Railway Marauders Arrested Near Auburn
Railroad detectives apprehend three men accused of breaking into a Northern Pacific freight car bound for 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.
Yeggmen and tramps have been a source of continual trouble to the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railway companies lately. Cars have been broken into, station doors forced, and small section houses entered. Early yesterday morning, Detective Ellis and Patrolman McLanders arrested John Gunderson, Jacob McCarty, and H. Hall for breaking into a Northern Pacific car at Auburn. The men claimed they were laborers who entered the car to rest, but were trapped when the train started for Tacoma.
“The men claimed that they were laborers and had entered the car to rest. The train started for Tacoma, so it is said, and the men were unable to get out.”
The tension between displaced laborers and industrial rail infrastructure was a constant feature of early 20th-century Washington, reflecting the precariousness of working-class life during the period.
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