The Judge Bans Messenger Boys from Seattle's Vice District
Declaring an end to the era of 'errand boys' carrying notes and parcels into houses of ill-repute, a local judge mandates a crackdown on child labor in the red-light district.
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.
The order issued by Judge Cann to bar all messenger boys and youths under 18 years of age from entering houses of ill-repute, published exclusively in the Star, has caused no end of comment in police and court circles. Today, the chief of police will be instructed to keep all messenger boys out of houses of prostitution. It has been a practice lately for those in such houses to call a messenger to carry notes, deliver packages, and run general errands. The law states that no boy under the age of 18 years will be allowed to enter a house of prostitution either as a messenger or servant. Judge Cann says: 'The order issued from my court yesterday to keep all messenger boys out of saloons, including houses of ill-repute and all dens of vice, is one that must be obeyed. Daily, messengers are called to these places to run to my court and deliver letters. I shall notify the chief of police today to stop this business, and from now on, no messenger boy or any boy under the age of 18 years will be permitted to enter a house of prostitution.' The law in regard to minors entering these places has never been enforced in Seattle, and Judge Cann intends that his order shall be obeyed and all violators will be heavily fined.
“The order issued from my court yesterday to keep all messenger boys out of saloons, including houses of ill-repute and all dens of vice, is one that must be obeyed.”
This 1899 order captures the tension between Seattle's rapid urban growth and its moral policing. Much like today’s civic debates over 'safe' zones or regulating the gig economy's access to vulnerable spaces, the city was then wrestling with how to define the boundaries of childhood and labor in a district that officialdom wanted to keep both profitable and invisible.
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