Before Time Inc. was kind to the sand people

What Time Magazine had to say in '32:

Striking Contrasts between the realms of leaning King Feisal and fighting King Ibn Saud:

1) Bagdad, capital of the Kingdom of Irak, is a thriving beehive of 250.000 busy, haggling souls. Mecca, one of the two capitals of the Land of Saud, is a Moslem "show place" of only 60.000 which receives and scandalously mulcts each year some 70,000 pious pilgrims.

--from Time Magazine in the '30's.


And so the word of the day is

mulct

Pronunciation: (mulkt),
—v.t.
1. to deprive (someone) of something, as by fraud, extortion, etc.; swindle.
2. to obtain (money or the like) by fraud, extortion, etc.
3. to punish (a person) by fine, esp. for a misdemeanor.

—n.
a fine, esp. for a misdemeanor.
from http://opera.infoplease.com/ipd/A0546066.html

which word crops up often in Mencken. No surprise.