"Oh, You're Not Bootleggers!""And You're Not Chicago Bandits!"

On the evening of January 27, 1919, a cozy little auto party drove out of Hobart. Emil Scharbach, his wife, Emma, and his father, William, were accompanied by their friend, Hobart attorney Roscoe Peddicord. They headed west: Emil and Roscoe to attend a meeting and banquet at the Hammond Country Club — just over the Illinois state line — William and Emma to visit the family of Frank Scharbach (another of William's sons), who now lived in Hammond.

When all the banqueting and visiting were done, it was well after 10 p.m., and the Scharbach-Peddicord party headed back toward Hobart, probably along the Ridge road. As they neared the town of Highland, a large, fast car passed them in the darkness. When they came to Highland's main intersection, they found the same large car stopped crossways in the road, blocking their passage, and several men signaling them to stop. Emil, at the wheel, obeyed the signal, although his heart beat fast, for his first thought was that they were being held up by Chicago bandits.

The men approached the car, and fear gave way to surprise and relief as the Hobart party recognized their old friend, Sheriff Lewis Barnes, with several deputies.

Sheriff Barnes was equally surprised: he had thought he was catching bootleggers! On the lookout for a red car from South Bend, supposedly carrying booze in from Illinois, the sheriff had seen this closed car making a suspicious night journey east from the state line — in the darkness he could not recognize the Scharbach car or its occupants — and so he gave chase.

The intended arrest dissolved into a happy reunion. The Hobart party carried no liquor — so the Gazette said; Sheriff Barnes did not insult his old friends by searching their car. After greetings and explanations and laughter, the Hobart party headed for home again, and the sheriff and his men went back to patrolling for the South Bend bootleggers in the red car.

"Sheriff Barnes is to be congratulated for his vigilance," concluded the Gazette. The News added that despite the efforts of law enforcement, "booze is brought into the state in large quantities. South Bend parties, it is said, are large offenders who have been making trips through Lake county."

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For a few weeks there had been talk around Hobart of a "mysterious woman in black" lurking about the town's side streets, glimpsed by various people at various hours of the night. Similar reports came from other towns, such as Whiting. Children lived in fear that the woman in black would come in the night and get them. No one knew the identity of this person or what business brought her out in the streets, if, indeed, she was not the figment of overactive imaginations, but the News added that the latest theory was "that 'he' or 'she' or 'it' is a walking 'blind pig' dispensing vile booze to the thirsty."


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Hobart Citizens Held Up at Highland Monday Night." Hobart News 30 Jan. 1919.
♦ Lake County Encyclopedia.
♦ "Sheriff Does Effective Policing." Hobart Gazette 31 Jan. 1919.
♦ "The 'Mysterious Woman in Black' Visits Hobart." Hobart News 6 Feb. 1919.