Armed Banditry Strikes Auburn
A contractor was accosted by two armed men at his own residence and robbed of a substantial sum of money.
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.
Frank Connelly was held up in front of his residence in Auburn shortly before 8 o'clock last evening by two unmasked men and relieved of over one hundred dollars at the point of revolvers. Both men at once took to their heels and disappeared. Several searching parties were at once organized, but have failed to report any trace of the bandits. Connelly is a contractor who had been building several houses for the Northern Pacific in Fairfax. It was supposed that he was going out to pay laborers, though he makes only a general statement himself regarding the matter, and refuses to say exactly how much he lost. The robbery occurred on a street that is well traveled. The robbers are described as a long and a short man, both young and smooth-faced. Connelly says he obtained a good view of their faces, and is sure he would know them if he were to see them again. Two men answering the description given by Connelly have been seen lately in Tacoma and Seattle.
“Both men at once took to their heels and disappeared.”
This street robbery of a contractor carrying payroll cash highlights the risks of a cash-based economy in the early 1900s. While payroll is now mostly electronic, the vulnerability of the lone contractor remains a classic civic anxiety.
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