100 YEARS AGO Bad luck? Bad checks.

E. E. Hilton, traveling salesman for the Canadian Pulpwood Company, blamed “bad luck” for his recent troubles, and not the alleged passing of multiple bad checks in various cities in New York and perhaps beyond. He was arrested at the New Cumberland Hotel in Plattsburgh and charged with grand larceny for passing a bad check to a Plattsburgh businessman. When Hilton returned to the hotel from police headquarters, he was greeted by two detectives from Albany who arrested him on similar charges and brought him back here to be arraigned. Edward P. Way was the complainant in Albany and in police court, an attorney representing him asked that the charges be dropped because payment was to be made from Hilton to Way. Judge John J. Brady refused to do so, saying police claimed there were several other worthless checks bearing Hilton’s name floating around town, and he remanded him to jail.

—Times Union, July 10, 1921