The Sluggers of Pacific Avenue
A saloon’s security force takes street justice into their own hands after a customer tries to cheat a slot machine with lead slugs.
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.
An attempt to work one of Baldie's slot machines at noon today was frustrated by Baldie's sluggers. It is reported that a man entered a lower Pacific avenue saloon during the noon hour and commenced to play one of the machines by dropping lead slugs into the slot. As soon as the Baldie forces were aware of the trick trouble began. Four of Baldie's men chased the player down Pacific avenue and up Fifteenth street till they caught him back of a horse-shoeing shop at 1500 Commerce street and gave him a thumping.
“Four of Baldie's men chased the player down Pacific avenue and up Fifteenth street till they caught him back of a horse-shoeing shop.”
This violent enforcement of 'house rules' reflects a time when private security on Pacific Avenue functioned as the de facto police for the vice district. It's a reminder of the raw, unregulated nature of early 20th-century urban commerce, where grievances were settled with fists behind blacksmith shops rather than in courts.
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