Locked His Man in Ice Box to Force Payment of Bill

1911

LOCKED HIS MAN IN ICE BOX

Unusual Way of Collecting Bill. But It Didn't Work.

Washington, June.—Frank L. Averill, president of the Arcade Market company, decided a day or two ago to use moral suasion on Samuel Boxwell, a stand keeper in the market in the collection of rent for cold storage which Boxwell owes and when Boxwell entered one of the cold storage rooms to get some meat Averill locked the door on him and informed him through a speaking tube that he could come out when he settled. Boxwell refused to come to terms.

Averill kept him in the cold storage room for thirty minutes and then let him out, and Boxwell was nearly frozen. He swore out a warrant for Averill and the latter was fined $25 in the police court for assault. Judge Pugh in assessing the fine remarked that imprisonment for debt had been abolished in the District of Columbia a century ago.

—Indiana Evening Gazette, Indiana, Pennsylvania, June 5, 1911, page 3.