The Concordia Beer Hall Heist
A cool-headed band of thieves broke into a Seattle saloon, cracked the safe, and held an impromptu dinner party with stolen beer and cigars before vanishing.
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.
A bold and successful burglary took place in this city Tuesday night. The Concordia beer hall, on Mill street, kept by Vitus Schmidt, closed business at 12 o'clock, and after depositing the money from the tills into the safe, the proprietor closed and went home. On opening up yesterday morning he discovered that burglars had entered the building through a back window, and after rolling the safe into a back room, cut a hole through the top of it and rifled it of every cent. It contained about ninety dollars in money, two watches, and a pistol. Among the money were a lot of three, five and ten cent pieces, every one of which was taken. The only thing left in the safe was a horse-shoe nail. There is no question but that the persons who did the job were old hands at the business. Every circumstance points to coolness and deliberation and experience. Boxes were piled up in the rear of the building on which to stand while removing the glass in order to draw the catch. After entering, they used skeleton keys to reach the main hall. With little difficulty, they succeeded in wheeling the safe into a back room, where the work was done. The sheet of iron on top of the safe was not over one-eighth of an inch thick; a piece 4 by 8 inches was cut out with cold chisels. During their work they kept a small lamp and candle burning. They smoked and drank beer while at work. They also had a lunch spread and partook of it. After robbing the safe, drinking all the beer they wanted, and eating their fill, they loaded their pockets with cigars and vanished. An Intelligencer compositor, while going to the boat at 4 o'clock in the morning, heard a noise in the saloon but, supposing it was someone who slept in the back room, paid no attention.
“After robbing the safe, drinking all the beer they wanted and eating their fill, they loaded their pockets with cigars, and, putting out their lights, made their exit through the side door and vanished.”
The 'Concordia' beer hall is a reminder of Seattle's early frontier nightlife, where business owners were constantly on guard against professional criminals. The newspaper's anxious call to 'load up the guns' reflects an era where private citizens were expected to act as their own law enforcement in a rapidly growing, often lawless, boomtown.
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