Montrealers celebrated doctor who swallowed his loan agreement

 Montreal housed a miniscule population of 60,000 in 1858 when an ingeniously diabolical and deceptive maneuver made the news far and wide. 

 On the evening of 16 February Dr. Charles Sabourin, Esq. a current resident and former mayor of Longueil, entered an office at 48 St. Gabriel Street in Old Montreal to do business with broker Pierre Luc Malo.

 The two had done business for many years, with Malo lending Sabourin money with interest varying from 20 to 100 percent. 

 Sabourin had come to repay $5,600, a massive amount of money at the time. He informed Malo that he didn't have the entire amount and would pay only a part of it. 

 Malo agreed and placed the official, signed promissory note detailing their arrangement on a small table as he undertook to calculate the updated debt. 

 Sabourin, described as a "stout man," then stealthily strolled to the table. He swiftly grabbed the note and tore it up and then stuffed the pieces frantically into his mouth.  

 Malo was shocked as he watched Sabourin masticate furiously while gorging on the debt contract.

 Malo started screaming, leading Bedwell, a lawyer across the hall, to enter the office. "He has stolen my note. He has eaten my note for five thousand six hundred dollars! He has it in his belly!" Malo yelled.

 Police hauled Sabourin into as Malo screamed at him: "Doctor vomit your innocence or guilt and I will give you some emetic!"

  "I'm not going to make myself sick to please Mr. Malo," replied Sabourin, who denied owing the money.

  Police detained and questioned Sabourin at length until finally allowing him off a large bail deposit. Sabourin's larceny trial was set for 24 March but only started in mid-April.  

  Malo took the stand in the crowded courtroom on 14 April and recounted the situation in detail, describing the document and the four signatures on it.    

  On 15 April farmer Augustin Dubuc testified that Sabourin didn't owe that much money and that if he was seen chewing something, it's because it was his nervous tick when nervous, "as if making an effort to swallow and chew something. I often reproached him for this practice. " 

 Isabelle Hurteau, a notary in Longueil also testified that Sabourin chewed frantically when excited.    

 On Friday 16 April the jury voted to acquit Sabourin. The crowd at the courthouse - who apparently considered Malo a loan shark - was jubilant. The judge ordered them not to cheer in the courtroom and so they did it outside. 

 Sabourin, assuming he was - in fact - guilty, wiped out a massive personal debt simply by eating it. 

 The event was reported in a standard wire article - minus the verdict - in the following papers, and likely many more. Birmingham Daily Post 31 March, Hampshire Advertiser 3 April, The Observer, London, 28 March, Leicester Chronicle 8 May, Sunbury Gazette 6 February, Jackson's Oxford Journal 3 April, Leeds Mercury, 3 April, Daily News London 3 April, Lewiston Pennsylvania Gazette 4 March, Nottinghamshire Guardian 25 Marh, The Weekly Spectator Hamilton Ontario 25 Feb, Morning Chronicle London 23 March, Brooklyn Daily Eagle 24 Feb, Buffalo Commercial 24 Feb, Wesllsboro Gazette Pennsylvania 11 March, The Standard London 30 March, Louisville Daily Courier 1 March, Glasgow Weekly Times 11 March, Southern Shield Arkansas 13 March, Louisville Daily Journal 25 Feb. Morning Post London 29 March, Richmond Anzeiger, Richmond Virginia, Quad City Iowa Times 2 March, Pittsburgh Gazette 26 Feb