A Courageous Rescue from Assault
A young domestic worker was saved from a violent assault in the University grounds after a bystander intervened.
Dick Mitchell, a young man who works in the Denver Meat Market, attempted a criminal assault upon Henrietta McGee, aged 14 years, last evening at 10:30 o'clock, but when detected in time to rescue the girl, he escaped and has not been arrested. The girl is a domestic in the home of a family who live in a building on Union street, between Front and Second, just back of the Diller hotel. Last evening Mitchell called at the house where the girl is employed and asked her to go out walking with him. They tramped up and down Third, Fourth and Fifth streets, and when it began to grow late, she said she wanted to return home, but he would not consent. At last he persuaded her to walk through the University grounds. About 10:30 o'clock, as C. H. Cartoon, who lives at 511 Main street, was returning home from church, he heard the screams, cries and entreaties of a girl. He hastily ran in the direction from whence the cries came and succeeded in rescuing the young girl from Mitchell's lecherous grasp. Mitchell was frightened and took to his heels, and has not since been seen.
“He hastily ran in the direction from whence the cries came and succeeding in rescuing the young girl from Mitchell's lecherous grasp.”
This incident occurred near what was once the University of Washington's original downtown campus at 4th and University, now a dense urban hub. Violence against domestic workers was a persistent, often overlooked feature of 19th-century urban life, echoing ongoing modern concerns about the safety of workers in private, isolated settings.
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