Sunday Sabbath Burglary on University Street
A resident returns home from church to find his house ransacked and sixty dollars missing.
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.
The residence of Frank P. Lewis, at 601 University street, was burglarized last evening and sixty dollars in cash, besides articles of minor value, was taken. When Mr. and Mrs. Lewis returned from church about 9 o'clock, they were surprised to find the curtains all down and the house within all lighted up. A side door had been pried open and the house ransacked from top to bottom. Bureau drawers had been pulled out and articles of all descriptions thrown about the floor. There is reason to believe that the burglars were surprised in their work, as a chisel, used in prying open the door, was left behind.
“When Mr. and Mrs. Lewis returned from church about 9 o'clock, they were surprised to find the curtains all down and the house within all lighted up.”
The theft at 601 University Street serves as a time capsule for what was then a quiet residential neighborhood, but is now a dense, bustling core of downtown Seattle. The practice of breaking into homes while residents are at church is a classic historical trope that highlights how predictable daily patterns of life were exploited by thieves long before modern security systems.
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