Masked Highwaymen Strike Near the Rainier Hotel
A teamster is held at gunpoint by two masked men just blocks from one of Seattle’s grandest hotels.
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.
Orme Hawley, a teamster who lives at the Fifth Avenue house on Fifth street, corner of Marion, was held up Friday night at 8:20 o'clock on Cherry, between Fifth and Sixth streets, while on his way downtown, by two masked men and robbed of $68 in bills and silver. Hawley was passing the high bank on Cherry street when two masked men suddenly sprang from the shadow with revolvers in hand. The spokesman used the regular formula, 'Hold up your hands,' and Mr. Hawley's hands went up. The highwayman searched his victim, taking a roll of bills and three silver dollars from Hawley's pants pocket. He then said: 'Well that is all we want of you; walk straight ahead and don't look around!' The men walked up Cherry street, turned at Sixth and disappeared, going south.
“Well that is all we want of you; walk straight ahead and don't look around!”
This street robbery took place in the heart of what is now downtown Seattle. It serves as a reminder that the 'high bank' topography of old Seattle made for dangerous, shadowy corners for pedestrians.
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