A Rough Night in the Tenderloin
A Skagit man's night out in Seattle ends in a police cell after he attempts to force a young girl to accompany him.
Patrick Henry came to town from the Skagit last Saturday with nearly $40 on his person and a pistol in his hip pocket. He got below the 'dead line' in the tenderloin district, got drunk, went up town, and at Union and Front streets called a little girl out from behind a fruit stand to take a walk with him. She ran across to Officer Crawford and told him that a man had threatened to take out a 'pistol gun' and compel her to take a walk with him. Crawford invited Henry to take a walk with him instead to the police station, where Henry deposited $30 bail for his appearance in the municipal court on Monday. He appeared in a semi-intoxicated condition and stated that he had several hundred dollars with him. The court continued the case until yesterday, but when it was called, Henry did not put in an appearance. A friend of his, however, endeavored to get the case again continued on the ground that Henry was too drunk to appear. The judge refused and forfeited the bail.
“Crawford invited Henry to take a walk with him instead to the police station.”
This story highlights the historical 'dead line'—a boundary in early Seattle that separated the respectable business district from the vice-ridden tenderloin. Today, the intersection of Union and First (formerly Front) is the heart of a bustling, gentrified downtown, far removed from the era when such public harassment was a routine police matter.
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