The Midnight Intruder at the Dye Works
A nervous employee at a Seattle dye works reports a terrifying late-night encounter with a prowler, leading to an arrest of a man found nearby.
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.
Edward Clayton was arrested last night by Lieutenant Osborn and Jailer Steppler on complaint of Marcus Weinberger, an employee of Guilliford's Dye Works on Third Street, between Jefferson and James streets, who suspects him of burglarizing the shop. According to Weinberger's story, he returned to the shop where he sleeps about 11 o'clock, and as he put the key in the lock he heard something inside. He sat down on the bed and listened, but hearing nothing further for a few moments, was about to take off his boots when he again heard a sound. He was about to strike a match when, as he says, someone made a leap at his throat. He was alarmed and, leaving the dye house, he ran to his employer's house with a tale of blood and thunder. The employer returned downtown with him, and they found Clayton in a nearby saloon. From the fact that Clayton had at one time worked in the dye house, they accused him of being the burglar. He denied the accusation, but was held until the officers arrived. At the station, he gave his occupation as a solicitor for Woodward's Musical Monthly. He begged hard to be released, but the officers, who suspect him of being a crook, would not allow it.
“He was about to strike a match, when, as he says, some one made a leap at his throat.”
This account captures the heightened suspicion of the 1890s, where an unfamiliar face near a business could lead to immediate police involvement. Today, the area around Third and James is still a hub of city activity, though the 'dye works' and itinerant solicitors have been replaced by the densification of Seattle's downtown core.
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