The Slugger Monopoly of Pacific Avenue
A local slot machine monopolist deploys hired thugs to enforce his trade, leading to a public street fight and a day in court.
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.
F. H. Baldie, a slot machine monopolist, is in the limelight once more. Accompanied by three of his hired protectors, Baldie took it upon himself to chastise Edward Stickney, who allegedly broke the monopoly by playing lead slugs in one of the machines. Stickney received a drubbing but evened the score by swearing out a warrant charging Baldie with 'noisy, riotous and tumultuous conduct.' Stickney claims Baldie and his man, Lyman, attacked him with iron billies covered in rubber tubing—a signature weapon manufactured in Baldie’s own repair shop. The chase began in front of the Columbus Cafe on Pacific Avenue and ended in a vacant lot on C Street, where a crowd eventually gathered and forced the thugs to retreat. Baldie posted $25 bail and was released, though the case against him continues.
“Stickney was yelling for the police at the top of his voice, but not a patrolman was in sight and he was finally overtaken by the men with the billies.”
This 1904 report on Pacific Avenue reveals a city where public space was policed by corporate 'monopolists' rather than the law. Today, downtown Tacoma reflects a similar tension between private property interests and public safety, though the weapons have shifted from rubber-tubed iron rods to less physical, but arguably more systemic, barriers.
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