Random Acts of Vandalism

At 4 a.m. this morning, guests and the proprietor of the Union Street Guest House were rudely awakened by the sound of shattering glass. Someone had smashed three windows on the first floor of the building. It appeared, from the damage caused, that a baseball bat may have been used like a ramrod to smash through screens and glass. Two of the windows were in the living room of the proprietor's quarters; the third was in the sitting room of a guest suite.

Chris Wagoner, the owner and proprietor of the Union Street Guest House and an alderman representing the Third Ward, could think of no reason why his property should have been singled out for attack. The police, who were summoned and promptly responded, were similarly perplexed. No other houses on this section of Union Street suffered any damage.

Three weeks ago, at 2:45 a.m. on a Saturday, in the newly revitalized section of the city known as Hudson's East End, the Stoddard Corner Bookshop was the victim of a similar attack.

  

Peter Pehrson, proprietor of the bookshop at Columbia and Eighth streets, told Gossips that the police were prompt and sympathetic but could find no evidence of how the damage was done. He speculated, however, that a baseball bat may have been used to break the plate glass display windows in his shop.