Defining Theft
In order to define theft as it is described in the 40 stories from the Montgomery County Sentinel being examined, the legal codes for both Larceny and Embezzlement will be utilized. These definitions from legal code are found in the Maryland Code. Public General Laws by John Prentiss Poe in 1904
Larceny:
262. If any person shall feloniously steal, take and carry away personal goods of another under the value of five dollars, or if any person shall break into any shop, store-house, tobacco house or warehouse, although the same be not contiguous to or used with any mansion house, and steal any money, goods or chattels under the value of one dollar, the same order and course of trial shall be had and observed as for other simple larcenies, and being thereof convicted he shall be deemed guilty of petty larceny and shall restore the goods and chattels so stolen or pay the full value thereof to the owner thereof, and be further sentenced to the penitentiary or to the jail of the county in which the offense may have been committed, or of the city of Baltimore if the offense be committed in said city, in the discretion of the court, for not more than eighteen months. Isaacs v. State, 23 Md. 410. State v. McNally, 55 Md. 560. Worthington v. State, 58 Md. 403. Danner v. State, 89 Md. 224.
263. Robbery or larceny of any obligation or bond, bill obligatory or bill of exchange, bank note or notes, promissory notes for the payment of money, check or order drawn on any bank of this State, or any other State, paper bill of credit, certificate granted by or under the authority of this State, or of the United States, or any of them, or any last will and testament or codicil, shall be punished in the same manner as robbery or larceny of goods and chattels. State. v. Cassell, 2 H. & G. 207. Kearney v. State, 48 Md. 27. Stewart v. State, 62 Md. 412.
Embezzlement:
100. Every person convicted of wilfully or corruptly embezzling, stealing, withdrawing, impairing, razing or altering any will, testament, codicil, patent, deed, or assignment of a patent, writ, return, record, or parcel of the same, within this State, whereby the estate or right of any person shall or may be defeated, injured or any way altered, shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than three nor more than seven years. Isaacs v. State, 23 Md. 410.
Poe John Prentiss. Maryland Code. Public General Laws. Baltimore, King Bros.