Man on bender seeks to go straight

Sept. 24, 1905: Thomas Ryan of Memphis, Tenn., “couldn’t stand the dizzy pace set by the Rialto-ites of Los Angeles, with whom he had been hobnobbing for several days, and ... he walked into the police station and asked to be locked up,” The Times reported.

According to the newspaper, Ryan told the desk sergeant: “I have been on one most awful spree, and I’m afraid of myself. Just lock me up please on a charge of drunkenness and keep me in jail for three days.”

Ryan, The Times said, “was accommodated.”

“The man is said to be a well-to-do merchant of Memphis, but he followed the primrose path too far in Los Angeles,” the newspaper said, adding: “He is a member of several secret orders.”