Upon investigation the officers discovered that the two boys, Sam Belstine and George Littler, purchased at least two and half pint bottles of whiskey as well as some bottles of blackberry wine from Nick Christman’s saloon.\u00a0 They met up with the two girls and headed out to Joplin Creek just off of East Seventh Street.\u00a0\u00a0 There they proceeded to split the liquor between them and have a roaring good time until the officers arrived on the scene.<\/p>\n
The girls were put in the officer’s buggy while the boys were forced to walk back into Joplin in front of the horses.\u00a0 The Globe<\/em> commented, \u201cNurtured in shame and their minds poisoned from infancy by reason of the influences about them\u2026both girls are wild and young.\u201d\u00a0 The two boys, Sam Belstine and George Littler both about fourteen, were described as, \u201cmen of low character.\u201d\u00a0 Littler’s father, Tom, was \u201cwell known to the police.\u201d\u00a0 Belstine, who worked as a newspaper boy, was the son of the owner of the Southern Bar at the corner of Twelfth and Main Streets.<\/p>\n Interestingly, while the authorities vowed to send both girls to the State Industrial School for Girls in Chillicothe, Missouri, they did not express their intent to send the boys to the Missouri Reform School for Boys in Boonville, Missouri.\u00a0 W.A. Root, the bartender who sold the liquor to the boys, was expected to face prosecution for selling liquor to minors.<\/p>\n