Request Two Men To Leave Newton And Keep Absent

RYAN, SAYRE

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 7/21/2013 at 08:13:36

The Grinnell (IA) Herald
Feb. 7, 1928

REQUEST TWO MEN
TO LEAVE NEWTON
AND KEEP ABSENT

Classified as undesirable citizens and charged with intoxication at the same time, a man giving his name as John Ryan of Detroit, Mich., and a one-legged pencil salesman from nowhere in particular were told by Mayor R.W. Sayre to "skidoo" out of town.

Ryan said that he had come to Newton looking for work while the pencil salesman claimed that he had been coming to Newton once or twice a year for the last six years. Judging from the bottles found on their persons the city officials came to the conclusion that they had been drinking bay rum, guaranteed to be 60 per cent alcohol according to the labels.

When asked where he had bought his pencils, the one-legged man in a stuttering lingo did his best to inform the Mayor of the exact store but did little better than tell him which side of the square it was located on. Following this information His Honor did a bit of private detective work, found the store and then proceeded to read the "riot act" to the manager for selling so much bay rum to one person.--Newton