A Theft of Clothes Leads to Jail Time
A woman recently arrived from Victoria is sentenced to thirty days in jail after stealing clothes from a fellow resident at the Commercial House.
Fannie Williams, a blue-eyed, fairly good-looking woman from Victoria, who arrived recently in this city and secured a menial position at the Commercial house, on Commercial street, will have to remain thirty days in the county jail, owing to her love for other people's clothes. In the same house lived Virginia May-Johnson, a colored woman, who had occasion to go to Franklin for a few days. On her return she found that $20 worth of her personal effects had disappeared. Detective Hart learned that Miss Williams was missing from the house and went out to see if he could find her. Sure enough, he came across her on a street car, dressed in Miss Johnson's clothes. She was immediately arrested, taken into the police court, where she pleaded guilty, and was sent up for thirty days. She says that she took the clothes while under the influence of whisky and morphine.
“She says that she took the clothes while under the influence of whisky and morphine.”
This story highlights the precarious living conditions of transient workers in 1890s Seattle. The Commercial House was located in the heart of the city's early commercial district, an area that has undergone massive redevelopment since the late 19th century.
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