Delaware, U.S., Marriage Records, 1750-1954
Past In Review from 12-12-2004
75 years ago; Dec. 12, 1929
Sleepwalker enters store
State highway Police Have Baffling Case
State highway police have one of the most unique cases to decide that has come before that body since it was organized -- the case is one of a man apparently while walking in his sleep breaking into a store. Before making any charges a further investigation is to be made.
Mrs. Clifford Ricketts, of near Dover, awoke at 1 o'clock Friday morning and found her husband missing. She notified the state highway police and at 6:05 o'clock she reported her husband was home in bed.
Officers Bonaficino and Lamb upon investigation learned that Rickets, who is 43 years old, while apparently asleep had broken into the dwelling part of the store of Frank Heller, disrobed, tied the doors shut with handkerchiefs and then lay down.
Five occupants of the Heller home failed to hear Ricketts prowling about. Ricketts later, according to what the police can learn, returned to his home attired only in his underclothes and entering a back window, climbed into his own bed and continued his sleep, while his family was scouring the nearby countryside for him.
In getting into the Heller Home, Ricketts was cut by glass about the face and hands.
The Jews and Palestine
American Jewish leaders had about given up the "Back to Jerusalem" movement and it has resulted in somewhat of a flop. The majority of the few thousand Jews who returned to their homeland soon sickened of the primitive life and methods and disappointed pilgrims came back to America and to their countries, where there were lots of automobiles and good roads and hot and cold water pipes and bathrooms, picture shows and pretty, well-dressed girls and women living wholesome, active lives and helping the men to raise a better and a more progressive race of people to enrich the next generation.
But the Jewish people have not forsaken their Hebrew homeland or their altruistic ideals. A host of their greatest leaders in America have decided to “invest in Palestine on a business basis, with a view of furthering the economic development of Palestine.”
Palestine is to be made so attractive that Jews will go there to live by their own choice, instead of migrating to a faded out land and sacrificing themselves to the traditions of their race and their ancestors.
Courage is not dead
In these days, when a strange and awful something has come over mankind -- when men lack courage and old fashioned conviction, and particularly when newspapers are the tools and mouthpieces of rich men and political organizations as never before, lacking both courage and conviction -- it is indeed refreshing to pick up the Cecil County Star and read the one and only sane and courageous comment we have thus far seen in an Elkton newspaper concerning the outrageous shooting to the death by Sheriff Logan of a young and defenseless youth who fled from him to escape arrest.
We herewith reproduce every word of this splendid Editorial. It is fair; it is courageous. It condemns Sheriff Logan, as it should, and yet it savors of tolerance from beginning to end. Above all it rises above the filth and hypocrisy of partisan politics -- that stench in the nostrils of Almighty God, and which goes forth to defend all the acts of a political party, right or wrong.
In Elkton it is rumored that this live newspaper is owned by J. Ben Decker, president of the Victory Sparkler and Specialty Company. If so, Elkton is to be congratulated. Mr. Decker is a man whose character and personality is reflected in this worthy editorial:
Loyalty and law
As an aftermath to the killing of Harvey Crew by Sheriff G. Clinton Logan several weeks ago, organized societies and individuals have deluged the County and City papers with resolutions of sympathy for, and the tender of continued support to, the Sheriff. With them, we too sympathize with the Sheriff -- he is in a nasty predicament. He has taken a life and must answer in a Court of Law for his actions.
In reference to the various petitions, we have one remark and while we highly compliment these organizations for their loyalty and beautiful exemplification for a Jonathan-David friendship, we feel they have missed entirely the point of criticism held out in this column following the distressing incident and as a caution against the channel, to which these letters indicate they are drifting, we beg to call attention to the words of Frances E. Willard, when she said, "White Ribbon whom distinctly disavow any banding together of women as malcontents or hostile toward the correlated other half of the human race brute force to our mind, means custom as opposed to reason, prejudice as the antagonist to fair play, and precedent as the foe to common sense. "
Once more we want to impress vigorously, that we have no complaint or grievances against Sheriff Logan; we agree with this friends and neighbors as to his virtues and sympathized just as deeply as they in his shadow that has come into his life. Conscientious and loyal yes, honest and upright, unquestionably, no one can point an accusing finger at the character of Sheriff Logan and certainly we would be the last to do such a thing, but -- as a representative of the people of Cecil County and upholding the traditions of the great and glorious Commonwealth of Maryland, we dare not withhold our convictions, that he taking of life under the circumstances as enacted in this episode, was unnecessary, uncalled for and tends to establish a precedent that would rock the very foundation of law and order.
Sympathy is an easy thing to express. As we sat down to our Thanksgiving dinner Thursday, we did not sympathize with those who were not as well off with this Worlds' goods as we? We sympathize with all those unfortunates incarcerated in our jails and penitentiaries, with those soldiers in all lands who have died beneath the banner of patriotism. We sympathize with the poor and afflicted, and may we say emphatically, we sympathize with Sheriff Logan who is living, and we sympathize with the dead Harvey Crew, and his family, who realize that the life of their loved one has been taken because he refused to show an officer of the law his permit for driving an automobile.
Driving without an automobile license is a misdemeanor, if convicted of this offense his punishment is a small fine, but because of this, Harvey Crew paid a penalty equal to death on the gallows. Had he murdered Sheriff Logan the penalty he received, death, would have been the same.
The point which these well-wishers of the Sheriff seem to overlook is, that Harvey Crew is dead for the offense of operating an automobile without a license and in connection, it might be well to observe that years ago, Christ was crucified on the Cross for nothing more or less than teaching at that time an outlawed belief. There were those in the time of Christ who cried for his blood simply because they disagreed with Him. In 1929 there are those who condone the killing of Harvey Crew because he committed a misdemeanor in operating an automobile without a license.
This then, brings us to the distressing reactions to this killing -- first that resulting from the killing and secondly, that resulting from the reaction to it by some people in Cecil County. The first is, that if a man violates a law, no matter how small the degree of his offense, the taking of human life is justifiable. Secondly, that in Cecil County, an old County in a great State, a certain number of people instead of rebelling against the snuffing out of a life for the misdemeanor argue to justify it. Centuries ago people argued to justify the killing of Christians in Roman areas, when the lions were turned loose upon them. Centuries ago, they strung men on the rack and applied the thumb screws in the name of God and righteousness. Centuries ago in England, they hung men on the gibbet for picking pockets, and in Cecil County not one hundred years ago, but in Nineteen Hundred and Twenty Nine some people stand ready to condone barbarism and in effect, advocate the taking of life for the offense of driving an automobile without a license.
What are churches for -- to cause men to love his neighbor as himself -- to teach mankind that he is his brother's keeper -- to profit by the crucifixion of Christ on the Cross – to love his neighbor as himself? If so, then those good people who now place in effect the stamp of approval on the killing of Harvey Crew, seem to have attended those churches for the purpose of singing hymns and saying "Amen" inside, and ignoring all these teachings outside. Let these good people when they fall on their knees tonight, ask the Savior of what he would have done in such a case, and if, in the name of God and Christianity, the answer from the space beyond comes back saying in effect, "Yes, I would have shot him too" then it would be a good idea if the Vandal’s torch would be applied to the scared edifice.
If on second thought they conclude that Christ, could he answer that question would say, "Remember I have said, "Thou Shalt not Kill,” then there is still some hope that Cecil County may be adjudged by civilized people as not being a part of the African Jungle or the offshoot of Nero of burning Rome.
