Mrs. Smith's house of bad repute

One of the sorrows of a researcher's life is the fact that so many issues of Chariton's early newspapers are missing, including those for the opening months of 1878.

So I turned to the Weekly Pella Blade of Feb. 19, 1878, for the following report concerning Mrs. Smith, her house of bad repute and the penitent patrons who paid her fine. Sadly, no more information is available.

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And now Chariton has a sensation. A Mrs. Smith was fined for keeping a house of bad repute, and finding that her effects were about to be taken for the purpose of securing the fine assessed, said that there were a number of men who had visited her house, and a still few owed her money and she further said that if they did not "come to Limerick" she would "blow" on them, which she finally proceeded to do, and sixteen of them marched up to the Captain's office and "fessed up," and paid $8 each. They gave fictitious names, in order to avoid notoriety. We learn from the Patriot.