An Olympia Lawyer Arrested for Abducting Schoolgirl
A lawyer is in police custody following a tense standoff at a downtown lodging house after he removed an 11-year-old girl from her school under false pretenses.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
S. K. Hogan, a lawyer who, up to two years ago lived in Seattle and is now a resident of Olympia, was arrested last night at 12 o'clock by Officer W. T. Laubscher. He is suspected of committing a criminal assault upon 11-year-old May Post, his half-sister's daughter. The girl had been attending the Sisters' school at the corner of Tenth and Jackson streets. Several days ago, Hogan came to town from Olympia and on Monday called at the school. He inquired for the little girl, saying that Mrs. Post, who is a dressmaker at Olympia, had detailed him, her half-brother, to bring the child home. The girl was turned over to him, and instead of taking her home, he rented a room in the Wasco lodging-house on Commercial street. The landlady was suspicious and when Hogan entered the room where the girl was, she knocked. Hogan opened the door a little and the landlady promptly ordered him out. The lawyer was taken in charge by lodgers, and Officer Laubscher locked him up. Hogan denies all charges of improper relations but remarked to Captain Flogle: 'She is well developed, and in the course of two or three years I intend to marry her.' The little girl's story is a very pitiful one, and paints Hogan as guilty of an atrocious crime.
“She is well developed, and in the course of two or three years I intend to marry her.”
While legal and social standards regarding the protection of children have evolved significantly since 1892, the predatory behavior described in this report remains a chillingly familiar pattern of abuse. The mention of the 'Sisters' school' near Tenth and Jackson places this incident in the historic heart of the International District, an area that has undergone massive transformation since the late 19th century.
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