Editor’s note: As a supplement to “Athens on the River,” we thought readers would enjoy this delicious tidbit from the East Haddam -based Connecticut Valley Advertiser, June, 1857, regarding a hotel guest who left without paying his bill. 

“The scamp who lived so fast and attracted so much attention by his admiration of champagne, horses, and the ladies at the Steamboat Hotel in this town during the fall of 1856, and then left without paying his bill, turned up again at Goodspeed’s Landing, Thursday evening. He assumed the same old strut and swagger that he used to wear at the Upper Landing, and did not pretend to know any of his old acquaintances and supposed they did not recognize him; but his disguise and effrontery did not save him, for he was politely invited into the lawyer’s office and was  there informed that unless he made some satisfactory adjustment of the claim against him he would have an excellent opportunity to rusticate a while at Valentine’s summer retreat. [the local lock-up, we assume] At first, he seemed indignant at such a proposition, but the appearance of Mr. Gladwin with a warrant in his hand seem to alter his deportment somewhat, and he consented to leave his watch chain as security for the debt, promising to return in a few days and redeem it. Other complaints were pending against him, but with the hope that he would never be seen in this town again, he was permitted to leave on the night boat.”