The Perilous Practice of 'Hitching' Rides
A Seattle youth is severely injured after climbing onto a moving load of hay, a dangerous trend that continues to plague city streets.
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.
Drivers and others who have to drive through the streets and suburbs of the city are constantly annoyed by boys climbing up and hanging to their wagons. Not only is it an annoyance to drivers but exceedingly dangerous as to the boys who are guilty of such practice. On Friday afternoon, a boy named Bellville, returning from the public schools while hanging to a load of hay down Front street near Columbia, in some manner got under the wheels, and by so doing got a broken arm and it is said a broken leg also. He was at once conveyed to a hotel, where Dr. Dyer attended to the fractured limbs, and ought to be a lesson to him, as well as to all other boys.
“Not only is it an annoyance to drivers but exceedingly dangerous as to the boys who are guilty of such practice.”
Long before modern cars, Seattle's 'street dangers' involved horse-drawn wagons and curious children. The paper’s warning remains a timeless civic concern about keeping kids safe in busy traffic.
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