The Forgotten Child of the Alleys
A young boy, orphaned and left to survive in the dry-goods boxes of downtown Seattle, is rescued by local police.
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.
Officer John Orbett fished out of a dry goods box last night about midnight in the alley which runs from Cherry to James street between Front and Second, a small boy with a long coat, a worn out pair of shoes and a pair of trousers which would have brought nothing at a second-hand clothing store. At police headquarters he said his name was Otto C. Willis and that he came from Mount Vernon. His parents were both dead and he was taking care of himself. He had been to Slaughter hop picking, but did not make a success, so he came back to Seattle. For two nights he has slept in dry goods boxes.
“For two nights he has slept in dry goods boxes.”
Child homelessness was a persistent crisis during the depression years of the early 1890s in Seattle, much as it remains a point of civic shame in the city today. The transition from the rural desperation of hop picking to the concrete survival of city alleys reflects the harsh realities of the migration patterns that have long defined the Pacific Northwest.
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