The Scandalous Streets of 1892 Seattle

Mrs. R. E. Lee, alias Mrs. G. O. Green, who claims that on December 9 last she gave birth to an illegitimate child, caused a sensation on Front street yesterday morning by following Frank L. Leslie, the mining man, and crying out at intervals: 'Wait, Frank, I want to speak to you!' She carried in her arms a month-old child, and she told those who questioned her: 'This is that man's baby, and he has to help me support it.' Mr. Leslie, who had been surprised by the woman on the street, did not pay the slightest attention to her, but increasing his speed to a fast walk the woman lost track of him on West street among some Great Northern boxcars. Mrs. Lee is the woman who put an advertisement in the city newspapers for a baby, 'a child of misfortune or otherwise, wanted on day of birth.' December 9 a new-born babe was found in her apartments, and she has ever since publicly alleged that the child is hers and that Frank Leslie is its father. Leslie and his friends have as firmly contended that the woman is a blackmailer of the deepest dye. Mr. Leslie was seen in his lodgings in the Holyoke block by a Post-Intelligencer reporter last evening, and he said: 'I'm very sorry to have this infernal case brought before the public again. This affair was first brought up last spring... I allowed her to blackmail me. She began a suit in court charging me with breach of promise, and I gave her $300 to drop the case. She took the money, but has not lived up to her agreement. I am able to prove to the satisfaction of any court of justice that the child which Mrs. Lee claims belongs to me was never given birth to by her. She cannot blackmail me out of another dollar.'