each in the sum of $1,000.

And so, as a newsreel narrator of the day said at the end of each film, “Time Marches On.”

As is our custom, we try to exactly reproduce the grammar, spelling, punctuation and style of the original. Commas might appear where least expected and remain absent where we’d expect them if the item was written nowadays. On the other hand, consistency was not considered of utmost importance, so variations of a spelling might appear within one story. In addition, some words were abbreviated differently than today.

Where brief explanations of terms are considered necessary, they are presented in brackets [] within the quote. Otherwise, explanations appear at the beginning or at the conclusion, without quotes. Parenthesis () used in a quoted passage appeared in the original.