Domestic Violence Case in the Shorey Block
A plumber living in the Shorey Block is fined $25 for beating his wife, despite the witness turning hostile.
Warren, a plumber, living in the Shorey Block, on Columbia street, was fined $25 by Justice Burt J. Humphrey yesterday for beating his wife. The arrest was made on Monday on complaint of the wife. When the hearing came off yesterday, the defendant was on a side witness for the prosecution. His wife appeared to have changed her mind in the meantime, and did not show up. The prosecution had to rely on the testimony of the officers, and upon the proprieties of the Shorey block. The accused made no defense, and the justice read the riot act to him and he went to jail.
“The justice read the riot act to him and he went to jail.”
This account captures a common, if rarely addressed, issue of the era. The mention of 'proprieties of the Shorey block' suggests the incident was public or disruptive enough to draw attention to the living conditions in Seattle's dense, multi-family housing of the 1890s.
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