Assault Reported in Rose Street Alley
A member of the Ninth Cavalry is in jail following an attack on a woman residing in the Rose Street alleyway.
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.
G. Harris, a member of F Troop, Ninth Cavalry, is currently held in the city jail after being charged with criminally assaulting an inmate of a dwelling in the Rose Street alley. The woman alleges that Harris used a large knife to threaten her, forcing her to submit. Immediately after he departed, the victim reported the incident to an officer. Harris was apprehended in a nearby resort on Rose Street with the knife still in his pocket. He will be turned over to military authorities after serving his sentence.
“The woman alleges that Harris used a huge knife to enforce his demands and that she submitted rather than be carved into tiny bits.”
This report highlights the dangerous lack of protection for vulnerable women in early 20th-century Walla Walla, where 'cribs' and alley dwellings were sites of exploitation. The reliance on military justice for soldiers like Harris often created complex jurisdictional conflicts between city police and the barracks.
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