A Desperate Theft in Wallula
A hungry drifter is sentenced to ten months in the penitentiary after stealing from a Chinese household in Wallula.
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.
Harry Biggs, one of the boys who was accused of burglary committed at Wallula, was sentenced to serve a sentence of ten months in the penitentiary. When Biggs and his two companions, Thomas Sheehan and John Manion, were brought before Judge Brents for arraignment this morning, Biggs said he desired to plead guilty to the charge of burglary. He related to the court that he had been working at mining in Montana and lost his situation by the strike. He managed to reach Wallula without any money and was going on to Portland. Being without means and very hungry, he went into a Chinese house to get something to eat. Seeing several razors and a watch lying on a shelf, he appropriated them. He claimed that this was the first time that he had been in trouble and asked the court to be lenient with him. His attorney, I. Gose, and County Attorney Wilson both interposed in his behalf, and Judge Brents, after admonishing him to be more careful in the future, gave him a sentence of ten months in the penitentiary.
“Being without means and very hungry he went into a Chinese house to get something to eat.”
This incident highlights the vulnerability of Chinese households in early 20th-century Washington, who were frequent targets for theft and harassment, while simultaneously reflecting the harsh criminal justice responses to vagrancy and economic desperation in the era.
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