The following article is from exactly 100 years ago today, published in the Hartford Courant on September 23, 1912.
Reading this article, one understands how academics in the fields of languages and literature might make a career out of reading murder stories in the tabloids. What does it say about 1912 society when a murderous crime is but a lapse from the straight and narrow for the individual, and not a mark on the peaceful nature of our city? What does it say about the language of the Courant that this can all be said in three (very long and full!) sentences?
Alas, I could find no more in the archives about either Mr. Baroni or Mr. Peirson.
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Louis Baroni Charged with Murderous Assault.
Eighteen cases are on the docket for the criminal term of the superior court, which will open in this city tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock before Judge William L. Bennett, and that Middletown citizens have been of a peaceful nature during the past few months is shown by the fact that only one of those who will be put to plea is from this city. This one individual, whose lapse from the straight and narrow path has caused the only blot on Middletown's record since last spring, is Louis Baroni, who is charged with murderous assault on Antone Olsen, a foreman at Pierson's greenhouse in Cromwell. Young Baroni's father, who is supposed to have been the principal in the case, made his escape immediately after the affair, and has not been captured, although a reward of $140 was offered by A.N. Pierson.
3 comments:
And what does it say about the Courant that they deviated from the more appropriate "strait and narrow" and went with the lengthier and less emphatic "Straight and narrow"?
Perhaps The Colonel can weigh in with some kernels of wisdom on the proper spelling and etymology of the phrase.
There is tons of internet info on A.N. Pierson. In additon to being one of the largest Florists in the U.S., He was also on the Board of Directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
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