The Reverend's Midnight Sledding Run
A Norwegian minister finds himself in the city jail after a late-night bob-sled arrest on the streets of Tacoma.
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.
Rev. John Johnson, a Norwegian minister, was arrested last night by Officers A. C. Brown and Rivard for coasting on a bob-sled across the Tacoma Railway tracks at South 21st Street. The preacher bitterly resisted the arrest, claiming that he was doing nothing wrong. The officers, however, called the patrol and sent him to the city jail. He was released on $5 bail and failed to appear in police court this afternoon. With Johnson was arrested John Borgerstrom.
“The preacher bitterly resisted the arrest, claiming that he was doing nothing wrong.”
While 'coasting' (sledding) through downtown streets is a long-forgotten urban hazard, the collision between local clergy, public order, and the police remains a classic Tacoma trope. The incident highlights how city streets were once negotiated by law, social decorum, and, occasionally, a runaway sled.
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