Armed Robbery on the Sixth Avenue Line
Two masked gunmen held up a streetcar at the end of the line, leaving the crew stranded and making off with the cash.
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.
Two masked men held up car No. 58 on the Sixth Avenue line at the terminal at 12:30 this morning. Motorman Booth, Conductor Fenton, and an unknown passenger in the car were commanded to throw up their hands at the point of two revolvers. While one of the robbers held the trio under cover, the other went through the pockets of the victims. The highwaymen secured $7 from the conductor and $6 from the passenger. Their next move was to order the three men off the car. Then, taking charge of the controller, the robbers sped down the line to X Street, where they left the car standing, after throwing the controller lever and brake handle away in the street. In the meantime, the stranded car men hurried to a telephone and notified the street car company's office of the hold-up. Officer Amidon came across the stranded car standing near X Street and notified the central station.
“The robbers sped down the line to X Street, where they left the car standing, after throwing the controller lever and brake handle away in the street.”
Streetcar robberies were a recurring danger in the early 1900s, turning transit routes into hotspots for crime. Today, public transit safety remains a point of civic debate, though the nature of the security risks has shifted.
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