The Bottle Band of Jackson Street
Three boys were apprehended after a long string of petty thefts, caught in the act of raiding a saloon cellar for empty glass.
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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.
Edward Lobam, 16, Charles Hinton, 14, and Frank Wilson, 17, were arrested by Patrolman Powers last evening on a charge of petty larceny. For some time the boys have been picking up old junk, tin, and items with a marketable value. They had been taken to police headquarters on suspicion before but were never held. Yesterday afternoon, Officer Powers caught them breaking into the cellar behind the Option saloon in the alley south of Jackson Street. One boy would enter the cellar and pass out wine bottles until the inventory was empty. They were caught at Sigmund Grass's junk shop on the corner of Commercial and Weiler streets while attempting to fence the haul.
“After they had gained entrance one boy went in and passed out one by one all the empty wine bottles in the cellar.”
The intersection of Jackson and Commercial (now 1st Ave S) sits at the heart of the historic core of Pioneer Square. In 1892, as today, the struggle to manage the impact of poverty and youth crime in the city's densest areas remained a recurring civic friction.
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