The Rural Jurist

1936     Kids today are wusses. To them, the "trick" part of "trick-or-treat" is an empty threat, mere rhetoric, an unconscious nod to a long-abandoned ritual. Not so for Bonnie Holland, a North Sacramento girl who, on Halloween, 1936, pranked Old Man Sprogis. You know the one: the mean old man who ran that grocery over on Rio Linda Boulevard. The specifics of Bonnie's "trick" are lost to history, but thankfully, we know the details of the grocer's taking the law into his own hands. If they say don't make kids as tough they used to, it's at least twice as true of adults. 

According to an article in the November 10 Sacramento Union, Mr. and Mrs. C. Sprogis found themselves in the American Township courthouse, explaining a minor act of vigilantism to Judge Silas Orr. Apparently, in retribution for Bonnie's prank, the Sprogises "ducked" the six-year-old in a puddle of mud of unspecified depth and dirtiness. Jess Holland, Bonnie's aggrieved mother, testified with a number of unidentified witnesses. In addition, Ms. Holland submitted Exhibit A, her daughter's muddied dress. Judge Orr, the hanging judge* of Del Paso Heights, found the Sprogises guilty of battery and issued a sentence of five days or ten dollars. The couple planned to appeal the decision.

* I wrote this as a joke, before attempting to research anyone involved in this story. But then I found this! Apparently Orr had a bit of a reputation, though I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary on the guy, except that he was tough on speeders.