Neighborhood Alert After Assault on Teen
A railroad worker was apprehended by police following an alleged assault on a girl in a shed near Jefferson Avenue.
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.
Last evening W. A. Russell, a railroad man, was arrested by Patrolman Connor for criminal assault on a little girl. It is alleged that the child was induced by Russell to go into a shed in the rear of a grocery store near the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Seventeenth Street, where the assault was committed. The girl became frightened and screamed. Her cries attracted the notice of people in the neighborhood and when a search was made she was found under the sidewalk. The girl, who is about 14 years old, was brought before Judge Griffin this morning and told her story. The case is now in the hands of the prosecuting attorney.
“Her cries attracted the notice of people in the neighborhood and when a search was made she was found under the sidewalk.”
While legal protections for minors have expanded significantly since 1904, the neighborhood vigilance described here—neighbors responding to a child's cries—remains a fundamental, if sometimes fraught, aspect of community safety in Tacoma today.
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