Hunger and Petty Theft at the Packing House
Two young boys admit to raiding a refrigerator car, offering a glimpse into the desperate poverty of the city's youth.
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.
At 4 o'clock this morning, William L. Myers and W. R. McDonald broke the seals of a refrigerator car on the Carstens Packing company's siding, and stole four quarters of veal and a number of choice hams. At 5:30 Patrolman Barrett arrested them, and had secured a full confession from McDonald. Myers made a confession of guilt later in the day. The thieves are mere boys, and say that they broke into the meat car because they were hungry. When arrested, however, they were peddling the meat to restaurants and had sold the greater part of it. Both youths have been in jail recently on vagrancy charges.
“The thieves are mere boys, and say that they broke into the meat car because they were hungry.”
The collision of hunger and petty crime is a recurring theme in the history of the industrial tide flats. While the Carstens packing plant is gone, the struggle of unhoused and vulnerable youth remains a critical issue in modern Tacoma.
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