Commerce Street Express Robbery
A local expressman is left destitute after a thief steals his horse and wagon in broad daylight on Commerce Street.
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.
Despite a close watch kept by the police and the deputy sheriffs, the horse thief who on Tuesday drove off with a single express rig belonging to Charles Wilson has thus far eluded the officers and there seems to be little chance of his capture. The theft occurred Tuesday at noon while Wilson was eating his lunch at a restaurant on Pacific Avenue. He tied his horse on Commerce Street, just north of Fifth, and was not gone more than thirty minutes. When he returned, however, the wagon and horse were missing and the only clue he could obtain was that his outfit had been seen going up the Ninth Street hill. Wilson is an elderly man and his expressman and horse were his sole belongings and his only means of a living. Their loss has left him almost penniless.
“Wilson is an elderly man and his expressman and horse were his sole belongings and his only means of a living.”
The loss of a 'rig' in 1909 was the equivalent of a modern worker having their car or delivery vehicle stolen, representing an immediate threat to the victim's livelihood. It highlights the precarious nature of independent manual labor at the time.
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