Bloomington (IN) Telephone
August 11, 1908
page 1

NOTE: The item below was abbreviated from the original as shown by the ellipsis.

An intoxicated sheriff down at Bedford, armed with two revolvers, a face bruised and bloody as a result of a fight with Thomas Reath, with three policemen armed with a warrant for the sheriff's arrest and afraid to serve it, though urged on by the police and presence of both the mayor and the prosecutor, was the disgraceful spectacle presented to the people of Bedford on the public square Friday evening, says the Bedford Democrat. The result of it will be impeachment proceedings against Sheriff Box.

The first cause of the excitement seems to have been trouble of some kind between Sheriff Box and Thomas Reath that resulted in a fight at Mike O'Connell's saloon. As the Democrat gets the story, Sheriff Box, who had been drinking, got into a quarrel with Reath without cause, so Reath says, except that he imagined that Reath was not friendly to him. He followed Reath into O'Connell's saloon where he took hold of him and used the epithet of which we have recently heard a good deal. Reath struck him, knocking him down.

Typed and donated by Randi Richardson.