Bullets Through the Parlor: A Waterfront Shooting Spree Terrifies a Seattle Family

There are a number of the senior members of the rowdy fraternity in this city who have been in the habit of assembling somewhere in the vicinity of the further end of Stone & Burnett's wharf at unseasonable hours, and discharging rifles and revolvers, entirely reckless as to the direction in which the bullets went, and regardless as to the consequences. They are only careful not to be detected in their dangerous sport, and they have been exceedingly adroit in so far evading detection. We have occasionally heard late in the evening not very distant reports of firearms, and the police have frequently been cognizant of this, and on several occasions have spent a considerable time in searching for their source, only to abandon the search in disappointment.

Yesterday some facts came to our notice which may furnish a clue that will lead to the detection and punishment of some of the villainous rowdies. The house of Mrs. P. Andrews, situated on the south corner of Jackson Street at its junction with the bay, it seems, has become a target for some of their stray bullets. Day before yesterday Mrs. Andrews discovered that a small rifle ball, or one from a revolver, had passed through the window-sash in the front of the house and into the parlor. It must have passed through in the night, as the time of its striking is not known. A short time previous to this a rifle ball struck the door casing on the western end of the house and lodged somewhere in the partition between the outside boarding and the wall of the parlor. A little while before this a large ball struck on the window frame in front of the house and glanced off. These bullets, judging from the marks, must have all come from one direction, and that is from the vicinity of Stone & Burnett's wharf. The parties may have been secreted on the end of the wharf, or in a boat under the wharf, or else in a boat a short distance out in the bay.

Our authorities should see that there is an immediate stop put to this dangerous practice, and the parties implicated in it should be punished to the full extent of the law. Besides it being exceedingly unpleasant for a family to be constantly suffering from that feeling of insecurity which must naturally result from a knowledge of the fact that their dwelling is made a target for rifle bullets, it places them in constant danger. When any more reports of firearms are heard it would be well for our police to search that locality thoroughly.