A Steep Price for Three Dollars' Worth of Wood
A father and his fifteen-year-old son were sentenced to pay a staggering fine—$46 total—after being caught pilfering scrap lumber from the city wharf.
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.
A man named Foster and his son, a boy of 15, living on the beach near the old coal wharf, were arrested last evening charged with stealing a quantity of hardwood lumber, belonging to Mr. Smith, of White River, from a scow lying at Yesler’s wharf. A small quantity of the lumber was found in their possession. On being taken before Justice Scott, they pleaded guilty and were fined respectively $25 and $10, which, with the costs, amounted to $46, a pretty big price for $3 worth of lumber. The fine was promptly paid and they were discharged.
“A pretty big price for $3 worth of lumber.”
In 1878, a $46 penalty for $3 worth of lumber served as a harsh deterrent for petty theft on the Seattle waterfront. Today, the judicial system's reliance on 'legal financial obligations' (LFOs) continues to place a disproportionate burden on low-income residents, proving that the struggle to navigate the cost of justice remains a persistent thread in city life.
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