The Unlucky Escort of Thomas Street
A local newspaper man’s chivalry leads to an unexpected encounter with highwaymen in the North End.
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. A. Weeden, a newspaper man who lives at the Atkins block on Columbia street, was held up by highwaymen about midnight Saturday on Thomas near Depot street and robbed of $15. The highwaymen overlooked two valuable diamonds. Mr. Weeden took a girl to a social gathering Saturday evening and gallantly escorted her home to her residence on Thomas street in North Seattle. Then, with a light heart, he turned his steps toward the more thickly populated part of the city. He had not gone far when a stranger, with a black mustache that might have been false, accosted him and inquired the way to Depot street. Mr. Weeden was so happy that he forgot all about danger and readily gave the desired information. The stranger seemed to be content to walk along with Mr. Weeden, and conversed very sociably. Suddenly, a man with a black mask appeared before them, and as a gun was shoved into Mr. Weeden's face, he heard the unpleasant words: 'Hands up.' Mr. Weeden put his hands up in the air and then, to his surprise and disgust, his recently acquired acquaintance went through his pockets. He filched the money Mr. Weeden had but forgot about a diamond ring and a diamond pin that was concealed in Mr. Weeden's coat. After the job was finished, the highwaymen told their victim to 'make tracks,' and no sooner had he complied than they disappeared. The police have no clue to the identity of the thieves. Mr. Weeden is now congratulating himself that his watch was the robber's only oversight.
“Suddenly a man with a black mask appeared before them, and as a gun was shoved into Mr. Weeden's face, he heard the unpleasant words: 'Hands up.'”
This 1894 street robbery illustrates the enduring, if shifting, geography of crime in Seattle's neighborhoods. While Thomas Street and the North End (now largely overlapping with the Cascade and South Lake Union areas) were once outskirts where one might 'make tracks' alone, the neighborhood's rapid transition from residential pockets to dense urban development mirrors the city's constant cycle of growth.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.