The Adultery Scandal at the Denny Block
A public courtroom spectacle reveals an illicit domestic arrangement in downtown Seattle.
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.
As was expected, Justice Hill's court room was crowded yesterday morning with persons, most of whom were prompted by idle curiosity to hear the testimony in the case brought against Cons Waber and Mrs. Darr by Henry A. Darr, charging them with adultery. The prosecution was conducted by the Prosecuting Attorney, J.Y. Bonell, and the defendants were represented by J.C. Haines. The marriage of the plaintiff to the female defendant was proven, and it was also proven that she and Mr. Waber had been occupying rooms in the Denny block as man and wife for two or three weeks past. The defendants did not offer any evidence in their behalf at all, whereupon the justice bound them over to appear at the District Court. The man's bail was fixed at $500 and the woman's at $300. Waber went to jail, and the woman was placed in the custody of an old married couple in this city by Sheriff McGraw, as he had no suitable quarters for her in the jail. As the woman left the court room she smiled pleasantly at Waber, and turning to her husband, with a contemptuous sneer said in an undertone, loud enough for him to hear, 'You are no good.' Waber is a blacksmith by trade, and during his stay in Seattle has been employed at the Washington Iron Works.
“As the woman left the court room she smiled pleasantly at Waber, and turning to her husband, with a contemptuous sneer said in an undertone, 'You are no good.'”
Public interest in judicial affairs involving private domestic lives remains a fixture of Seattle life, though the 'Denny Block'—once a hub of commercial and residential activity in the early city—has long since been replaced by the modern downtown skyline. The spectacle of the courtroom as a site for airing private grievances mirrors how we still process social norms and moral boundaries through the local press.
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