Suspended Sentence for Liquor Sales
A local woman avoids prison for selling alcohol to Indians on the condition of future 'right behavior.'
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.
Alice McKay was arrested by the United States marshal and arraigned under three indictments from the grand jury for selling liquor to Indians. She pleaded guilty, and Judge Greene announced to the prisoner that he would suspend sentence during her right behavior, but at the first wrong doing she should receive the penalty of her convictions. He advised her to have nothing more to do with liquor; not to keep it in her house, or give it to or receive it from any one.
“Judge Greene announced to the prisoner that he would suspend sentence during her right behavior, but at the first wrong doing she should receive the penalty of her convictions.”
This incident highlights the pervasive legal policing of social behavior in the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest, where 'right behavior' was a vague standard for judicial clemency, particularly in matters of temperance and racialized legal restrictions.
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