Arthur Shuman Not Guilty of Stealing Oats Spilled When Car Unloaded, September 1920

Mr. Hal B. Adams proved a friend indeen to Arthur Shuman, a 17-year-old boy, in the Recorder's court yesterday morning. Young Shuman was charged with stealing oats. When asked how he plead, he said "guilty." Mr. Adams, who was a spectator in the court, sensed that the boy was making a mistake in pleading guilty, and began questioning him. Fronm the story he told, Mr. Adams became convinced that the boy was not morally guilty of the offense he was accused, so he undertook his defense without charge. As a result of his efforts, Shuman was discharged. It developed that the boy had gathered about 1 1/2 bushels of loose oats from a car that had been unloaded. He intended feeding the oats to his chickens, he said. Depot laborers, it was pointed out, had been in the habit of gathering "leavings" of this sort. But, so court spectators said, Shuman would have been convicted on his own admission of guilt had it not been for the timely aid rendered him by Mr. Adams. (From the front page of the Monroe Journal, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1920)