The Great Strawberry Goat Caper
A backyard dispute over a fence-breaking goat results in a police court standoff.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mrs. Lena Barbick, who lives on East E street near the corner of Forty-eighth, swore out a warrant yesterday for the arrest of Charles Zeizler, who lives on the adjoining premises, charging him with having purloined a billy goat that belonged to the complainant. When the case was called in the police court it developed that Mr. Goat had formed an undue attachment for the strawberry plants that Zeizler had planted in his yard. The goat butted a hole in the fence and was enjoying the repast when Zeizler arrived on the scene. After a struggle, Zeizler succeeded in getting the goat into his woodshed, where he locked him up, and positively refused to turn him out. Zeizler is holding the goat for ransom in the sum of $15, which he claims is due him on account of the destruction of his property by the animal. Judge Griffin instructed Zeizler to return the goat, and ordered Mrs. Barbick to keep the animal tied up in the future, and dismissed the case.
“Zeizler is holding the goat for ransom in the sum of $15, which he claims is due him on account of the destruction of his property.”
Local neighborhood disputes involving pets and property damage remain a constant of city life, though the resolution of a $15 ransom for a goat is decidedly a 1904 phenomenon.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.