The Desperate Foraging of the Waterfront Four
When four men living in an abandoned Seattle shack ran out of supplies, they launched a clumsy, doomed heist—leading to a quick sentence and a warm bed behind bars.
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.
Harry Seymour, Thomas Hobb, Joe Johnston, and James O'Brien were sentenced to fifteen days each by Judge Rivers yesterday on charges of petty larceny. The four men had taken an abandoned shack on the water front, and Thursday evening, finding their provisions and bedding running short, started out in a body on a foraging expedition. Seymour and Hobb found a cook stove in front of a Main street second-hand store and had carried it several blocks when they were overhauled and taken to jail by Officer Krebs. O'Brien shouldered a quarter of beef that was left hanging in front of the Golden Star restaurant on South Third street. He was quickly captured by Officer Birdsell and joined his two pals, who had been taken to jail. In the meantime, Joe Johnston had not been inactive. He was caught by Officer Isaac Teller escaping from the Exchange lodging-house on Commercial street. He had on his back several blankets, comforters, quilts, and pillows. The officer overtook him, and in short order the four foragers were soon behind the bars. They were happy yesterday when they were let go with fifteen days each.
“They were happy yesterday when they were let go with fifteen days each.”
This 1891 report of men living in an 'abandoned shack' and stealing food and bedding to survive echoes the modern-day criminalization of poverty and homelessness in Seattle. Then, as now, the justice system was frequently used to manage the symptoms of housing instability rather than addressing the lack of shelter and basic resources.
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