Late-Night Stickup on South 25th Street
A Tacoma worker walking home in the pouring rain is held at gunpoint by two highwaymen.
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.
Frank Wolse, living at 601 South Thirty-fifth Street, reported to the police that he was held up by two highwaymen at South Twenty-fifth and E streets about 6 o'clock last night. He states that he was on his way home from work, through driving rain, when just as he reached that point two men emerged from the shadows and at the point of a pistol commanded him to throw up his hands. They secured $4 in cash and a silver watch, and Wolse was told to move on and not look back.
“Wolse was told to move on and not look back.”
Street robberies in Tacoma's residential districts remain a recurring civic concern, though the specific intersection of South 25th and E—now a mix of residential and industrial light usage—looks very different than it did in 1904. The incident reflects the enduring vulnerability of workers commuting during off-hours, a constant feature of urban life in the Pacific Northwest for over a century.
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