by Laurel | April 12th, 2013
12 April 1912
Seek Missing Barber — Hormisdas Fournier Believe hat His Assistant Robbed him — there is sadness in the barber shop pf Hormisdas Fournier of Cabot Street, as Mr. Fournier is minus about $22 in money and also lost considerable faith in human nature. He hired Benjamin Williams of Pittsfield to assist him three days ago and went 9ut of his way to give Williams a good start by giving him $1 to have some shoes repaired, 50 cents for the moving pictures, $1 to buy a razor strop and 80 cents for miscellaneous purposes, and also recommended him as a boarder to a friend of his, and his meals were charged to Fournier.
Williams was a good barber as far as the work of the shop went, but was evidently a bad barber otherwise. yesterday morning Fournier had to go across the street to make some purchases and was gone but a few minutes. When he returned there was no assistant, the door was open and although the cash register flaunted the sign “No sale” in the proprietor’s face and told the truth about it, too, yet all the cash had been carefully abstracted, aside from 65 cents in change. Mr. Fournier naturally wants to locate Mr. Williams and ask him why the 65 cents was left, and also to question him about other matters. He notified the police, giving a description of the man and it is hoped that he may be brought back to Holyoke, where he will be given a chance to meet old friends. Whether the man’s real name is Williams or not is not known or whether he took the name as naturally fitting into the barber shop business.
Quarrel Over Driftwood — Adelard and Telesphore Venne Fined for Claiming a Prize Too Strenuously — The spring freshets in the river have precipitated many struggles on the part of those who live on its banks in the securing of their share of the driftwood and sometimes in the attempt to secure more than their share. There was a naval battle across the river a few years ago over the ownership of driftwood in which one of the disputants was knocked out of a boat into the current and saved with difficulty. Yesterday the police court heard another tale of a struggle to secure driftwood and for struggling too strenuously Adelard and Telesphore Venne were fined $5 each. It appears that a float used for a boat landing came floating down the ricer Sunday afternoon and the Venne brothers secured it ad tied it to a tree, intending to take it apart for wood in the morning.
They claimed in telling their story that they had received permission from Felix LeBrunn of Ingleside to fasten it to the tree on his property. When they came Tuesday to break up the float LeBrunn refused to let them have it and a fight ensued in which Adelard and LeBrunn fell into the water. There was considerable conversation regarding matters at this point, but eventually the brothers left without the float and LeBrunn swore out warrants for their arrest. The court thought that undue violence had been used and the fines followed. The float in question may have drifted down from “The Pines” up the river, as it is understood that the float there was carried away.
Adapted from The Springfield Republican.
