Midnight Robbers Rule the Streets
A wave of armed robberies plagues Seattle, leaving citizens wary and police in pursuit of a gang masking themselves with skeleton keys and spare rags.
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.
John A. Jones, a carpenter residing at 812 Orion Street, was held up at the corner of Seventh and Madison streets at 10 o'clock last night. He was approached by two masked men, whom he described as one tall and one short man. Both were armed with revolvers. They relieved him of his watch and purse, containing about $20, before disappearing into the night. Shortly after, Mr. Bohemi Wright was also held up at the same corner by two men, though he managed to frighten them away before they could take his valuables. Just before 1 o'clock, a San Francisco hardware dealer was held up in the hallway of his boarding house. Returning from downtown, he was surprised by two men over his trunk. One kept him covered with a revolver while the other searched for booty. They eventually fled, leaving their spoils behind. Patrolman Willard and a night watchman later spotted two men in a saloon on the corner of Fourth and Washington streets buying a bottle of whiskey. They were pursued and eventually arrested; on the suspects, Davis and Clark, police found loaded revolvers, a skeleton key, and a cap used as a mask.
“Both were armed with silver revolvers. On Davis was found a skeleton key and felt cap which had been cut to serve as a mask.”
This 1889 account of a 'masked gang' terrorizing Seventh and Madison reflects the perennial anxiety surrounding public safety in rapidly growing cities. Today, the corner of 7th and Madison sits in the heart of Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood—a dense medical and residential district—but the fear of opportunistic street crime remains a constant feature of urban life.
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